Half a century in Peoria
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This year marks 50 years since UIC Nursing welcomed the first class of students to its Peoria campus.
In the fall of 1973, as the campus launch approached, “a deluge of more than 80 student applications emphasized the desperate need for the program,” according to historical records. From those applications, six students were admitted under the direction of Felissa Lashley (formerly Cohen), PhD, FAAN, and began the medical-surgical nursing graduate sequence in March 1974.
In the early years, faculty members from Chicago traveled to Peoria to teach. Students also learned from video tapes and PLATO, the University of Illinois-created computer-based learning system. A collaboration with the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria also allowed for an interdisciplinary approach, with each college offering guest lectures to the other.
How it started
In the early 1970s, health care professions were the subject of increasing attention on the national stage. After the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education released a high-profile report documenting a shortage of health professionals nationwide, the federal government authorized funding for regionalized health care education to major universities in 11 states, including Illinois.
The UIC College of Nursing was ready. With a plan and a purpose, it was able to promptly launch programs in Peoria as well as Urbana, both in 1972. In Peoria, the programs would all be graduate level.
Six students were admitted to the campus in approved graduate courses, starting the medical-surgical nursing sequence in March 1974. Sharon Foss became the first to graduate in August 1975. A sequence in public health nursing also launched in 1975.
Evolution
For decades, the campus in Peoria offered only master’s degrees. In the mid-2010s, the College of Nursing expanded its curricular offerings to include a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program offered at—by that time—five campuses throughout Illinois, including Peoria.
The Peoria campus become fully virtual in fall 2021, in accordance with changes to the DNP program and as the successes of remote operations during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic become clear. At that time, Peoria campus alumna Sarah Overton, MS ’17, BSN ’10, said, “The pandemic showed us how much we can do, and do efficiently, in virtual environments. I’ll always have great affection for the physical place where I got my [master’s] degree, but I’m proud to see my alma mater looking forward, adapting to current realities, and being a good steward of resources.”
To date, 664 UIC Nursing students have graduated from the Peoria campus, with 72% still living in Illinois.