Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Founded in 1869 as the state’s second teachers college – with a dozen academic departments and an inaugural class of 143 – SIU Carbondale is the flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University System. It is a strong, diverse, student-centered, research-intensive, and comprehensive university that earned the prestigious 2015 community engagement classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. That designation reflects a longstanding commitment to service and outreach; in 2013 alone, 237,000 residents of central and southern Illinois benefited from 578 initiatives with more than 3,000 community partners. The physical beauty of the region is a major attraction to students, faculty, and visitors. Sixty miles to the south of Carbondale is the historic confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, the two forming the border of the southern tip of Illinois. Situated within 10 miles of the campus are two state parks, the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge, and four large recreational lakes. Much of the area is a part of the 240,000-acre Shawnee National Forest.