About a year before Christine Mallinson gave birth to her first child, she and her husband agreed that all of their children would take her last name. The decision came down to family cohesion: The couple wanted their children—they eventually had two—to share a last name with the only cousin near their kids in age, who was Mallinson’s niece.

In a fiscal year marked by a return to campus during the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Illinois’ fundraising totals hummed right along.

The University of Illinois System and the UI Foundation pulled in their fourth-largest fundraising total on record in the fiscal year that ended June 30, with $446.1 million in new gifts, grants, pledges and deferred commitments.

The UI system’s three campus fundraising initiatives have exceeded the initial $3.1 billion combined goal, raising $3.26 billion since the campaigns began in 2017.

The flags on the University of Illinois Springfield quad tell the story: almost three thousand of them, each representing a wrongful conviction. They’re black, except for the 359 blue ones, representing those in Illinois.

Christine Ferree, program director of case evaluation of the Illinois Innocence Project, says she is not trying to help criminals get off the hook.

New data offers a glimpse as to how Sangamon County residents are feeling during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

University of Illinois Springfield published its biennial citizen survey on Tuesday. Similar to its 2019 findings, there was an even split among the 726 survey respondents on whether Sangamon County is headed in the right direction.

Administrators with the University of Illinois system paid a visit to Southern Illinois this week.

They said they want to be more involved in Southern Illinois — and that they would like for the region to be more involved with the system’s campuses, programs, outreach and economic development efforts.

Working toward that goal, a group of U of I leaders spent Monday in the region as part of a statewide tour, meeting with legislators, business leaders and representatives of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

The University of Illinois Springfield, UIS, announced on Tuesday it has created three new schools to better serve students and meet the needs of our Capital Region community, including the addition of new degrees and minors that are now open for enrollment.

The U.S. economy is getting better, but at a slow rate.

A local economist said there is still a way to go before we’re back to pre-pandemic levels.

Kenneth Kriz, an economist professor at the University of Illinois Springfield, said smaller cities and towns tend to have lower unemployment rates

“In terms of where we are at in the economic cycle, we’ve recovered quite a bit of the way from the bottom of the cycle but we’re not all the way back.”

It was a recent weekday afternoon in Springfield when Erin Washington was hanging crystal prisms from a neon-pink geodesic dome. The dome is outside of Springfield Art Association (SAA) in the Enos Park neighborhood.

Washington's work is part of this year's Terrain Biennial, an effort to make art more accessible to the general public and create community-based conversation and celebration. Every two years, artists partner with residents in neighborhoods and create artwork that can be seen outdoors.

Teachers and coaches leave such an impact on the lives of their athletes across the U.S. and globe.

Sunday at St. Charles, Mo., 26.2-Mile Cowbell Marathon, Edwardsville High School head girls, and boys cross country coach George Patrylak and University of Illinois Springfield head men’s and women’s cross country coach Tyler Pence, didn’t forget their athletes who are now going on to stardom in post-college events.

Community leaders and experts held a webinar on Wednesday about the housing challenges in Springfield.

This was part of a series through the University of Illinois Springfield and the Citizens Club of Springfield called Confronting Inequities.

Wednesday's webinar focused on housing disparities within the community.

They touched on the housing issues facing people of color and immigrants to include the access available to stable housing and possible solutions.