University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Graduate Center for Advanced Study | University of Illinois Archives

In 1959, the Board of Trustees created the Center for Advanced Study as a special unit of the Graduate College to encourage creative achievement and scholarship by providing recognition to scholars of the highest distinction and to give incentives for the highest level of scholarly achievement.¹ Categories of Member and Associate Member were established.² In 1967 the Center undertook administrative and organizational structure changes. The purpose of the Center was expanded to include the wider functions of attracting to the campus a greater number of younger scholars and creative artists of outstanding promise; bringing to the University distinguished persons from academic and public life; sponsoring conferences, colloquia, lecture series and symposia; and promoting frequent interchange of ideas among the faculty and outside visitors. Members were changed to the position of Professor in the Center, an appointment considered to be "the highest form of academic recognition that the University can bestow upon its faculty." The position of Associate replaced Associate Membership. New affiliations of Distinguished Lecturer, Fellow, and Advisor were added. A Director was appointed with a Policy Committee to recommend basic policies.³ In 1967, the Center also established offices in a remodeled building at 912 West Illinois Street, Urbana.⁴

1. Board of Trustees Transactions, 50th Report, February 19, 1959, p. 298.

2. Ibid., p. 298-299.

3. Board of Trustees Transactions, 54th Report, April 19, 1967, pp. 482-484.

4. Ibid., p. 557.