Journal of Law, Technology & Policy, 2003 | University of Illinois Archives

The College of Communications is the supervising administrative unit for the University Broadcasting Division.¹ The Division operates radio station WILL AM and FM and television station WILL-TV. Broadcasting activities began in the spring of 1922 when a 400-watt transmitter using the call letters WRM went into operation in the Electrical Engineering Laboratory.² A gift from Boetius H. Sullivan in 1925 enabled the Illinois experimental radio station to expand its operation, becoming the Roger Sullivan Memorial Radio Station.³ The expanded facilities were placed under the jurisdiction of the Director of Public Information Josef Wright who was appointed the first director of broadcasting.⁴  In 1928 the station increased to 890 kilocycles. At this time the call letters were officially changed to WILL.⁵ In 1938 the station's first musical director was appointed.⁶ The following year the station assumed regular nighttime broadcasting.⁷ In 1942 WILL was moved to Gregory Hall.⁸ The bands, the glee clubs and athletic scores had always been the favorite programs which the station aired.⁹ In 1946 the Athletic Association was allowed to broadcast University athletic events.¹⁰ An increased emphasis on news and public affairs resulted in the station's twenty-four hour a day use of the Associated Press beginning in 1948.¹¹ A new transmitter building was constructed for WILL in Robert Allerton Park in 1950.¹² The University's television station, the William A. Knight class of 1934 memorial, was a gift from the General Electric Company in 1955.¹³

The Motion Picture Production Center was organized as a service agency to produce educational films for the people of Illinois. The Center maintained six full-time staff members until July 1, 1974 when it was closed for financial reasons.¹⁴

On December 8, 1896, the Board of Trustees voted to establish and provide funds for a School of Law.¹ In September 1897 the school began operation in University Hall with three professors and three lecturers, and offered the Bachelor of Law degree.² Following a 1898 ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court establishing new requirements for the Illinois Bar, the school revised its program and entrance requirements, and, in 1899, became known as the College of Law.³ In 1902 the college moved from University Hall into the Law Building (Harker Hall).⁴ In 1909, the state legislature granted funds for upgrading the program and the law library.⁵ In 1915, entrance requirements were raised from one year of university work to two,⁶ and in 1917 a four year law program was offered.⁷ On October 25, 1924, the Board of Trustees voted to move the college, and in September of 1925 the college moved to the old Library Building, to be renamed the Law Building (Altgeld Hall).⁸ In 1926 the Law Alumni Association, an organization of former faculty and students, was founded.⁹ In 1949, the first issue of Law Forum, a student-published quarterly periodical appeared.¹⁰ In 1953, money was appropriated by the state legislature for the construction of a Law Building,¹¹ and in 1955, the College of Law moved to its present site.¹² The College of Law is the thirteenth largest in the nation and has a full-time faculty of over thirty professors.¹³ The college offers the degrees of Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Comparative Law (M.C.L.), Master of Laws (LL.M.), and Doctor of the Science of Law (S.J.D.).¹⁴ Student activities include the Student Research Bureau, the Black Law Students Association, Women Law Students and the Student Bar Association (formerly Junior Bar Association), the student government body of the college.¹⁵

This unit covers:

--Environmental and Ecological Studies, Office of (1974)

--Graduate and International Legal Studies, Office of (1974)

1. Board of Trustees Transactions, 19th Report, Dec. 8, 1896, p. 44.

2. College of Law, Announcements, 1903.

3. Allen Nevins, Illinois, (New York, 1917), pp. 172-73.

4. College of Law, Announcements, 1903.

5. Allen Nevins, Illinois, (New York, 1917), p. 235.

6. University of Illinois, Sixteen Years at the University of Illinois, p. 219.

7. Ibid., p. 219.

8. Board of Trustees Transactions, 33rd Report, October 25, 1924, p. 83.

9. College of Law, Bulletin, 1976-78, p. 34.

10. A.J. Harno, Statement to Law Alumni, 1949.

11. Board of Trustees Transactions, 47th Report, July 25, 1953, p. 747.

12. College of Law, Announcements, 1956-57.

13. College of Law, Announcements, 1976-78, pp. 14-15.

14. Ibid., p. 29.

15. Ibid., p. 27.