Illinois Alumni

05/29/2026

The first pitch has been thrown, but the Illini Night season is just getting started. ⚾

Thanks to everyone who joined at Rate Field. 🧦🧡💙

Next up:
🧢 Wrigley Field on June 2
🧢 Busch Stadium on July 10

📆: https://fightingillini.com/news/2026/4/29/football-dates-set-for-illini-nights-at-mlb-parks

Fighting Illini Athletics

05/29/2026

“The Midwest doesn’t hand you confidence; it makes you build it.”

Sean Evans, '08 MEDIA, returned to campus to deliver the 2026 Commencement address, sharing lessons on curiosity, resilience, creativity, and staying a lifelong student. From Gregory Hall memories to building one of the world’s most recognizable interview shows, his message was full of Illini pride. 🎓🔥

Watch the full speech on YouTube: https://youtu.be/UXNQQ99G8VQ?si=hKbl-sKOE0CDUEXh

“Hot Ones” host Sean Evans was the 2026 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Commencement speaker. Evans, an Illinois alumnus, delivered the speech at Gie...

05/28/2026

Not exactly your average commute to class. 🛶

In 1979, flooding from Boneyard Creek turned Green Street into an impromptu waterway through Campustown. For decades, scenes like this were part of campus life after major storms, creating equal parts chaos, frustration, and unforgettable memories.

Thankfully, infrastructure improvements in the 1990s finally brought the flooding to an end.

From canoes and catfish to water-skiing behind pickup trucks, revisit one of the wildest chapters in Campustown history: https://uiaa.org/2026/05/14/memory-lane-the-flooding-of-green-street/


📸 Green Street flooding, 1979 (Image courtesy of the City of Champaign)

05/28/2026

Before graduation season came to a close, we had the chance to celebrate with many of our newest alumni and their families at this year’s New Grad Open House 🎓🧡💙

Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We loved seeing graduates and their supporters gather together, take photos, and celebrate this exciting milestone as a community.

We cannot wait to continue this tradition and welcome another class of alumni and families next year ✨

📸 Find your event photos here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCV8Zk

🔗 Explore ways to stay connected after graduation: https://go.illinois.edu/NewGrad

05/27/2026

📆 🔶🔷

Game times set. Plan accordingly.

05/27/2026

🧱 Elizabeth Hausler, ’91 ENG, started her journey laying bricks in her father’s construction business in Plano, Illinois. Today, she leads Build Change, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing housing and school collapses caused by earthquakes, extreme weather, and fires.

🌎 Her work has helped safeguard communities around the world, protect billions in housing infrastructure assets, and empower families to build safer, stronger futures.

“Everyone deserves the right to a safe house,” Hausler says. “When I know families can sleep at night, I can sleep at night as well.”

📖 Read the full Alumni Interview and learn how an Illinois engineer is creating global impact through resilience, innovation, and community: https://uiaa.org/2026/05/26/alumni-interview-elizabeth-hausler/

The Grainger College of Engineering

If you look at my LinkedIn page, you’ll see that I identify as a social entrepreneur, safe housing advocate, and bricklayer. I was a bricklayer first. My dad owned a small construction business in …

05/26/2026

Associate Professor Mary Pat McGuire is teaching students to see landscapes differently.

Through field study and design research, her landscape architecture studio explored how the Illinois Arboretum could evolve into a more connected, welcoming destination for visitors, students, and the broader community.

Student proposals included immersive tree walks, prairie ecosystem gardens, and new gathering spaces that support discovery, sustainability, and reflection.

Read the full “In Class” feature from our magazine: https://uiaa.org/2026/05/21/in-class-space-shaper/

College of Fine & Applied Arts at Illinois

05/23/2026

On May 23, 1968, the Morrow Plots received formal designation as a National Historic Landmark 🌽

Nearly a century after being established in 1876, the plots earned national recognition for helping shape modern agricultural science through groundbreaking research in soil fertility, crop rotation, and sustainability.

As we commemorate this important milestone, we’re also looking ahead to a new way to celebrate this Illinois legacy

This summer, pre-orders will open for an exclusive Illinois Alumni snow globe inspired by the iconic Morrow Plots. 👀❄️🌽

The plots are also entering a new era on campus with restoration and revitalization efforts now underway. Read more about the fresh look coming to this historic space: https://uiaa.org/2026/05/22/morrow-plots-cultivate-fresh-look/

University of Illinois College of ACES

05/22/2026

Caps off to the

🎓: https://go.illinois.edu/NewGrad

05/22/2026

Happening live now! 👀 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PMMSI_p7BE