In February, the USAID-funded Feed the Future Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was told to stop work, bringing an abrupt end to 12 years of progress toward developing a global soybean value chain supporting Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. SIL director Pete Goldsmith cobbled together funding from the university to keep the lab afloat until April 15, which was to be its last day.

Gies College of Business has received a $5 million gift from alumnus Nate Reichard, CEO of Reichard Capital. In recognition, the Real Estate Finance Academy will be renamed the “Reichard Real Estate Academy.”

Carol (MSLIS ’73) and her husband, Norm (MS Electrical Engineering ’73) Janoff, based their decision on her experience as a student with limited financial resources. They will make a charitable bequest of $300,000 to support the iSchool at Illinois.

Dr. Claudius Conrad, associate dean for research and innovation at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, answers the Proust Questionnaire.

The late Ralph A. Smith and Christiana M. Smith are impacting the lives of College of Education undergraduate students through their scholarship fund.

Sara E. James, MS MD PhD DABA-PM, has created the Griffin Hale James Memorial Scholarship Fund to honor her late husband, Griffin, a man whose legacy of quiet support, hard work, and dedication to community was evident in every facet of his life. This scholarship, aimed at helping undergraduate students further their education at Gies College of Business, reflects Griffin’s dedication to higher education and his deep commitment to his community.

The yearly NCAA bracket bonanza owes its namesake partly to the facility in which it was coined, Huff Hall, which marks its 100th anniversary this year.

A love of reading and giving back leads a campus couple to support the next generation of writers.

When a Chicago mobster was ready to talk, FBI agent Elaine Corbitt Smith (LAS ’67) was ready to listen.

Being a student in 1984 meant midnight movies at the Co-Ed and browsing vinyl at Record Service. Let’s travel back in time for a look at life on campus in the eighties.