ROCKFORD UNIVERSITY: 175 YEARS AND COUNTING

By Bern Sundstedt '77

Institutions that endure for 175 years are unique creatures. To establish such fragile constructs, it requires of their founders a certain brand of courage and a disciplined resolve. To fortify those frameworks, it takes an ongoing, collective dedication from successive stakeholders to embody and forward their institutions’ missions while holding a continual commitment to adaptation and change. Such is the through-line of Rockford University.

On June 20, 1844, an assembly of Congregationalist and Presbyterian ministers met in Cleveland. From that convention, the following resolution was adopted. “Exigencies of Wisconsin and northern Illinois require that those sections should unite in establishing a college for men and a female seminary of the highest order – one in Wisconsin near to Illinois and the other in Illinois near to Wisconsin.”

Immediately following that event, a group of seven attendees crowded around a long, narrow table in a stateroom on the steamer ship Chesapeake as it sailed west on Lake Erie. By journey’s end, those emissaries had committed themselves, and those they represented, to create a men’s college in Beloit, Wisconsin, and a seminary for women in northern Illinois.

Forward-thinking families wanted to provide for their daughters and young women across our nation the same opportunities afforded their sons. They wanted to make the Rock River Valley an attractive place to locate, raise families, and grow businesses. By February 25, 1847, a charter had been drawn, giving birth to Rockford Female Seminary. At the time there were fewer than 10 such institutions exclusively for women in a United States that numbered only 29.

Two years later, on a sunny June morning in 1849, Anna Peck Sill, the seminary’s first principal, rang her now-famous bell to greet the first student body: 53 fresh faces, several under the age of 12. Among the youngest of those assembled was a special group of seven. Because Miss Sill playfully ascribed a flower’s name to each, they became known as the “Floral Band.”

The seminary’s academic curriculum was established to give young women a thorough and systematic education based in religious ethics and centered on the development of character.

The first “collegiate” class enrolled in 1851, and soon after the 1852 construction of Middle Hall (the seminary’s first permanent building on the original downtown campus), members of the Floral Band mischievously etched their

The first classes held at Rockford Female Seminary were taught by the university’s first president, Anna Peck Sill, in the former downtown courthouse. A drawing of Old Campus featuring Talcott (formerly Chapel), Middle, and Linden halls.

Rockford University: 175 years and counting

names in one of the building’s leaded-glass window panes. The building stood for slightly more than 100 years. Framed against a panoramic view of the Rock River, those names served as inspiration for other young women who found their own ways forward in life, all the while embraced by a close and supportive academy of friends and teachers bound by trust and a sense of obligation.

Jane Addams in the late 19th century. In 1882, one such student received the seminary’s first baccalaureate degree: Jane Addams, the eventual 1931 Nobel Laureate who had completed her coursework the previous spring. Jane left behind her beloved wooded campus to create the world-renowned Hull House settlement community in Chicago. By 1892, a majority of students were matriculating toward their bachelor degrees, so the seminary took on its rightful name, Rockford College.

A class photo from 1881, including Nobel Peace Prize recipient Jane Addams (standing, far right). Students enjoying the water at the Rockford College Dell in the early 20th century.

Rockford College celebrates the Class of 1935 at the 81st Commencement ceremony.

Staying true to its pioneering spirit, in 1919, under the direction of President William Arthur Maddox, the college became one of the first in the country to provide a formalized program for adult learners. Through that initiative, workplace social service providers in the region were trained by professionals affiliated with Hull House. The curriculum grew to include advanced education for teachers, many of whom, because of the times, did not have a college degree. That program matured, and in 1952, during the presidency of Mary Ashby Cheek, the college established its first graduate program: the Master of Arts in Teaching.

In 1953, after a nearly 20-year effort that started before the construction of Sherratt Library in 1939, the Jewett Science Building in 1950, and the creation of a more cohesive curriculum centered in liberal arts learning, Rockford College earned its prestigious and valued chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

Just before Miss Cheek’s resignation in 1954, an official evening college was established for non-traditional-aged students. It was a precursor to the weekend college offered in the 80s, as well as the university’s current degree completion programs in business management and accounting. But things were about to change in an even bigger way. You could feel

Students taking in the view of the Blanche Walker Burpee Center in 1964.

Students unpacking in a dorm room in 1968.

Students relishing in collegiate life in 1942.

Rockford College students taking advantage of a sunny day on campus during 1977. it rumbling under the Rockford College Dell and percolating across the nation.

By 1954 — thanks to a post-World War II program under the Marshall Plan — the college had been successfully educating men for more than seven years. Local young men went to Rockford College for their first two years and then on to Illinois Institute of Technology to complete their engineering degrees. From there they returned to the City of Rockford to work in local industries. In addition, the baby boom was in full swing, and the college was outgrowing its 100-year-old, land-locked, and river-bound campus. It was clear that something was going to give.

In 1955, under President Leland Carlson, a separate men’s college was established. By 1959, the two colleges became one. After three decades of unsuccessfully working with the city to abandon a section of Seminary Street, the college made the hard decision to build an entirely new campus on land that Blanche Walker Burpee had the vision to secure in 1928 when the institution first considered relocating to its current location along State Street.

Throughout the 60s and 70s, under the leadership and influence of President John Howard, a new campus was built without the use of federal funds. Rockford College regained its broader reputation nationally while making serious inroads internationally.

In the 70s, pre-professional Bachelor of Fine Arts programs were established. In 1981, under the leadership of President Norman Stewart, the Master of Business Administration program (now part of the Puri School of Business) and the nursing program took root. These programs have grown to exert a significant influence in the region and the world.

At the dawn of this new century, the college was experiencing a boom in the enrollment of students from countries around the world and was functioning as a small university. In fact, because of the high completion rates in the college’s graduate programs, sanctioning organizations like the Carnegie Foundation and U.S. News and World Report started classifying Rockford College as a comprehensive university.

Students studying in the dorms during the early 2000s. So finally in 2012, the college tested among its current students, alumni, and the community the idea of taking on university status. The results came back more than positive and Rockford University assumed its new public identity on July 1, 2013.

From trailblazers in social work and medicine to teachers of

Rockford College students posing for a photo in the early 2000s.

Rockford College students celebrate with silly string at the 2005 Commencement ceremony held on the Burpee Commons.

the year, from inventors to entrepreneurs, from civic leaders and community volunteers, to leaders of corporations and nonprofits, Rockford University alumni have applied the knowledge they gained through their experience here to change our world in meaningful ways.

It is because of our founders that Rockford University was created. Theirs was an abiding commitment that deserves to be honored, not out of blind patronage, but as part of our ongoing work to provide a distinctive student experience from which succeeding generations of “Floral Bands” can flourish and grow. As we face our next 175 years, the university will continue to prosper, buoyed by your generous support.

Bern Sundstedt is a 1977 graduate, the university’s former vice president for institutional advancement, and a human repository of Rockford University historical facts and figures. Students in a computer classroom with Professor Mehmet Dik in 2013.

Students enjoying the outdoors in the fall of 2016.

An aerial shot of campus in the summer of 2018.