The Uni High Era Begins
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The building finally opened its doors as a school on Sept. 12, 1921, welcoming 63 students and 14 faculty members.
The instructional program at the University High School was similar in most respects to high school programs throughout the central part of the state. For a tuition fee of $25 per semester, the same fee charged to University students, high school pupils could study English, the social sciences, mathematics, science, foreign languages, music, art and design, home economics and industrial education. Although there is no evidence that girls enrolled in industrial education in the 1920s, a one-half year course in home economics was offered for boys of junior and senior standing.
The new high school did not totally abandon the tradition begun by the Preparatory School: It offered a course in advanced algebra primarily for students who planned to enter the College of Engineering. Only three years of math were offered, but the four-year science curriculum included classes in general science, botany, zoology, chemistry and physics.
The 1922 Uni High graduating class of 15 students included seven who had transferred from high schools in Champaign and Urbana, two had come from Philo and the remainder, except for a student from Tennessee who was living with relatives in town, were from rural areas throughout Illinois. Their parents’ occupations ranged from elevator operator, postal clerk, dressmaker and watchman to engineer, surgeon and professor. Three students were children of parents associated with the University. Two were children of professors and one had a father who worked in the mail department at the University stadium.
A College of Education publication titled “Instructional Activities in the University High School” highlights the wide variety of educational techniques employed by teachers and the degree to which many staff members were student-oriented rather than simply subject-matter oriented.
The University High School Gymnasium was not constructed until 1926 at a cost of $30,000. Prior to that time, the South Attic was used for physical activities, and basketball backboards of some unknown vintage were just removed in 1996 as part of renovations of that space to improve acoustics and lighting for the orchestra, chorus and jazz band programs.