Campus News

As part of observing Rockford University’s 170th year, the community is invited to “Location Location Location,” a brown-bag lunch-and-learn providing an in-depth look at Rockford University’s location history, on Thursday, March 23, at noon. Bring a lunch and join us in Regents Hall at the Burpee Student Center.

Tracing back to 1928, Bern Sundstedt, Vice President for Institutional Advancement and unofficial Rockford University historian, will chronicle the events and personalities surrounding the little-known, yet remarkable 32-year story of the University’s relocation from its original home along the eastern shores of the Rock River to its current park-like campus.

In 1847, the university was chartered by the Illinois legislature as Rockford Female Seminary, initially holding classes in the courthouse of downtown Rockford, then a town of 2,500 people. The university moved to its current home on East State Street in the 1960s, after more than a century on its original campus between the Rock River and Seminary Street.