Southern Illinois University has committed to expanding its pilot-training program to Springfield, enabling future aviators to earn bachelor's degrees without leaving the capital city, SIU President Daniel Mahony told Illinois Times.
"Aviation is one of our most popular programs, but because of the space issues we have (in Carbondale) we really can't expand that program. So, it seemed like something that would be beneficial to Springfield, but also allow us to expand the program in ways we would like to," Mahony said.
There have been intermittent, behind-the scenes discussions for several years on creating an SIU pilot training program at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport. But on Aug. 20, the Springfield Airport Authority Board of Commissioners took its first public action when it voted to spend $480,000 to renovate a building to accommodate teaching.Mahony, who lives in Springfield, took the helm of SIU in December 2019.
"There had been some talk of this pre-COVID ... a year ago, we really got down and restarted that conversation," he said.
Frank Vala, chair of the Airport Authority, said it is to the community's advantage having Mahony living in Springfield.
Airport Director Mark Hanna said the program will likely launch in the fall semester of 2025.
Hanna noted that there is a national shortage of pilots, which is causing major airlines to cut service to many medium and smaller communities. Last year, United Airlines eliminated its Springfield service, and Hanna said the aviation school may help regain service.
"It puts us in kind of a good stead with the airlines," he said. "We know that United and some of the bigger airlines have relationships with SIU and they can say, 'Hey, Springfield is trying to help us.' When we do air service recruiting, we're also part of the solution. ... We can say, 'We're doing flight training to help support their cadre of pilots.'"
Hanna said the airport first made overtures to SIU in 2016. But he said the idea gained momentum when Mahony took the top spot at SIU, which has campuses in Carbondale and Edwardsville as well as a medical school in Springfield.
He said airport, university, economic development and local government officials worked together.
"There's been a community-wide collaboration – people have been working for the same goal, and that is to bring flight training to Springfield," Hanna said. "Activity breeds activity. When you have flight training, there's more fuel being sold. ... Our aircraft controllers are getting more operations to manage. There's more opportunity for maybe someone to again, open a restaurant. There will be more people at the airport over the lunch hour.
"We talk about education and growing this in concert with the med school. And there's always been conversations about perhaps (an SIU) policy or law school satellite up here in Springfield as well."
Robert Morgan, dean of the College of Health and Human Services at SIU, said the university plans to partner with Lincoln Land Community College. Springfield students would take their first two years of college classes there and their final two at SIU's airport facility.
"We're going to start with about three employees: a chief flight instructor and then one or two assistant flight instructors, and then we'll build up," he said. "So, we would be looking initially at 10 to 15 students. And as we increase our student enrollment, we would increase our faculty."
Initially, two airplanes would be assigned to Springfield for the training, Morgan said.
When the program is fully built out, it will likely have 60 to 80 students and about 13 SIU employees. Just what timeframe it will take for the program to reach its zenith remains to be seen, he said.
While the fall of 2025 remains the target for the program's launch in Springfield, there are several bureaucratic hurdles that must first be crossed, including approval by the Illinois State Board of Education, Morgan said.
Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher said, "I think it is a wonderful thing for Springfield. President Mahony is very, very involved in our community and I'm thankful for his presence in our community through SIU. There is a shortage of pilots, which started during COVID and continued. So, adding to their flight school is going to be important for our entire nation. But the fact that we're – for the first time – going to have an aviation school in Springfield is very cool."
Law school still under consideration
Southern Illinois University is exploring opening a branch of its law school in Springfield, SIU President Dan Mahony told Illinois Times.
Mahony stressed during his recent interview that the university is in the preliminary stages of determining the feasibility of such an endeavor. He said the main campus of the law school would remain in Carbondale.
“It doesn't do us a lot of good just to have the same students who would have come to Carbondale take the program in Springfield,” Mahony said. “We want to expand the number of students (we serve) -- ones we would not have gotten otherwise.”
He added he has no idea just how many students such a school would serve or even where it might be built in Springfield.
“We have to work with the faculty to make sure that whatever we offer (in Springfield) is of the same quality is what we're offering in Carbondale,” Mahony said. “We also have to go through the accrediting body.”
He said he is exploring offering weekend classes to better accommodate students who work during the week.
‘What would be best for the students who would be interested in a program in Springfield?’ Mahony said. “(We’re interest in) actually expanding to a new population that's not being served. And so, part of what we have to do is an investigation to show that, yes, there's a demand there that would be unique and different from what we're getting in Carbondale. … But if you're asking me to guess, I would guess there's probably more demand for (a part-time law school) than a traditional full-time law program like we have in Carbondale.”
According to U.S. News and World Report there are 68 part-time law schools in the U.S. that are accredited by the American Bar Association.
If SIU were to open a law school in Springfield, it would not be a first for the capital city. From 1911 to 1953 the community had Lincoln College of Law. It, too, was a part-time program.
“The CEO of our Chamber of Commerce, Mike Murphy, doesn't have any conversation with any college without telling them we want a law school in Springfield. There are a lot of leaders in our community that would like to see that,” Mayor Misty Buscher told IT.
“I think it would be beneficial. You have the Illinois State Bar Association here. You have the Capitol here and all the legislation that goes on here. What a great experience for a law student to witness all those things while they're in school and participate and observe. It would be something that we could offer that not all law schools can offer because they're not located in the capital city.”
