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Get Educated on Illinois College Towns

Carbondale

Cinnamon Smith, executive director of Carbondale Tourism, describes Carbondale as an eclectic town with the amenities of a big city “but without the drawbacks.” The city offers arts and entertainment without the traffic or expense — and with nature at its doorstep.

When you add Southern Illinois University (SIU) students to the mix, the city of 26,000 people grows to about 40,000. As with most college towns, the population is transient, but students often stick around — or come back, Smith said.

On campus, planners will find a number of venues, but the SIU Student Center is the largest. Among its 28 multipurpose rooms, groups can use the 300-seat auditorium and a large ballroom that can be broken into four smaller spaces.

The city-owned Civic Center can host an event for 600 people, or its space can be split into six smaller conference areas. The 100-room Holiday Inn has 2,800 square feet of flexible space, and the Garden Grove Event Center has both indoor and outdoor venues.

At SIU’s Touch of Nature Environmental Center, groups can canoe, kayak, hike, rock climb and zip line. Meeting groups can also arrange to tour the school’s new Fermentation Science Institute before heading out to sample craft beers at local breweries.

www.carbondaletourism.org

Charleston

In Charleston, “everyone is tight knit and helps everybody out,” said Diane Ratliff, who handles tourism and special events for the city of 21,000 residents. But that closeness doesn’t close it off; the town is “friendly and accepting of new people or visitors to the area,” she said.

The vibrant campus of Eastern Illinois University is always a hub of activity, and “the university obviously draws in a lot of culture to the area, not only with the students who are here, but also the events they host on campus,” Ratliff said.

The Doudna Fine Arts Center has a variety of function space, as well as auditoriums for audiences ranging in number from 50 to 500. The University Union hosts the most events and offers a variety of venues: the 7,400-square-foot Grand Ballroom, the University Ballroom that can seat 250 for banquets, classrooms, meeting rooms, a lecture hall and two auditoriums.

The Unique Suites Hotel, just a couple of miles west of campus, is Charleston’s only full-service property. The 77-room hotel has about 4,000 square feet of function space, as well as the Brick House Bar and Grill. The city also has a Days Inn and several bed-and-breakfasts, and larger events often book hotel rooms in the nearby town of Mattoon.

When visiting for events, attendees often check out the Lincoln-Douglas Debate Museum or the Lincoln Log Cabin, which was the home of Abraham Lincoln’s father and stepmother.

www.charlestontourism.org

Evanston

Evanston sits on the shore of Lake Michigan about 12 miles north of downtown Chicago. Many of the North Shore’s most popular attractions can be found along Sheridan Road as it traces the lakefront, and that includes Northwestern University’s Evanston campus, where the Norris University Center has 14 meeting rooms, including the McCormick Auditorium and the Louis Room.

At Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, the 700-seat Thorne Auditorium and adjacent lobby recently reopened after a renovation. The school also offers about 20 additional conference rooms and a courtyard for up to 300 people.

Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management opened its 415,000-square-foot flagship building in March. Its stunning event space includes the glass-walled White Auditorium for 300-person events and a “floating” glass-box conference room.

Just a short drive south of campus on Sheridan Road takes visitors to the 1894 lakefront mansion of former U.S. Vice President Charles Gates Dawes, which he donated to Northwestern University.

North of campus, Sheridan Road leads to the 1873 Grosse Point Lighthouse, which groups can tour June through September, and a little farther north, the road takes visitors to the Baha’i House of Worship, where free docent-led tours are available.

www.visitchicagonorthshore.com