and Wendell Phillips. Many speakers, including Abraham Lincoln, were sponsored by the college’s literary societies which still exist today. Illinois College was a center of the abolitionist movement due to its Northern location near the Mississippi River and outspoken campus leaders such as President Edward Beecher and Professor Jonathan Baldwin Turner. In the mid 1800s, a group of students at the college were indicted by a grand jury for harboring runaway slaves. Two campus buildings also have ties to the abolitionist movement; Beecher Hall is believed to have been part of the Underground Railroad, and a campus house, the Gillett House, has attained the prestigious National Park Service certification as a “National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom” site. The college became co-educational in 1903 by incorporating the Jacksonville Female Academy (founded 1830), and in 1906 IC awarded degrees to its first four female graduates. Illinois Conservatory of Music (founded 1871) was also absorbed in 1903. In 1932 the Phi Beta Kappa Society established a chapter at Illinois College, and it remains one of only 11 chapters in the state. Academics Illinois College is a nationally ranked liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1,150 (2020) students. Over 80 different programs and majors are offered at the school, including Combined Degree Programs in Biology with Medical Technology, Biology with Occupational Therapy, Nursing (Leading to Master’s), and Physics with Engineering. The most popular programs among students tend to be education, science, or business related. The student to faculty ratio is often around 13:1, with a current average class size of 16 (2013) students. Illinois College has been accredited by The Higher Learning Commission since 1913. The college’s Epsilon Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society is one of only eleven in the state, and was established in 1932. All degrees awarded by Illinois College are undergraduate bachelor's degrees with the exception of a newer Master of Arts in education. The M.A.Ed. is a 32 credit hour on-campus degree program which was designed to specifically accommodate the professional development needs of in-service teachers It established a nursing program after the closure of MacMurray College, which had a nursing program. Starhill Forest Arboretum Starhill Forest Arboretum is located 45 miles northeast of the Illinois College campus in the town of Petersburg. In 2008, Illinois College officially entered into a partnership with the arboretum. Since the partnership, Starhill has been a location for