Trustees re-name building in honor of Monat

by Joe King

In recognition of his decades of service and support to Northern Illinois University, the Board of Trustees last week named a building in honor of former NIU President William Monat.

The board voted unanimously at its Thursday, Dec. 9, meeting to re-name the building located at the corner of Third and Locust streets in downtown DeKalb as the William Monat Building.

Monat becomes the fourth NIU president to have a building named in his honor.

Williston Hall was named in honor of the university’s first president, John Williston Cook, who served from 1899 until 1919. Adams Hall was named to honor Karl L. Adams, the university’s fourth president, who served from 1929 until 1948. The Holmes Student Center was named in honor of Leslie A. Holmes, the university's fifth president, who served from 1949 until 1967.

“I am delighted that the board has chosen to recognize Dr. Monat in this fashion,” said NIU President John Peters. “Bill has dedicated much of his life to this institution, as a member of the faculty, as provost, as president and as chancellor of the Illinois Board of Regents. He worked tirelessly in each of those positions for the improvement of NIU. Bill helped mold NIU into the outstanding institution that it is today, so it seems only fitting to bestow upon him such a lasting honor.”

For his part, Monat was surprised and moved by the honor.

“As I told the board, this doesn’t usually happen until you are dead,” quipped the university’s eighth president, who served in that capacity from 1978 until 1984.

Perhaps chief among Monat’s accomplishments during those years was the creation of two new colleges at NIU, the College of Law and the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. His tenure also included the creation of new Ph.D. programs in geology, biological sciences and mathematics, and undergraduate programs in information technology and meteorology.

Monat’s years as president also were marked by efforts to expand opportunities for minorities on campus through the creation of presidential commissions on the status of minorities and women. He also instituted the Presidential Research Professor Award, which has become the university’s top award to honor sustained excellence in faculty scholarship and research.

As president, Monat also directed some major campus improvements, including replacing a parking lot with the Martin Luther King Commons and the construction of the Campus Recreation Center.

His tenure also included the creation of the Social Science Research Institute, which became the first university tenant of the building now named in Monat’s honor.

“Jim Norris, who was dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, had created the Office of Social Science Research. Its units were spread around campus and in other buildings around town, and we wanted to bring them together,” recalled Monat.

That is when Tom Rosenow, NIU alumnus and local developer, stepped forward with the idea of remodeling the Rice Hotel.

Built in 1927, the Rice Hotel was once a showpiece in downtown DeKalb. By the 1980s, however, it had fallen on hard times and was a residential hotel for indigent men. The building ultimately lapsed into a state of such disrepair that it was condemned by the city. That is when Rosenow offered to purchase the building, remodel it to meet the university’s needs, and lease it to NIU.

“We had a paucity of new funds for capital construction at that time, so this was a wonderful opportunity for us,” Monat said. Ultimately, the facility proved so valuable that the university not only purchased the building but expanded it.

The Social Science Research Institute became home to the some of the university’s most prominent research arms, such as the Center for Governmental Studies, the Public Opinion Laboratory and the Office for Social Policy Research. All of those programs held special significance for Monat, who himself dedicated much of his academic career to social policy research, public administration and intergovernmental relations.

In fact, it was as a professor of political science that Monat first came to NIU in 1969. He left in 1971 to become dean of faculties and ultimately vice president for academic affairs at Bernard M. Baruch College, part of the City University of New York system.

Monat returned to NIU in 1976 to assume the position of provost. He was appointed acting president briefly in 1978 before formally assuming the title later that year. He served in that capacity until 1984, departing to become chancellor of the Illinois Board of Regents with responsibility for oversight of NIU, Illinois State University and Sangamon State University.

Upon leaving that post in 1986, Monat returned to NIU to teach as a professor of public administration until he retired in 1992, when he was awarded the title of regency professor emeritus. Since that time, he has remained in DeKalb as an active member of the university community.

“Bill remains a very valuable member of the NIU family, offering his wise counsel and unfaltering support to a new generation of NIU leaders,” Peters said. “The naming of this building in his honor is a lasting testament to his legacy.”

A formal rededication of the building in Monat’s name is scheduled for the spring of 2005.

12-16-04