Chicago State University presents Jazz on the Grass

 Long time no hear. Here's an event to put on your calendar, especially if you live near the campus of Chicago State University (9501 S. King Drive) . Jazz on the Grass on August 20, 2025. 

h/t Concerned Citizens of Chatham

Silas Purnell College Expo - Sat. Sept. 16, 2023

The Chicago Football Classic game between Central State University & Mississippi Valley State University is today along with a HBCU college fair to take place at Soldier Field at 12 Noon. However, here's another local college fair operated by a local community association which was blasted out by state Representative Nicholas Smith.

• Chesterfield Community Council Presents
  
The 17th Annual Silas Purnell College Expo
Saturday, September 16, 2023
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Chicago State University
Jones Convocation Center
9501 S. King Drive
Chicago, ILL

• College, university, & trade school representatives

• Seminars
• Scholarships
• HBCU Life
• Apprenticeships

• Giveaways
• Free Admission
• For more information: chesterfieldcommunitycouncil.org or
• (773) 651-3958

Refer to flyer below

Community Job Fair - April 8, 2015

Found out via email from the office of State Representative Elgie Sims

CSU Presidential Library Support Requested

We were aware of some meetings regarding the future Barack Obama Presidential Library as it pertains to Chicago State University. While Mayor Rahm Emanuel is encouraging a single bid for the city to become home to a library many sites in Chicago are seeking one especially the President's former employer University of Chicago.

You can check out Curbed Chicago's coverage of Obama's Presidential Library Chicago State's bid for the library. The contents of the e-mail you will see below.

Hello,

Our 95th Street Panel of Development,Business Development Coordinator, Michael LaFargue, asks each you to write a letter of support from your POD, business, church or block club... in support of a presidential library being build at CSU. Original letters, not form letters are requested.

Chicago State University Presidential Library LETTERS OF SUPPORT

Write and Mail To:

• Dr. Wayne Watson
  c/o The President's Office
  Chicago State University
  9501 South King Drive
  Chicago, Illinois 60628-2123

EMAIL TO:

• wwright @ csu.edu
  Wanda Wright, Director Community Relations

ALSO, Please CSU Presidential Library Online Petition:

• Chicago State University
  Presidential Library
  PETITION
  http://library.csu.edu/blog/

Library Petition is on the Menu to the left i.e. "show your support"!!

AP: Multiple groups vie for Obama's Presidential Library

President Barack Obama

The AP has a story about the many groups here in Chicago who are vying for their particular insitutions or neighborhoods to become home of the President's future library. Those sites include Bronzeville, Chicago State University, University of Chicago, Pullman, and even that former US Steel site on the southeast lakefront. In the case of Chicago State and Pullman:

There are also two potential bids on the Far South Side, one led by Chicago State University and the other by a group promoting the historic Pullman neighborhood. It was in those areas that Obama established his earliest roots in the city as a community organizer in the mid-1980s, setting up job training programs and defending the rights of public housing tenants.
...
The Far South Side is a longshot given its distance from downtown, lack of transportation options and the gang violence that persists there.

And presidential libraries aren't guaranteed to lift the local economy.

So far the main competitors are:

The main point of tension is between the University of Chicago, where Obama spent 12 years as a constitutional law professor until his 2004 election to the U.S. Senate, and a group advocating for Bronzeville, the city's historic center of black culture, business and politics.

"They think that they can get whatever they want," Bronzeville organizer Harold Lucas said of the university. "If you compare the cranes in the sky and that opulent growth of this university to the surrounding, predominantly African-American community, it's a travesty. It's a clear tale of two cities."

Lucas and other critics of the university's bid say the school has been secretly working its White House connections at the expense of a plan that would benefit more of the city and honor the black community's role in electing the nation's first black president.

For its part, the university says it wants to work with neighbors on a plan to build the library off-campus in a part of the South Side where it can spur development. A university spokesman declined to comment beyond the school's previous statements. 

We already know that Mayor Emanuel wants to submit only a unified bid for Obama's Presidential Library so the various groups need to come up with a good bid. And bear in mind one point of this article, "presidential libraries aren't guaranteed to life the local economy". That being said the library could easily either go to Hawaii where Presient Obama was born or to New York so time will only tell if Chicago will eventually succeed in its bid.

Shedd School a satellite location for Chicago State...

Shedd School in Spring 2012

Back in September I wrote about my ideas about what to do with the closed Shedd School building. As of the current school year Shedd branch was closed and all students will be attending class at Bennett School.

A persistent report from the Roseland Heights Community Association (RHCA) was that Shedd School could ultimately become an annex for the nearby Chicago State University. So at least plans are being made to utilize this building, but I do need to ask some questions so I may have to get back to the RHCA about them.

For example will Chicago State own the building or will it remain a CPS owned property?

A question that no one could possibly answer is whether or not in the near future could Shedd School be used for the neighborhood children if enrollment changes for the better. That is if Bennett School exceeds their expected enrollment (and as stated in that earlier post Bennett School had been experiencing enrollment declines) could it re-open for students.

All the same stay tuned for any updates on this development.