Southern Illinois University at Carbondale is home to a unique center for outdoor, environmental, and experiential learning. Known as Touch of Nature Environmental Center, it has become well respected in North America for programs that emphasize both natural and human resources.



As early as 1949, visionaries like SIUC President Delyte Morris and recreation specialist William Freeberg were working to develop what was then known as Little Grassy Campus. Unfettered by traditional academic structures and strictures, the founders developed programs that cut across accepted boundaries and laid the foundation for fresh interdisciplinary approaches to education and service.



SIUC is one of the first universities in the United States to use nature and the out-of-doors as extensions of the classroom. Touch of Nature offers a wide variety of educational and service programs. We provide education and recreation for individuals with disabilities, and for people of public service, institutional support, and service to students, instruction, and research. Few other environmental centers offer an equivalent range of services and programs.



The Touch of Nature staff believes that individuals and groups, agencies and institutions, must shape themselves and their environment in ways that will increase their well-being and, thereby, their productivity. In that spirit, the Center's programs and services are designed to enrich the lives of participants.