40th Anniversary on horizon

Fall 2010 will mark 40 years since this university began offering classes. That's an opportunity to celebrate our past, honor our traditions, and measure our progress. The SSU/UIS history is truly fascinating and involves many stories, some even true. An exploratory group headed by Joan Sestak has already begun thinking about how to observe the 40th Anniversary. They expect that the celebration will begin in fall 2010 and continue through the end of that year. Events that occur on an annual basis, such as UIS Homecoming and the UIS Alumni Annual Awards Program, will have an anniversary theme. Joan emphasized that the planning is in a preliminary stage and noted that "we don't want to upstage the 50th Anniversary." Let's see...I wonder how many of us will still be at UIS to celebrate the 50th?

"Founders Hall" on schedule

"Founders Hall" is really beginning to take shape despite a winter that created construction challenges. The main structure appears to be two weeks ahead of schedule, and the brick work is proceeding rapidly. Will the project schedule to complete construction in the next four months be met? Steve Roeschle, president of Core Construction Co., is confident that the 200-bed hall will be open for occupancy in August. That's good news because our enrollment projections for fall look very promising at this time. The new hall will feature a green roof, which will provide significant energy savings over time; a bookstore to serve the entire campus; and a grille that will seat 48-60 offering food service to the campus.

"Oh the Places We'll Go"

The annual Faculty & Staff Campaign celebration, which lasted throughout March, would have made Dr. Suess proud. We rhymed our way through the month using the book "Oh the Places We'll Go" as our inspiration. And the result was gratifying: a total of 37% of our employees made a gift to UIS, an increase over last year's 35.6%. In numbers, 270 individuals have given (46.6% of academic professionals, 37% of faculty, and 28.8% of civil service employees). I want to thank each of you for your vote of confidence in this university. And kudos to Vicki Megginson and her staff for putting on quite a show. If you haven't already done so, you can still give; all gifts received before the end of the fiscal year (June 30) are counted toward this year's goal and campaign.

Not business as usual

Dr. Richard Judd, UIS' National City Professor of Business Administration, received an exciting and important honor recently. He was invited by the Wall Street Journal to serve on its Opinion Leaders Research Panel, which is comprised of an elite group of business leaders from throughout the nation. The panel will be asked three or four times a year to provide opinions and advice on a host of important business and consumer issues. Dr. Judd is also director of UIS' Center for Entrepreneurship.

Elluminate recognizes UIS

UIS is among 11 institutions in the U.S. and Canada recently selected as 2008 Centers of Excellence by Elluminate, Inc., a leading provider of live eLearning and web collaboration solutions. The Center of Excellence program recognized this university's "progressive approach to change" by implementing Elluminate Live! in creative ways. Specifically, UIS has brought online and on-campus initiatives together, saved time and resources, and "effected powerful cultural change," said Shari McCurdy Smith, associate director of the UIS Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning. And congratulations to McCurdy for being named an Elluminate Hero. The honor was bestowed on her for being responsible for this university's acceptance into the Elluminate program.