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2003-‘04: A recap of a year in print
By Tom Cronin
Within the
past eight months, The Journal has covered a wide variety of
issues and events affecting the UIS community. With the 2003-‘04
academic year came several new initiatives, continued budget
difficulties, an ongoing labor dispute and considerable progress
on the classroom/office building set to open next fall. Below is a
recap of some of the stories from this year’s Journal:
At a meeting
on Nov. 13, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved
tuition increases of 8 percent for continuing students and 16
percent for new undergraduates. The rate of increase is unusually
high for the new undergraduates because the new Guaranteed Tuition
Plan guarantees entering freshmen a fixed tuition rate for four
years.
U of I Spokesman Tom Hardy said that university
officials raised tuition to a level that is higher than what they
would have preferred because state support for higher education
has decreased year after year.
In February, Gov. Rod Blagojevich
recommended even
 more
cuts to higher education. Based on his fiscal year 2005 Illinois
budget recommendations, appropriations to UIS would fall from
$20.9 million for fiscal year 2004 to $20.5 million for fiscal
year 2005, a reduction of 2 percent. The U of I as a whole would
receive $682.9 million for fiscal year 2005, a reduction of $13.9
million, or 2 percent, from fiscal year 2004.
“I think we’re nearly cut to the bare bone now,
and further cuts are going to be very difficult,” UIS Spokeswoman
Cheryl Peck said. “And at some point, you do compromise the
integrity of an institution when you begin cutting into the bone.
I think we’re pretty close to that now. I’m not saying that we
have compromised the integrity of this institution. I think we’ve
done very well in finding ways to cut our budget without hurting
our academic programs. However, I don’t think that can go on
forever.”
University officials and
representatives from a union of UIS staff members reached an
agreement on a new contract last December after negotiating for
almost four months. Members of the university’s clerical and
support staff union, the University Professionals of Illinois
(UPI) Local 4100, ratified the contract on Jan. 6 with a 96
percent “yes” vote.
With the previous contract set to expire on Sept.
1, the two parties began negotiating on Aug. 19. The union filed
three charges of Unfair Labor Practices against the UIS
administration on Aug. 26, and union members held a silent
demonstration outside the U of I Board of Trustees meeting on
Sept. 11 to protest these alleged practices.
Union members filed a notice of intent to strike
on Nov. 15 because they objected to some of language and economic
issues included in the university’s contract proposal, according
to John Nadler, Illinois Federation of Teachers-American
Federation of Teachers Field Representative for UPI.
In December, union negotiators requested the
assistance of a federal mediator to speed up the negotiations. UIS
administrators agreed to mediations, which led to the contract
agreement that was made later that month.
But in February, union leaders said that the terms
of the contract differed significantly from the terms of a
contract presented for signature on Jan. 23. Normajean Niebur, UPI
Chapter President at UIS, said that union members would not sign
the contract immediately.
Union members said that the 2.8 percent raise
promised to staff members was omitted from the contract presented
on Jan. 23. Peck said that the alleged omissions were a result of
misunderstandings between the two parties, but the 2.8 percent
raise was not part the misunderstanding. The intentions of the UIS
administration were to give workers the raises once the contract
was signed, she said.
No media reports have surfaced following the
dispute specifying whether or not union members have signed the
contract.
The university suffered a great
loss in February when 26-year-old student Will Rogers died in his
on-campus apartment. Preliminary reports suggested that Rogers
died peacefully in his sleep from natural causes.
Rogers was born in Chicago, and he graduated from UIS with a
degree in criminal justice. He was working on a second degree and
aspired to be a police officer. On campus, Rogers worked as a
resident assistant, shuttle driver, snow removal crew member and
cleaning crew member.
U of I President James Stukel
announced in January that he would retire as president effective
Feb. 1, 2005. In his nine years as president, Stukel oversaw
numerous initiatives to expand the university, including the
incorporation of Sangamon State University into the U of I system.
SSU was renamed the University of Illinois at Springfield after
becoming part of the U of I.
Since Stukel’s announcement, the Board of Trustees has appointed
representatives from each of the three campuses to a “Consultative
Committee to Assist in the Selection of a President.” The
committee representatives from UIS are Dr. Nancy Ford, Professor
of Legal Studies; Dr. Jim Stuart, Professor of Sociology and
Anthropology and Director of the Capital Scholars Program; and
Carly Hawkins, a junior political studies major and Capital
Scholar.
UIS Chancellor Dr. Ringeisen
announced on Feb. 23 that he had been selected as a finalist for
the position of president at New Mexico State University. After
meeting with a search consultant from New Mexico State last fall,
Ringeisen decided to allow the search committee to consider him in
the stages of the selection process that followed. He was one of
five finalists selected by the committee.
On March 22, Ringeisen announced that he had not
been selected for the presidency at New Mexico State, and he said
that he would remain committed to moving forward as the Chancellor
of UIS.
Last fall, Ringeisen released a
document with a set of vision statements that were drafted to help
guide the university for the next 10 years. The National
Commission on the Future of UIS prepared the document after
receiving reports from 13 task forces, which each explored a
specific area of the university.
On Oct. 31, Ringeisen identified three components
of the vision for UIS: to establish UIS as a “school of choice”
for students and faculty from around the country, to create more
diversity among faculty and students, and to improve the role of
technology at the university.
In his March 22 e-mail to the UIS community,
Ringeisen identified two additional components: to continue the
university’s national leadership in providing online education,
and to “operationalize” Abraham Lincoln as a niche for UIS.
The construction of the four-story
classroom/office building that was officially named University
Hall in November, is more than 70 percent complete. Faculty will
most likely begin moving into their offices in early July, and the
building is expected to be fully operational by the beginning of
the fall semester.
Every classroom and lecture hall in the building
will be a “smart” classroom that should include a computer with an
interactive whiteboard, a document camera, a data projector, a
videocassette recorder and a DVD player. The building will include
five computer labs and should be supplied with six carts that
would carry between 20 and 24 laptop computers.
In addition to a new building, the
construction of a new quad has also begun. To allow for the quad
to be constructed as planned, the red Window’s Edge sculpture
alongside the Public Affairs Center is going to be moved next to
the UIS pond. A column structure is expected to be erected on the
north end of the quad once the construction is complete.
The quad construction project will not be finished
when the fall semester begins, but “the basics to get around,”
such as sidewalks and grass, should be in place by the time
classes begin, according to Dave Barrows, Director of Physical
Planning and Operations.
Plans to build a new recreation
center at UIS moved one step closer to reality last November when
the U of I Board of Trustees approved an amended resolution that
included the budget and construction plans for the recreation
center.
UIS Student Trustee Andrew Hollingsead proposed
the amendment, which included plans to implement a student fee of
$60 per semester to help fund the recreation center. Students
voted to support the fee in spring 2003.
The new center would include a fitness area, as
well as an arena with a capacity of about 2,500 people. Stephen
Chrans, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, told The
Journal in October that the center’s expected completion date is
January 2007.
In January, UIS administrators
publicly introduced plans to begin admitting freshmen under a
general education curriculum in fall 2005 – a target date that has
since changed to fall 2006. A committee called the General
Education Working Group has been charged with developing the
curriculum, which would apply to both transfer students and this
new group of freshmen.
The new group would be made up of non-Capital
Scholars with academic profiles similar to those of Capital
Scholars, and it would include 100 to 175 students. In their early
discussions with students, administrators proposed identifying
this group as a new division of Capital Scholars that wouldn’t
receive the same perks as the existing Capital Scholars or follow
the same curriculum.
During a forum on Jan. 21, several students came
forward and told administrators that the creation of this new
division would likely diminish the quality and reputation of the
Capital Scholars program.
Administrators explained that it would probably be
necessary to identify the general-education freshmen as Capital
Scholars because a mandate from the Illinois Board of Higher
Education prohibits UIS from bringing in freshmen, unless they’re
Capital Scholars.
Karen Moranski, Associate Director of the Capital
Scholars Program, said that faculty and administrators were
considering several alternative mechanisms to allow for the
admission of non-Capital Scholar freshmen, including the idea of
admitting the freshmen as transfer students with zero credit
hours.
In an interview with The Journal, Hollingsead said
that Ringeisen had announced at a recent meeting that he was
considering the idea of admitting the general-education freshmen
as transfer students. Ringeisen later denied making the
announcement and said that it still hasn’t been determined whether
the general-education freshmen would be identified as Capital
Scholars.
“We would never do anything to diminish the
reputation of that program,” Ringeisen said in an interview with
The Journal. “… If we need to name people, we’ll figure out a way
to do that so that everybody’s happy. I think that the current
group of Capital Scholars ought not worry so much about that
particular issue.”
UIS officials have been developing
plans to build a new residence hall to house the general-education
freshmen expected to arrive on campus in fall 2005. The residence
hall would most likely be an “L” shaped building that would run
adjacent to Lincoln Residence Hall – another “L” shaped building –
to form a square.
Housing Director John Ringle said that the
university is planning for the construction, financing and
development of the new residence hall to be privatized. Of the
seven teams of firms that were interested in bidding on the
project, three were selected to present their plans to a committee
charged with assessing the viability of privatized housing, he
said.
Committee members observed the presentations in
February, and they made tentative recommendations last week that
included the name of a preferred developer, as well as preferred
methods of financing and management, Ringle said. The
recommendations have been submitted to Dr. Christopher Miller,
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, for further consideration.
Residents of Marigold and
Pennyroyal courts faced one setback after another in this year’s
ongoing townhouse furniture saga. When they arrived on campus in
the fall, the residents noticed that desks and dressers were
nowhere to be found in their townhouses. The furniture finally
arrived several weeks later, but it did not meet the original bid
specifications.
After the arrival of the “inferior” furniture,
housing officials asked the company that shipped the furniture to
submit to the university by Oct. 25 a sample set of furniture that
would meet or exceed the original bid specifications. The company
failed to meet this request.
Housing officials initiated another bidding
process in November, and they awarded the bid to Ecologic
Furniture. The company was able to provide the university with a
sample set of furniture that met bid specifications. Ringle said
that he expects the inferior furniture to be removed the week of
May 10, which would make room for Ecologic to install the new
furniture the week of May 17.
Some of the information for this recap was
obtained from articles written by Journal Reporter Scott Shelby,
Managing Editor Heather Shaffer and Editorial Board Director Tyson
Roan.
CSF,
USAS incidents raise questions about free speech
By Tom Cronin
Student
Life officials are working to create a policy that would
regulate promotional displays other than typical bulletin board
postings, following two incidents that have raised questions
about free speech as it pertains to student organizations.
Earlier this month, Christian Student Fellowship
members were asked to remove three large crosses on display for
Rez Week just hours after they had placed the crosses near
Brookens Library. In an unrelated incident, windows in the Public
Affairs Center that had been painted by members of the UIS Chapter
of the United Students Against Sweatshops were washed down within
a day of being painted.
Around 1:26 a.m. on April 5, UIS Police received
three phone calls reporting that three large crosses had been
placed in a grassy area between Brookens and the PAC, according to
police report No. 04-0103.
The report stated that police also received
information stating that CSF Member Matt Wallace had set up the
cross display without obtaining permission from Student Life.
Wallace told police that CSF had received
permission from UIS Horticulturist Joan Buckles to display the
8-foot crosses, the report said. When contacted by police, Buckles
said that she told CSF President Hannah Clevenger that she didn’t
object to the cross display, as long as no deep holes were dug in
the ground. However, she added that she didn’t actually give
permission to place the crosses, the report said.
Clevenger confirmed Buckles’ statements, and
Wallace removed the crosses at the request of the officers,
according to the report.
In a recent telephone interview with The Journal,
Wallace said that it didn’t occur to him to approach Student Life
because he thought that CSF members had already obtained
permission from the appropriate parties.
Wallace added that he thought police responded
appropriately during the incident, and he said he was at fault for
not following up with Student Life.
Like the CSF cross display, the USAS window
markings were removed prematurely after it was learned that USAS
members did not seek approval from Student Life before painting
the windows.
Carrie Bauer, President of the UIS Chapter of USAS,
said that members of the organization painted windows in the main
entryway of the PAC and in the cafeteria on the evening of April
12. The window markings advertised USAS-sponsored events that were
scheduled for Fair Trade National Action week, she said.
After USAS members finished painting the windows,
Bauer e-mailed Student Life personnel, Building Services personnel
and a number of other individuals. The e-mail informed them that
USAS members had painted the windows and would clean them either
the following night or at the end of that week, Bauer said.
By 11 a.m. the next day, the window markings had
been completely washed away. Bauer said that she was not contacted
before the windows were cleaned.
“They didn’t have to start taking it down
immediately,” she said. “… I just thought that the way they went
about it was wrong. I could have at least been contacted, and we
would have cleaned it. There was no reason for Building Services
to have extra work.”
Carly Hawkins, Treasurer of the UIS Chapter of
USAS, said that she didn’t expect the windows to be cleaned so
quickly, and she estimated that only 50 people saw the painted
windows.
“Before the window markings got washed off, I
heard someone remark when they came down [to the USAS table] about
how colorful it was and how it was finally starting to look like a
‘real’ college campus,” Hawkins said. “And then they all got
washed off, we’re only allowed to put signs in certain areas, and
it looks like a business building. It doesn’t look like anybody
goes to school here.”
USAS members didn’t approach Student Life before
painting the windows because they didn’t expect the window
markings to be approved, Bauer said.
Cynthia Thompson, Director of Student Life, said
that she couldn’t say for sure whether or not the window markings
or the cross display would have been approved if members from the
respective organizations had approached Student Life.
“I really cannot speak to what the answer would
have been,” Thompson said, “but … had it been brought to my
attention I would be looking into it and saying: ‘Whoa, what is
our policy on this? What is written? And if it isn’t written, what
do we do about that?’”
In light of the incidents involving CSF and USAS,
Student Life officials have been working to create a ‘time, place
and manner’ policy for student organizations that would establish
guidelines on displays and promotional messages other than those
that are placed on bulletin boards, Thompson said.
One idea that has emerged is the option of
confining outdoor displays to a designated area, Assistant Dean of
Students Jim Korte said. If such an area is established, it would
probably be within the “student center plaza” between the Student
Life Building and the Communication, Psychology, Visual Arts
Building, he said.
Hawkins said that she thinks students should be
permitted to post and display material anywhere on campus, as long
as the material is temporary and won’t damage anything on campus.
However, if Student Life officials insist on creating a designated
display area, Hawkins said that she would prefer to see it in the
new quad instead of a low-traffic area like the “student center
plaza.” |
