|
UIS welcomes President-elect B.
Joseph White
White addresses campus on
plans for U of I system
By Heather Shaffer
The UIS campus community
welcomed B. Joseph White, the newly announced successor to
President James Stukel, last Wednesday with a standing ovation
in Lincoln Residence Hall.
For UIS, White
said his goals are access, excellence and pride. “I want to be
sure that everyone associated with the University of Illinois is
really proud of our institution and has good reason to be
proud,” he said.
White took note of several staff members in the audience and
extended his respect to them. He said that the staff is the
backbone of an institution, but is often the least appreciated
group. “Not by me,” he said.
 According
to UIS Chancellor Richard Ringeisen, White shows a wonderful
understanding of the University of Illinois.
White said his
next step is “to sit down with the Chancellors--in this case
Chancellor Ringeisen—and really learn the issues on this campus
and make any contributions I can to them.”
According to White, smaller organizations are more
entrepreneurial, innovative, faster moving, and more focused
than larger institutions. “The larger parts of the institution
can learn from the smaller organizations and I’m sure that’s
true of the University of Illinois,” he said
UIS is a leader
in educating young people with a public affairs perspective at a
very human scale, White said.
“You are also a
leader in online education, which is absolutely critical to the
future of the entire University of Illinois,” he said. If UIS
can become a leader in online education, the demand will be
virtually unlimited, he added.
According to
Andrew Hollingsead, Board of Trustees student representative
from UIS, White stood out as an excellent presidential candidate
because of his long history of taking an average or good
institution and making them great.
“I
feel very confident that when he gets to take over an
institution like the University of Illinois, he will take us
from being great to amazing,” Hollingsead said.
 Hollingsead
added that White is proactive and will vigorously pursue money
to support the university. He is confident that White is not
the “type of guy who will sit on his hands” but will push for
positive change.
White is a good fit for UIS, Hollingsead said. “By looking at
his history, I know he will be the type of guy who will
passionately and vigorously get to know.”
White said he feels that the transition from the University of
Michigan to the University of Illinois will be smooth and
seamless because the two schools have many similarities.
However, the schools have many differences that White said he is
looking forwards to learning about.
“For me, leadership is about service—serving an institution I
love and people I respect,” White said, “This is a university
worth serving with all of my heart and soul and that is my
intention.”
He
said that an important aspect of the University of Illinois is
the fact that the prosperity and well-being of the people of
Illinois has been intertwined with the university for over 137
years.
“Mary and I look forward to making our home with pride in the
historic president’s house on the Urbana campus. We look
forward to joining that community as home base,” White said,
“Equally we look forward to spending time on our campus here in
Springfield.”
White said that two months ago he knew that the University of
Illinois was an impressive university. “Since I became involved
in the presidential search and have been doing my homework I
have learned week by week that it is much more than impressive,”
he said.
According to Larry Eppley, BOT chair, the BOT began discussing
and planning the presidential search shortly after Stukel
announced his intent to retire on Jan. 23, 2004.
He
said they developed a search committee comprised of nineteen
individuals that represented a wide variety of university
constituencies. The committee used a guiding document, called a
White Paper, drafted by the BOT in the search for the new
president.
The
search committee received well over 120 nominations and
expressions of interest for the presidential position, Eppley
said.
“The candidate pool was diverse in background and experience, in
gender and ethnicity.” After deliberate research the committee
interview twelve candidates, five of whom were sent to the BOT
for consideration, he said.
Stukel said that the process used to select the next president
should become a model for universities throughout the nation.
Ringeisen agreed. “I am very pleased with the process to choose
the new president,” he said. |
