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UIS Polish Club studies abroad
By Janee Mitchell
As a part of their study abroad
program, the Polish Club went on a trip to Europe this summer.
This trip to Europe was the Polish Club's first trip to a
foreign country since the club was started two years ago.
 A
delegation of nine Polish Club members and one guest visited
Poland for six weeks, from June 10 to July 22. Eight of the ten
visitors decided to stay longer than the six weeks in order to
see more of the country.
Peter Boltuc, Associate
Professor of Philosophy, Anna Bojda, President of the Polish
Club, and Jonathan Goldbergbelle, Director of International
Affairs, coordinated the trip.
According to Carrie Bauer, UIS
Senior and member of the Polish Club, The Polish Club held
several fundraisers throughout the spring 2004 semester in order
to pay for their trip. The individuals attending the trip paid
the remaining amount due themselves.
Polish club members earned six
credit hours of regular credit or Applied Study Term credit for
their trip. They studied at Giedroyc College in Warsaw, taking
two classes taught by five professors from the college.
In one class, the delegation
learned about Polish culture and history, eastern European
history, and World War II history. Part of the learning
experience of this class was visiting castles, museums, and
other historical sites in the Polish countryside. For example,
the club saw the Solidarity Monument in Gdansk and the twelfth
century Teutonic Knight's Castle in Malbork. They also visited
the towns of Gdynia and Sopot.
As another part of their studies
of Poland, the delegation visited memorials at the Auschwitz and
Birkenau concentration camps. According to Bauer, a tour guide
took the delegation through the Auschwitz memorial. Bauer said
that they were taken into a room the size of a football field
that contained belongings of people who were taken to
Auschwitz. “In the room we saw shoes, spectacles, and locks of
hairs still braided,” said Bauer. At Birkenau, the delegation
toured through areas where the concentration camp victims
actually slept. “The whole experience was just overwhelming,”
said Bauer.
The other class focused on the
European Union. According to Bauer, Poland was accepted into
the EU on May 1, 2004. This class taught the students history
of the EU, how one gets accepted into it, and how it impacts the
country of Poland. “We learned that the EU has a more
let’s-talk-about-it attitude than the U.S. does,” said Bauer.
When they were not studying or
visiting historical sites for their classes, the visitors toured
all over Poland. Bauer said that one weekend they hiked
straight up the Tatra Mountains in Zakopane. They also hiked
along the sea coast of Gdanska where amber is collected.
Bojda said that the trip "was
such a great experience" for the club. They were mesmerized by
the sites, the language and the culture. Bojda said that every
member of the club had been impacted in some way. They now have
a stronger group bond and enhanced understanding of Polish
culture. Through courses and sites visited, the club received a
greater understanding of Poland and Polish culture.
Bauer said that the trip was an
eye-opening experience. “You really started to understand how
big the small cultural differences really are,” she said.
The Polish Club will be
revisiting Poland next June, so they encourage more people to
join the club. The club welcomes everyone, regardless of race or
ethnicity.
Board
requests 7.61 percent operating budget increase
By Tom Cronin
The University of Illinois is
requesting an additional $87.8 million in tuition and state
funds for fiscal year 2006 to pay for academic initiatives and
increases in salaries, many of which are no longer competitive
after three years of budget cuts.
With the new funds, the fiscal
year 2006 operating budget would be 7.61 percent larger than the
current budget. The university’s Board of Trustees approved the
operating budget request, along with a capital budget request,
last Thursday at UIS. The requests are being sent to the
Illinois Board of Higher Education for review.
In addition to raises and
academic initiatives, the $87.8 million requested for the
operating budget would pay for costs such as Medicare, workers’
compensation, legal liability and price increases. The request
includes $2 million for general-education expansion at UIS.
The capital request seeks more
than $295 million for 10 projects, including three at UIS:
$343,700 for repair and renovation, $125,000 for deferred
maintenance, and $4 million for rehab work to the metal
buildings and Brookens.
UIS received $20.9 million of
the $697 million that the U of I received in state funding for
fiscal year 2005. After three years of budget cuts, state
funding for fiscal year 2005 did not change from the previous
fiscal year for higher education.
In February, Gov. Rod
Blagojevich recommended cutting higher education by 2 percent,
which would have left UIS with $20.5 million for this fiscal
year. The governor joined Senate President Emil Jones last May
to back a plan that would have increased the cut to 4.25
percent.
House Speaker Michael Madigan,
Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson and House Minority Leader
Tom Cross countered the Blagojevich/Jones plan with a proposal
that asked for level funding for higher education.
On July 25, the governor and the
four legislative leaders agreed to a compromise budget plan that
included level funding for higher education, even though most
areas of state government received cuts.
At this year’s Faculty-Staff
convocation, Chancellor Richard Ringeisen said that it was not
by accident that the legislature singled out higher education
for level funding. UIS students held a lobby day at the
legislature on April 27, and U of I officials testified before
both the House Appropriations-Higher Education Committee and the
Senate Appropriations Committee last spring.
Additionally, presidents and
chancellors representing every institution in Illinois came
together for the first time ever to sign a letter supporting the
IBHE’s “realistic” level-funding budget request. According to
Ringeisen, several legislators said that the letter played an
important role in their budget decision.
“I believe level funding turned
a corner for higher education in Illinois,” Ringeisen said
following the convocation. “We’ve had very severe cuts for three
straight years, and I think the legislature and the governor
agree that higher ed will be level funded.”
Even with level funding, the UIS
fiscal year 2005 budget includes $1.4 million in increased
expenses for faculty and staff raises and operational costs for
University Hall. Ringeisen said in the convocation speech that
this year’s budget will be cut slightly to cover the new
expenses.
The budget plan also contained a
series of memorandums signed by Blagojevich, including an
agreement not to ask public universities to return some of their
state funds later in the year.
In recent years, the state’s
public universities have put some of their state funds into
reserve with the expectation that the state might request a
midyear rescission, which would require the universities to
return the funding in reserve.
Cheryl Peck, Director of Public
Relations for UIS, said that the governor told public university
officials last fall to set aside funding for a possible midyear
rescission. Blagojevich asked for a 2 percent rescission in May,
but by that point the U of I had already spent much of the
funding it had put into reserve because the middle of the fiscal
year had passed, Peck said.
“I can’t speak for the other
public universities,” she said, “but when we found out six weeks
before the end of the fiscal year that we had to give back
money, it was pretty shocking because we … certainly didn’t
expect to have to give it back at the end of the fiscal year.”
UIS returned its share of
requested funds to the state by putting some equipment and
facilities spending on hold, Ringeisen said. According to
Provost Michael Cheney, no crucial services were eliminated as a
result of the rescission.
The U of I has lost more than
$75 million in midyear rescissions since fiscal year 2002. State
appropriations to the university have fallen by more than $130
million within this time. Budget cuts, midyear rescissions and
forced-lapsed spending from the last three years account for a
reduction of more than $4.5 million at UIS, according to Peck. |
