News Bureau

The American Society of Plant Biologists' Education Foundation will provide nearly $20,000 in funding for a new after-school program on plant biology at Urbana Middle School. With the support of faculty members from several departments, plant biology graduate students will develop the program, called Plants iView, which will have a strong online component.

University employees have one more opportunity to change their health plan.

Private gifts received for the UI and the UI Foundation in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, totaled $216.6 million - the third highest gift total ever, according to Walter Knorr, chief financial officer and treasurer of the foundation. FY11 was the fourth consecutive year - and only the fifth year ever - that the university and foundation eclipsed the $200 million mark in gifts received.

Tough times call for tough measures, or at least more-effective ones.

A Minute With™... Bruce Chassy, a professor of food science and human nutrition 

A Minute With™... Evangeline (Vanna) Pianfetti, a faculty member in the department of educational psychology

Jason Hatton used to see the Beckman Institute building as everyone else does.

UI Board of Trustees Chairman Christopher Kennedy indicated further "pruning" of academic programs on the Urbana campus may be needed to alleviate funding pressures facing the university.

Champaign campus, and Bo Fernhall as dean of the Chicago campus's College of Applied Health Sciences.

The UI moved up two spots in the annual U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings of colleges and universities released this week.

The Center for Advanced Study at the UI recently appointed 17 faculty members as fellows and associates for the fall semester. Selected through a competitive process, CAS fellows and associates get one semester of release time to pursue scholarly research or professional activity, present their work to other CAS professors, and participate in CAS events.

The Academic Senate welcomed incoming Urbana Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise on Sept. 12 at its inaugural meeting of the 2011-12 year.

A "basic clamp-down in spending" and tuition increases have left the UI in better financial shape than might have been imagined just a few years ago when the depth of the state's financial decline started revealing itself.

Installing shade curtains in a greenhouse may seem counterproductive, but the new computer-controlled system of curtains in the UI greenhouses controls the sunlight, reducing energy and labor costs.

Central Management Services recently announced the extension of contracts for all current health plan vendors through June 30, 2012. The health insurance rates remain the same.

Fifth-grade students from Urbana's Wiley Elementary School are attending school at Krannert Art Museum this week. The project, called Krannert Art Museum - Week at the Museum, will run through Sept. 16.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Six Urbana campus faculty members have been recognized as University Scholars. The program recognizes excellence while helping to identify and retain the university's most talented teachers, scholars and researchers. The faculty members will be honored at a reception from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Sept. 26 in the Lincoln Room at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign.

A Minute With™... Chris Lubienski, a professor of education policy, organization and leadership

A Minute With™...  computer science professor Sheldon H. Jacobson

A Minute With™... law professor Richard L. Kaplan

A Minute With™... business professor Ruth V. Aguilera

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Despite the challenging economic climate, Illinois has attracted a top-notch freshman class for the fall semester of 2011. It is diverse and reflects the university's statewide, national and international reputation.

David Stoppkotte has been an instrument and measurement technician with the College of Veterinary Medicine for 11 years, moving earlier this year from the pathobiology department to the college’s facilities division. He held a similar position for seven years with the former School of Life Sciences, working out of the electronics shop in Burrill Hall.

UI officials are moving forward on a plan designed to reverse a four-year downward faculty-hiring trend caused by financial constraints.

A Minute With™...  finance professor David Sinow

A Minute With™... Seung-Hyun Hong, a professor of economics

It was the final game of the Urbana Park District basketball season, and Jordan Morris’ motley crew of third- and fourth-grade boys (at right) was winning. He watched them dribble, pass and deploy the pump fake and the jab step – moves he and his friends had taught them at practice – to almost double their opponent’s score.

Students Consulting for Nonprofit Organizations (SCNO) is only 1 year old, yet it already has a worthy list of achievements linked to its name.

What should a little girl aspire to become when she grows up? If you’re asking Kristin Schoemaker, anything she wants. Schoemaker, a junior in nuclear engineering, is preparing to cast off the limitations of an age-old Navy rule prohibiting women from serving on nuclear submarines.

UI Police say the Urbana campus is as peaceful as it has been in years – not because there are fewer bad guys, but because of the implementation of several integrated security upgrades over the past two years.

At the July 21 meeting of the UI Board of Trustees on the UIC campus, university trustees voted 6-2 to close the Institute of Aviation and end the undergraduate degree program. The institute, which opened in 1945, will likely close its doors at the end of the 2013-14 school year, after all current students have completed the program.

Chalk one up for the pedestrians after Illinois lawmakers last year changed the state’s crosswalk law, forcing motorists to stop – not just yield – if a walker has already entered a crosswalk.

Dining Services cooked up some excitement at the annual New Student Convocation and the Guinness Book of World Records certified their efforts. The world’ largest smoothie – a 330-gallon pink delight – was created from 960 pounds of yogurt, 600 pounds of strawberries and 105 gallons of pineapple juice.

Administrative Posts

On Oct.1 during Homecoming I assumed my new responsibilities as vice president of the University of Illinois and as chancellor of the Urbana campus. I want to share with you how excited and humbled I am to have the privilege to lead one of the greatest modern research universities in the world. 

postscripts

Physics often is the stuff of nightmares. For students, the terror lies in the expectation of mastering concepts as foreign as a never-heard language. Professors struggle to effectively teach complex concepts in a limited amount of time. And the expense of laboratory equipment is enough to make a department administrator reach for the antacids.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Fourteen University of Illinois students or recent alumni have been offered fully funded opportunities to research, study, or teach English in other nations through the U.S. Student Fulbright program. Another Illinois student has been named an alternate for this prestigious award.

A Minute With™... two U. of I. economic experts

Sally Eakin has been a part of the administrative staff of the UI’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science for 33 years, enduring several office moves and continually keeping up with changes in job responsibility and technology. Her work includes purchasing, planning and logistics for instructors and students – both on and off campus. She is a 2002 winner of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff Award.

Effective Aug. 6, IBM terminated its contract with the UI to provide the supercomputer for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications' Blue Waters project.

Mike Thomas, athletic director at the University of Cincinnati since 2005, will be the new director of athletics at the UI's Urbana campus, pending approval by the UI Board of Trustees. The announcement was made Aug. 10.

Five UI faculty members have been named 2011-12 fellows of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's Academic Leadership Program.

Chalk one up for the pedestrians after Illinois lawmakers last year changed the state's crosswalk law, forcing motorists to stop - not just yield - if a walker has already entered a crosswalk.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - One hundred twenty-seven freshmen and sophomores at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been designated Chancellor's Scholars, chosen for their academic excellence and leadership potential, in the Campus Honors Program this fall.

A Minute With™... Anne Villamil a professor of economics and of finance

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - At the July 21 meeting of the UI Board of Trustees on the UIC campus, university trustees voted 6-2 to close the Institute of Aviation and end the undergraduate degree program.

Champaign is one of the most respected institutions of higher education in the world. I look forward to working with the faculty, staff and students, and the university's many external stakeholders and partners, to build on its strengths and create new opportunities for the university to have an even greater impact."

Last month, while leading his historic campus clocks tour through the College of Engineering dean's office, geography professor Bruce Hannon interrupted his own presentation to reach for the cellphone in his pocket.

A Minute With™... business professor Deepak Somaya