News Bureau

Political corruption, minimal policing and firefighting resources, limited transportation, public works deficiencies and condemned buildings. It's not the backdrop for a prime-time cop show - this is a city three hours from Champaign.

Within the past two decades, technological advances have changed the way readers consume text, from online blogs to e-readers. Some critics and scholars have suggested that we were embarking on a radically new age of information.

UI physics and astronomy professor Susan Lamb's approach to retirement is similar to the colliding galaxies she studies - it's simply a matter of merging and evolving.

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the UI has finalized a contract with Cray Inc. to provide the supercomputer for the National Science Foundation's Blue Waters project. Cray replaces IBM, which terminated its contract in August because, IBM said, the technology required more financial and technical support than originally anticipated.

On Nov. 7, UI senators backed away from a proposal putting the Urbana Academic Senate on record as advocating against pending legislation aimed at overhauling the state's pension system.

Revisions to next year's academic calendar were approved at the Nov. 7 Urbana Academic Senate meeting.

It's likely you know the name Bob Damrau, even if you've never met him.

The UI issued a final report Nov. 7 upon the conclusion of its investigation into inaccurate class profile data shared by the College of Law. The report concluded that the intentional inaccuracies were limited to six of the 10 years reviewed, that a one person was responsible for these inaccuracies, and that the college lacked adequate controls to prevent, deter and detect such actions.

The UI wants to make sure that each student and faculty and staff member has the best campus experience possible.

Speakers challenged more than 200 campus leaders Oct. 31 to approach online learning the way the UI approaches almost everything else it touches - they should revolutionize it.

Retired from the College of Media since May, 26-year office administrator Nickie Dalton is trying hard not to continue operating under the delusion she is on The Longest Vacation Ever.

Committees 2011-2012

Michael Feigl has been taking one day at a time for most of his life, so he doesn't expect many big changes upon retirement.

Not even a Monday can wipe the smile from Tammy Warf’s face. That’s because, after 11 years and several jobs on the UI campus, she still looks forward to coming to work.

The 76-year-old author of a provocative new novel about 1950s racism in the American South says his concern for "better understanding" among those of the younger generations made him feel obligated to write the book.

Johnny Watts was a signals analyst in military intelligence in the Army. Elizabeth Ambros, a Navy corpsman, managed the medical care for 300 Marines. Andrew Kennedy led an Army scout platoon in urban combat.

Senate Executive Committee leaders Monday kept the door open for the Urbana Academic Senate to directly offer advice to UI President Michael J. Hogan and the UI Board of Trustees on a proposed approach to universitywide enrollment management.

The history of the UI Police Department is in fact two distinct stories covering more than 100 years.

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.

Most of Mark Millsap's best days have been spent on the UI's Urbana campus.

Sixteen private gifts totaling more than $18 million earmarked for programs at the UI’s Urbana campus were announced Sept. 23 at the UI Foundation’s 76th annual meeting.

Chief Privacy and Security Officer Mike Corn said officials continue to address concerns that the proposed campus Electronics Communications Policy will have adverse effects on freely expressed academic speech.

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.

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.

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.

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. - 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.

The Office of the Provost is offering to pay for two Urbana faculty or staff members to take advantage of the Illinois Executive MBA program for one simple reason: It's good for business.

More than a year's worth of discussion and a series of conflicting and inconclusive campus votes on the future of the Institute of Aviation could end today with an up-or-down vote by the UI Board of Trustees at its meeting in Chicago.

When it comes to science, Joanne Manaster admittedly inspires easily.

Office manager Martha E. Kelley has worked with the Labor Education Program in the UI School of Labor and Employment Relations for eight years. She started as a temporary worker at the College of Medicine before being hired as a full-time employee there. Her main responsibility at LEP is setting up the annual on-campus training programs for area union members and leaders.