News Bureau

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $712,000 grant to a University of Illinois researcher who is developing a program to help young adults with alcohol problems stay in treatment and recover with help from their friends.

The National Research Council has released its latest assessment of U.S. doctoral programs. The study collected data from more than 5,000 doctoral programs in 62 fields at 212 universities. The assessment will enable faculty members and administrators to compare, evaluate and improve their programs and assist potential students in identifying programs best suited to their needs.

After extensive debate during an extended meeting Oct. 4, members of the Urbana-Champaign Senate passed their latest resolution calling into question the UI’s affiliation with the Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Foundation.

As of Sept. 15, the UI's Brilliant Futures Campaign, passed the $2 billion mark. The campaign, the largest in the university's 143-year history, was at 89 percent of its $2.25 billion fundraising goal. The campaign update was announced during the UI Foundation's 75th annual meeting, held last week on the Urbana campus.

Usha Dhar, an administrative assistant in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, came to the UI in 1987.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -Nearly every year, areas of the Midwest are subjected to massive flooding. Sandbags are filled and stacked, FEMA arrives and there is a discussion of whether this is a 500-year flood, a 1,000-year flood, or just another flood typical of the summer season.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -Among the UI campus's largest non-white ethnicities, Korean American students arrive at college hoping to realize the liberal ideals of the modern American university, in which individuals can exit their comfort zones to realize their full potential regardless of race, nation or religion. In her new book "The Intimate University: Korean American Students and the Problems of Segregation" (Duke University Press, 2009), Nancy Abelmann, a professor of anthropology and of East Asian languages and cultures, explores the tensions between these liberal ideals and the particularities of race, family and community in the contemporary university.

When you ask Alison Davis Wood and Tim Hartin about the process of developing documentaries, the Big Ten Network producers jokingly start by mentioning that their two-person team is the "entire department."

Looking up a UI employee's phone number could be an obsolete task by June 2012, the estimated completion date for a major overhaul of campus communications.

UI police Detective Gene Moore is one of seven detectives who work for University Police in the Division of Public Safety. The group investigates a variety of crimes on campus. 

“The School of Art + Design Faculty Exhibition” continues through Sept. 26 in the UI's Krannert Art Museum.

Faculty hiring for the 2010-11 academic year is following the same downward trend of recent years, but the situation provides an opportunity for campus units to re-evaluate their teaching and research priorities, according to one campus leader.

To: Members of the Campus Community

Campus Mail Distribution supervisor Mel Dodd leads a team that processes 10 million pieces of campus and U.S. mail every year. An active member of her community, she also keeps busy after work.

The U.S. media features Latina stars such as Jennifer Lopez and Eva Longoria, but that same media often reinforces the image of Latinos as eternal foreigners, always having to prove they belong.

The U.S. Department of Energy will award the UI more than $1.26 million over the next three years to explore a solvent for capturing carbon dioxide emissions from coal burning. The project is one of 10 supported by a $67 million DOE initiative to develop carbon-capture technologies, and UI is the only academic institution selected to lead a project.

The UI's National Soybean Research Laboratory solved a big problem for the Midwest Food Bank: what to do with the textured soy protein the food bank frequently receives from Archer Daniels Midland.

Beginning with the fall semester, the UI will pay the salary of instructors teaching any Catholic studies courses taught for university credit. Previously, St. John's Catholic Newman Center had funded the instructors.

Although the UI continues to cope with a backlog of overdue payments from the state, the UI Board of Trustees learned at its July 22 meeting in Chicago that there were a few bright spots in the budget year that ended June 30.

John Welch, who works at Illini Flash Drive in the Illini Union, takes pride in helping UI employees and students find the technology they’re looking for.

Walking. It's safe, simple, doesn't require practice or special equipment, and it's good for you, too.

The Graduate School of Library and Information Science has been awarded a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services totaling $988,543. The purpose of the grant is to develop a sustainable and transferable model for educating library and information science master's and doctoral students in data curation through field experiences in research and data centers.

At first, it sounded like a disaster.

A group established to review administrative functions throughout the university has recommended changes that could save nearly $60 million in the next three years.

Elaine Goss, an office support associate in Engineering Career Services, is a world traveler who takes pride in helping UI engineering students get their first jobs. Originally from Great Britain, Goss has brought a cosmopolitan mix of interests and experiences to her years at the UI.

The two revolts occurred almost back-to-back in the mid-19th century, in India and the U.S., but no one had studied the two together, says Rajmohan Gandhi, a research professor in the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Illinois.

What do residence hall mattresses, test tubes and office supplies have in common with groundbreaking research and innovative library programs?

The UI Board of Trustees approved a guaranteed four-year 9.5 percent tuition increase for incoming students and authorized a short-term borrowing plan the university may use to address a continuing backlog in state payments.

As the pace of campus life slows and the weather turns warmer, vacations are being planned and reading choices are changing.

The UI Board of Trustees unanimously approved Michael J. Hogan, the president of the University of Connecticut, as the 18th president of the UI at its May 20 meeting in Chicago.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A record number of University of Illinois students and recent graduates have been awarded scholarships by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program for the 2010-2011 academic year. Three other candidates have been named alternates in the competition.

Carol Young, office manager in the College of Business, is responsible for large safes full of building keys and a full inventory of equipment and materials. Young also has worked as a pharmacy technician in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

In response to the financial challenges facing the campus, two established self-supporting units - the Printing Department and Creative Services - will be downsized, although in different ways.

Two new Stewarding Excellence @ Illinois project review teams will examine campus utility consumption and space utilization.

The Urbana campus could save nearly $26 million from the 623 voluntary employee separation agreements that were approved earlier this month by campus units.

Kathie Benko, a chief clerk at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, spends her days helping pet owners take care of their furry friends and goes home at night to care for her own menagerie, which includes dogs, cats, birds and ferrets.

Urbana resident Tauby Shimkin, 77, was able to walk without a cane for the first time in six years shortly after beginning a UI program aimed at helping people with disorders such as hers.

Two additional project team reports have been posted on the Stewarding Excellence @ Illinois website: the Institute of Aviation and IT@Illinois (information technology services).

The coming months may not afford much summer vacation to those dedicated to campus shared governance, said Urbana-Champaign Senate chairwoman Joyce Tolliver at the April 26 meeting.

Office support specialist Jason Mierek takes care of a list of duties that change over the course of the academic year in the College of Fine and Applied Arts. Originally from Decatur, Mierek has a variety of interests and hobbies he pursues after work.

LAN support specialist Michael Hallihan is a self-described “anti-geek” who manages technology needs for the College of Medicine by day and abandons computers by night, when he spends more time working on his house or cooking for his family.

The March 4 student election included a Sustainable Campus Referendum that raised the Sustainable Campus Fee from $5 to $14 per semester.

Champaign and Urbana last year began to offer the community a car-sharing program called Zipcar. The company, which now has about 500 members in the area, allows users to pay for the use of a car only when they need it.

Changes to university statutes and to the campus grade-replacement policy were ratified at the Urbana-Champaign Senate meeting March 29.

Six academic professionals will receive 2010 Chancellor's Academic Professional Excellence awards at a reception April 1 at the I Hotel and Conference Center. Academic professionals perform a wide range of critical functions for the campus community and beyond. They provide critical administrative support, support research laboratories and educational programs, and offer important outreach programs throughout the state. Now in its 22nd year, the awards are intended to honor the accomplishments and contributions of individuals in this employment category.

I write to provide an update on some of our recent activities regarding the campus budget. It is tremendously gratifying to see how much interest and engagement there is across campus in the Stewarding Excellence @ Illinois effort.

Champaign County residents, according to the Illinois BRFSS, meet the standard. The survey shows that 28 percent of Illinoisans don't get any exercise.

Office support specialist Wendy Gooch is in charge of making sure the inner workings of the School of Labor and Employment Relations office run smoothly. Whether she’s coordinating visits from company recruiters or keeping track of student data for the graduate programs, she’s always busy and enjoys her office’s team atmosphere.

At the March 10 UI Board of Trustees meeting in Urbana, UI President Stanley O. Ikenberry introduced the possibility of an accelerated degree program that would let students finish their bachelor's degrees in fewer than four years.

The Allerton Park and Retreat Center near Monticello is doing its part for the environment. Its sustainability efforts include the recent installation of an outdoor wood-burning boiler that heats five park buildings: the visitor's center greenhouse, public restrooms, operations building and two workshops.