News Bureau

Five more review teams are examining another set of campus programs to determine possible cost savings or revenue generation as part of the Stewarding Excellence @ Illinois initiative.

Units under review, gaps in state funding, furlough days, terminal contracts. No doubt many UI employees are feeling stressed. They should be aware of a valuable resource that can help them deal with the anxiety they're feeling.

A series of break-ins to campus buildings resulting in theft and vandalism has shown the need for faculty and staff members to be alert.

The Assembly Hall will introduce a pilot alcohol sales program this month at select shows targeted toward adults. Alcohol sales will be limited to beer and wine. The pilot program is in effect at Cirque du Soleil's "Alegria," which continues through March 21, and "Cabaret" on April 24.

Helen Katz’s UI career began more than 45 years ago when she was a college freshman. She’s glad things have come full circle for her. The office specialist in the College of Education’s department of educational psychology says interacting with students and professors who are learning about learning is what makes her job worthwhile. 

In the face of falling state revenue, budget review teams have begun evaluating the first four areas targeted for cost savings on the Urbana campus. In addition, the Stewarding Excellence @ Illinois Web site is soliciting ideas for approaches to address financial and educational challenges, as well as ways to generate more money.

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts has received a $450,000 0 percent interest loan from the UI Student Sustainability Committee and a $225,000 grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation to replace 550 lamps and fixtures in its lobby with energy efficient light-emitting diode lights.

At its Feb. 22 meeting, the Urbana-Champaign Senate continued discussion of the budget-review process, and approved a change in university statute language defining the president’s position.

Chris Mechling is no stranger to the restaurant business. Her family used to own Chris’ Candy Shop in downtown Champaign. Now, the food service administrator at  the Beckman Café in the Beckman Institute talks about why working at UI is the best job she’s ever had.

Doing its part for the environment, Campus Recreation has altered some aspects of its facility that will save money and energy.

Officials and police at the UI are again working with area police agencies and city and state officials to plan for Unofficial St. Patrick's Day, a commercial event expected to take place March 5.

More than 200 faculty and staff members attended this year’s faculty retreat Feb. 5 to learn more about a skill many are familiar with in research, but not as knowledgeable about as it applies to teaching: collaboration.

Illini Union Bookstore Assistant Manager Shirley Barnhart says she has loved every minute of her time at Illinois since she began as an employee in 1965. She’s been in her current position with the bookstore – textbook manager – since 1987. Here, she gives her insight about her job and why book rush never gets old.

As the university copes with a growing backlog of unpaid state appropriations, cost cutting and increased fees and tuition were the focus of discussion at the Jan. 21 meeting of the UI Board of Trustees in Chicago.

Urbana-Champaign Senate members ratified a statement and resolution on the furlough policy and cost-cutting measures during a special meeting Jan. 25.

UI administrators have announced the details of two voluntary separation programs available only to employees in Urbana campus units.

Keep covering your coughs and washing your hands … but perhaps with less worry.

Bob Douglas, inventory specialist for Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services, has worked at the UI since 2006.

Champaign County, Urbana has a rich and dynamic history. Today, Urbana counts nationally known film critic Roger Ebert and several Nobel Prize laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners as current or former residents. Yet, there was no book on the history of Urbana still available in print until "Images of America: Urbana" (Arcadia Publishing), by Ilona Matkovszki and Dennis Roberts.

The years leading up to the Civil War were a time of immense economic growth, however, some Americans worried that the booming industrial and commercial expansion came at the price of American values such as honesty, hard work and dedication to the common good.

Although some may see insects as a general annoyance, Gilbert Waldbauer wants the world to know they are actually beautiful and intricate, as well as a necessary part of everyday life. From beautiful butterflies to beeswax candles to silk shirts, they or their byproducts are everywhere. Waldbauer, a professor emeritus of entomology and author of the book "Fireflies, Honey, and Silk" (University of California Press) wants readers to know the many ways insects enrich our lives.

University employees concerned about scheduling furlough days now have an option that allows them to comply with the mandated salary reduction without taking entire unpaid days off.

This year the UI continues this exceed its goal of energy-consumption savings, according to Terry Ruprecht, director of energy conservation.

Significant changes to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act went into effect Jan. 1 that affect all public bodies, including the UI, and how they respond to requests for public information. Hailed as the most sweeping changes since Illinois enacted its FOIA law July 1, 1984, the amended act is expected to make it easier for the public to access information. The changes narrowly define what information is exempt from release, shorten the time allowed for responding to requests and increase the penalties for noncompliance.

Angela Reggans, labor relations specialist for Staff Human Resources, has worked at the UI since 2001.

Champaign County residents now have a place to focus on poverty and related issues year-round.

The crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan - where thousands of people have died from disease, starvation and violence, and millions of displaced people languish in refugee camps - may seem too bleak a situation to inspire anyone to dance. But Philip Johnston, a faculty member in the department of dance, is using his passion for dance to heighten awareness about the conditions in Darfur and raise money for a relief organization that assists Darfurian refugees and other people in need.

The Urbana campus faces significant short-term and long-term financial challenges, which will be greatly compounded if the state doesn’t take action soon to rectify its budgetary problems, Michael Andrechak, associate provost for budgets and resource planning told the Urbana-Champaign Senate. Andrechak discussed the UI’s financial planning at the senate’s Dec. 7 meeting.

While employee furloughs are a possibility to help the university contend with cash-flow problems caused by overdue payments and possible budget cuts from the state, furloughs – if they are used – probably won’t happen until March, members of the Urbana-Champaign Senate learned during a discussion of the university’s finances at the senate’s Dec. 7 meeting.

Champaign Senate that would create an independent task force to advise future Illinois governors on selecting members for the UI Board of Trustees.

Printed surveys were distributed in a spring issue of Inside Illinois with the option to fill out the paper survey or do the survey online. Surveys were completed by 440 Inside Illinois readers (141 online and 299 printed).

Christine Hopper, office support specialist for the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, has worked at the UI for a little more than two years.

An initiative between Facilities and Services and the Office of Business and Financial Services is expected to improve the university's bottom line and pedestrian safety on campus.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Most days of the year, Nicholas Temperley is a relatively

Between Sept. 1, 2008, and Aug. 31, 2009, 129 faculty members and academic professionals retired from the UI, according to the Office of Academic Human Resources.

Debbra Sweat, office administrator for the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access, has worked at the UI for more than 30 years.

The UI faces a severe cash flow problem this fiscal year - and severe budgetary constraints in Fiscal Year 2011, which begins July 1 - but it is imperative to provide a salary program next year to retain faculty and staff members, university officials told the UI Board of Trustees when the board met Nov. 12 at the Springfield campus.

As both an idea and an institution, the family has been at the heart of Chicano/a cultural politics since the Mexican American civil rights movement emerged in the late 1960s. In "Next of Kin: The Family in Chicano/a Cultural Politics" (Duke University Press, 2009), Richard T. Rodríguez, a professor of English and of Latina/Latino Studies at Illinois, explores the competing notions of la familia found in movement-inspired literature, film, video, music, painting and other forms of cultural expression created by Chicano men.

The idea that love - especially the unrequited variety - and the passion associated with it could render one physically ill goes way back on the cultural-historical timeline. According to Valeria Sobol, a UI professor of Slavic languages and literatures, scholars have traced the concept of "lovesickness" all the way back to the Greeks.

Open forums will be held on each of the campuses during December to gather input from constituents about the type of person they would like to see as the university's 17th president.

A U.S. map hangs on the wall in retiree Peter Kimble's computer lab at the Armory, and it has pins - for Illinois residents - and stars - representing people from other states - stuck on various towns and cities to show the hometowns of students who have attended the workshops that he teaches. The weeklong intensive Web Design workshop, one of several FAST3 workshops that Kimble teaches, draws 50-60 people a year, many from the UI campus but also people from other states: Alaska, California, Florida, Louisiana and Texas, to name a few. And, just a few weeks ago, Kimble placed a star in Idaho to commemorate his first student from that state.

At the Nov. 9 meeting of the Urbana-Champaign Senate, senators approved resolutions that paved the way for the elimination of salary-based parking rates, for amending the Senate Constitution to include academic professionals in the senate electorate, and for students to participate in a possible strike by the Graduate Employees’ Organization without fear of reprisal.

The UI and representatives of the Graduate Employees Organization reached a tentative contract agreement midday on Nov. 17 during negotiations at the Levis Faculty Center in Urbana.

Tim Stelzer, a professor of physics, compares the current climate in higher education to a white-water rafting trip. “You will certainly end up going down river, but the path you take can be the difference between an exhilarating adventure and a terrifying crash,” Stelzer said.

Champaign Senate

Jessica Bengtson (BENG-son) is an office administrator for the administrative services unit of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

University units are being asked to put 6 percent of their funds – a total of $45 million – aside to prepare for a possible budgetary rescission by the state, and they should prepare for even larger reductions next fiscal year, President B. Joseph White told members of the Urbana-Champaign Senate during the annual meeting with the faculty and in a Nov. 3 e-mail to the campus community from him and Stanley O. Ikenberry, interim president designate.

Over the next three years, the UI's leaders plan to streamline administrative costs universitywide by $15 million as a long-term strategy for dealing with a downward trend in state support. In the short-term, however, the university also is exploring other means for contending with its financial constraints caused by the ongoing nationwide recession and the state's $11.5 million budgetary deficit and its backlog of unpaid bills.

An online marketplace for employees and supervisors to bid on short-term, temporary projects has ambitions to become an eBay for employment at the university.

When asked what kept him at the UI for 30 years, Tim Wood said it was because it was an interesting place to work. As a pipe fitter/steamfitter in Facilities and Services, Wood said his job “(took) me everywhere from the pig farm through working on the president’s house.  If you can imagine the maintenance on your own home, multiply that by a million. That’s what it takes to maintain this place.”