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Post by Big D on Jun 16, 2008 21:41:59 GMT -6
Paula Allen-Meares, social work dean at the University of Michigan, will be taking the reins at UIC in January as it "transforms into more of a residential university." Fundraising appears to be her specialty. Let's hope she can keep UIC on an upward trajectory. LinkThoughts? Will a 60-year old woman give a lick about athletics? She'll need to improve them to improve fundraising for UIC.  |
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Post by soccer fan on Jun 17, 2008 9:47:41 GMT -6
I am cautiously optimistic about this. As far as credentials for an urban university like UIC, hers are quite deep and I believe things like urban design center, great cities, and ceasefire will continue and hopefully grow stronger. She seems perfect to navigate the political waters of Chicago and Cook County, and no one will question her commitment to urban issues.
My only concern is that she is a White appointee from Michigan.
While White seems to be a decent man, and as been fair to adequate as president, I don't see him as being particularly good for UIC. If you follow the meeting minutes of the board of Trustees, since he became president virtually every dime for every new project has spent in Urbana on superfluous things like extravagant football stadium renovations, new dorms (as if they really need them in Urbana), and a Global Campus (which is losing money), while the UIC campus is being left to rot. They say they are concerned about keeping tuition affordable, but how committed is a school that continues to squander money on non-essentials so they can attract more affluent students, yet can't find the money to maintain an iconic structure like University Hall? It doesn't add up.
As far as the new chancellor's effect on athletics, I doubt we will be seeing any major changes. The programs UIC excels at (baseball, soccer, tennis) are all relatively low-budget affairs anyway. Does anyone think spending more money on basketball is the answer? In my opinion, the major needs for the AD are upgraded grandstands and scoreboards for soccer, baseball, and softball, and only soccer has anything resembling the attendance necessary to make that happen.
Those are just my guesses and opinions, which are probably ill-informed and completely off base, so anyone "in the know" is welcome to step in and straighten me out. I'd also be curious what anyone else's thoughts are about what the needs and priorities are or should be.
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Post by Big D on Jun 19, 2008 14:13:10 GMT -6
I don't follow the Board meeting minutes, but if what you say is true soccer fan, I can't say that I'm surprised. As long as the UIUC people continue to fear UIC's growing reputation, they will always get preferential treatment over us. And this fear is out there. I'll never forget the Stanley Fish article from years back, which states... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "...Then there's the Urbana factor. Already, professors there raised a ruckus when they heard about the Chicago campus's hopes of buying John Marshall Law School. Their own proposal: to open a branch of the Urbana-Champaign law school in Chicago. There has been lots of "macro-grumbling," as one professor on the flagship campus put it, "that building U.I.C. into a premier national university will dilute Urbana-Champaign." Mr. Fish remains unflappable. "You don't see me trembling," he says." chronicle.com/free/v46/i22/22a00101.htm------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I certainly hope President White doesn't agree with this type of thinking, because if he does, then he's not the right man for the job. What I do hope is that our new Chancellor will fight to make UIC a better place and do everything she can to dilute UIUC. Because we're not UIUC, and we shouldn't care about UIUC. We're UIC and we need to do what's best for us. With that said, what are the priorities during her tenure?... 1) We need to continue to improve our academics and rise in the research rankings. These I feel we will do. 2) We need to become more residential...but where do we build dorms? 3) We need to improve athletics. More money needs to be spent. I agree with the facility upgrades that you listed soccer fan, but our basketball team must improve by leaps and bounds. We need to find a way. The above three things are essential in building pride and school spirit, which will directly result in more alumni donations, which is clearly a concern of UIC's in recent times of minimal state funding. I believe a huge motivation for hiring Meares is her proven track record of fund-raising. UIC, however, is a different animal than UMich...she has her work cut out for her... 4) We also need to address the physical condition of the campus. It's falling apart and full of unfinished projects. I visisted in December and wanted to check out the UH plaza, which I thought would've been finished by now. I can't begin to express my disappointment in how that plaza looked. Construction was clearly delayed and instead of a beautiful little oasis, which was what was promised to us close to a decade ago, it's a huge eyesore. Does anyone know when this thing is going to be finished? 5) How about revisiting the idea of a law school? You really want to stick it to UIUC? Find a way to get a law school at UIC. I know it's easier said than done given the financial squeeze, but wouldn't it be great to have a public law school in Chicago associated with the University of Illinois? You have to wonder if UIUC's beef with us getting a law school was what held us back from getting it. The days of Stanley Fish were exciting times for me as a student. I thought we were starting to become big-time, and for whatever reason, it didn't work out. He brought instant credibility, and made some eye-popping faculty hires, but from what I've been told, he burned bridges, and sealed his own fate. One thing about Fish though....and the article above shows it...he wanted to make UIC a better place and he didn't give two sh!ts about the effects on UIUC. I hope Meares brings the same kind of attitude....the UIC community deserves it. |
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Post by campushousing on Jun 19, 2008 19:06:52 GMT -6
I think you're points are right on Big D.
As far as housing goes - there's been a couple of suggestions about the next site for new dorms, and it seems like the favorite is opposite the existing halls on Halsted and Harrison, just north of the Recreation Facility. (I personally like the proposal to build on the parking lot across the street from the Pavilion - think of what that could do for attendance). Unfortunately, after a $150 million spending binge, campus housing's debt load is huge right now, and it's unlikely there will be any additional building funds available in the short term. Plus, you might be surprised about the political tangles former Chancellor Manning was caught up in when she pushed for more housing years back. There's a lot of pressure out there to have UIC stick to it's commuter / chicago roots.
Allen-Meares is a product of Urbana, and is Joe White's hand picked successor to UIC. White hasn't been particularly supportive of the Chicago campus (and the scuttlebutt is that this is a reason for Manning's departure)- for example he allowed the UIC medical school to rebrand itself as the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and supported the move for UIUC to drop "Urbana Champaign" from its title and simply be referred to as Illinois - both initiatives weaken the UIC brand. Capital project priorities are also a clue - with a larger than proportional chunk of the proposals going to the Urbana campus.
Despite all that, we've got a pretty talented leadership team in place and Allen-Meares could surprise. Let's hope for it.
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Post by UICJohn on Jun 19, 2008 22:59:08 GMT -6
A few random thoughts:
1) While I remember the talk about the Law School a few years ago and thought at the time it would be a great idea, I think that ship has sailed. With the finances the way they are and such opposition from the UIUC (I don't care what Pres. White wants - they're UIUC to me) it just doesn't seem worth the hassle. Would it be great for a U of I Law School in Chicago? Absolutely. With the U of I behind it and in such a city as Chicago, I think that would just take off. It's too bad that UIUC has such a stronghold on everything that they would not allow such a thing to happen.
2) I agree that new housing should be an issue. Even with all of the new housing, there is still a demand. But again, with the debt (which I am guessing is because so much housing was built so fast, and not because of any demand) that might take time. There is that piece of land by the new Rec Facility that was mentioned in this thread, and something HAS to be done with that! Also, as was also said in this thread, there is that huge parking lot and half of it could definitely be used for a new facility and probably the same goes with the parking lot on Taylor Street. And there was also that idea of purchasing a building across from 290 I believe. But again, that might have to take time. And it's unfortunate to hear that there are some who oppose all of this because they don't want UIC to lose it's commuter appeal / roots. There are still many who commute to UIC and to me, it wouldn't be losing it's roots, it would be expanding and improving as a University.
3) We need to improve athletics, but I am not really sure that has to be done via funding. I think that has to be done via more enthusiasm and I mean that from the student body, the coaching staff, everyone. Get the word out about the basketball games! If Jimmy has to hold a pep rally in the quad during the week at noon, do so! Get the word out! Put up banners! Just this past week, we read an article about a baseball player who chose UIC over Nebraska and Kentucky because of the appeal of the city. We have so many attractive qualities to a recruit in any sport and we should be selling them!
4) Academics have to keep improving. When it comes down to it, we're a university and academics are first.
5) Pride in UIC has to be built. I believe all of the things I have said so far can do just that.
When it comes down to it, I hate the idea of our actual administration keeping us down because the UIUC is so scared of it's little sister growing up! Get over it! As President of the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS SCHOOLS you should be doing your damn best to improve EVERY facility you are in charge of, including UIC and UIS. You have a school in one of the largest and greatest cities in the country, rather world, and you has so much opportunity it is scary! And if someone would rather piss off that opportunity to keep a bunch of downstate alums happy, then I don't want him in there anymore.
I think that there are a lot at UIC who realize this and I hope that White does not bring them down. I hope that Alan - Meares realizes what she has.
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Post by soccer fan on Jun 24, 2008 13:14:58 GMT -6
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Post by rob on Jun 25, 2008 6:59:45 GMT -6
You know what would also help the school? If the trustee's didn't set the out of state tuition so high and we had a bit more of a cosmopolitian set of students here. For all of its talk of diversity, UIC is not a very geographically diverse campus.
It makes sense too:
Chicago is a much stronger draw than Urbana
When you go to a school that people from all over the nation come to, you feel better about that school.
In times of a cash crunch, the out of state tuition would be a nice shot in the arm.
If the trustee's stopped making out of state tuition 150% of regular tuition and kept it, say 5 or 6 thousand below competitor private schools (loyola and depaul), we could nab a whole lot more out of staters.
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Post by iheartheflames on Jun 26, 2008 9:54:15 GMT -6
I actually work in the admission's office and while we are certainly aware of the potential for OOS students there's a couple major roadblocks.
We don't have enough housing to guarantee the freshmen class housing.
The board of Trustee's intentially sets the OOS tution high because of the poltical pressure to do so.
There's no money to send the recruiters outside of the metro area.
That said, we are a lot more active in electronic/online recruitment this year, and that could result in a bump in OOS. We will see! (The reality is that most people travelling outside of their home state are not as concerned about the money as in-state students tend to be).
I was also at the announcement and P.A-M. seemed like she was going to follow the game plan set by the strategic vision for UIC, which addresses many of the issues that are brought up here.
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Post by Big D on Jul 25, 2008 8:47:09 GMT -6
One of our new chancellor's plans... www.chicagodefender.com/article-1265-uics-new-chancellor-plans-to-diversify-the-campus.htmlI don't understand..."change the culture of the school"?...aren't we already one of the most diverse campuses in the nation? Do we really need to increase minority enrollment by having special admission requirements for incoming minority students? What do these special requirements entail....hopefully, not lowering standards....because that will not help this university. The article points out that Northern Illinois and Eastern Illinois have these programs in place. I submit that we don't want to be lumped together in this group of universities. |
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Post by soccer fan on Jul 25, 2008 13:16:19 GMT -6
This is the Chicago Defender she's talking to. The editors are 100% old-line civil rights, their brains are still in the 60's, and in that world "diverse" means "black". And face it - UIC could use more black students, so I think the suggestion of more aggressive marketing to graduating seniors on the South Side is a good idea.
The real dinger in this interiview is the statement “I want to change the culture of the school from faculty to students ". I am not sure I totally understand what she means by that, but seeing as how the outgoing chancellor put a far greater emphasis on the students and student life than I ever saw when I was there, I am thinking this might mean a validation or continuation of Manning's chancellorship.
And if somebody wants to put greater emphasis on the students, I don't see how it can hurt. How many people leave UIC thinking the school sucks and never did anything for them but make things difficult? How many leave saying the professors were fine but the administration is hopelessly screwed up? Unfortunately, a LOT do, and it is coming back to haunt in the form of low alumni support. So yes, its time they emphasized the students more, in fact it is long overdue, and I am glad somebody realizes that.
I don't think that means lower academic standards, either. I think it means less overhead, a little attention to customer service, and a lot less treating students like they are a number. Maybe offering classes at night or on weekends (God forbid!) so that people who have to work can attend? There are a LOT of things UIC could do but won't, and the growth of De Paul and Columbia are proof of that fact.
Unfortunately, a lot of resistance to change has and will come from the faculty.
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