City Club of Chicago speech

[Big D]

Chancellor Amiridis recently gave a great speech at the City Club, explaining the momentum that is building at UIC.  It’s worth a listen.

youtu.be/zni7OwkaVfk

He’s a very personable guy...we’re lucky to have him.  Hopefully he wants to stick around a while to help improve our all-around reputation.  He again made the case for the JMLS merger.

One thing that slightly bothers me...more than ever, he’s talked of UIC’s mission being one of educating poor, educating minorities, educating those that need help academically.  I think one of his slides showed that the freshmen class was 74% minority, 35% from Chicago public schools, over 50% from financially needy families, etc.  While the mission is noble, I personally don’t think we should be so limited.  Educate anybody worthy that wants to come here.  Forced diversity bothers me...I certainly hope we’re not turning excellent white students away that don’t fall into the poor CPS category.

With the student explosion, does anyone know our average ACT/GPA this year and in previous years?  I guess what I’m getting at is I hope we’re not lowering our standards, or average student quality, just to pump our numbers and execute our mission.

[UICJohn]

I understand your feelings Big D. And as a major public university in Chicago I want my school to work towards giving an education to students that might not have the kind of resources that I, for example, did growing up and in high school.

However, part of me does worry a lot. Just allowing a student from CPS into a University isn't a success. It is a success when a student graduates from a university. The unfortunate reality is that much of CPS is not in a good place. Many CPS students enter college not having the skills to succeed. Now, that is of no fault to UIC and quite honestly it isn't really the fault of the student. It is the fault of the school system.

I don't want to get too into all of the details regarding CPS and it's shortcomings. Overall, I know that UIC is one of the few public schools in this state that are growing. However, I don't want growth to be a result of lower standards either.

[insideuic]

CPS is a huge system with about somewhere around 11,000 seniors graduating a year. UIC enrolls probably between 800-1200 CPS students per year. The school is not blanket admitting anyone who attends CPS. We're just the natural choice for the stronger students who can't afford to leave Chicago, but aren't interested in going to community college.

It might be nice to know that UIC has the second highest academic profile in the state among the public universities, and despite being the *only* school (not just public) in Illinois to post significant enrollment gains this year, the profile remained stable. That's kind of amazing!