It's official: Trustees affirm Stukel as 15th UI president

By Craig Chamberlain

The UI Board of Trustees said hello and a partial goodbye to
an incoming and an outgoing president at its monthly
meeting, held in Urbana on March 9.

In addition, the trustees discussed the process of making
Sangamon State University a part of the UI, and heard
concerns from UI officials about proposed legislation that
would increase the power of the Illinois Board of Higher
Education.

James J. Stukel, chancellor of UIC, was voted in by the
board as the 15th president of the university, succeeding
Stanley O. Ikenberry, who will step down Aug. 1. Stukel's
selection by the board was announced one week before, but
the vote made it official.

In comments following the vote, Stukel acknowledged the
"extraordinary leadership" of his predecessor - "a master
builder not only of buildings but of academic programs" -
but also made clear his administration would be looking
toward change.

Society is in a "time of transition," Stukel said. And as in
any period of change, "there will be institutions that will
prosper under change, that will make the right choices, that
will take risks, that will do things that they haven't done
in the past." Other institutions will not do those things
and will not prosper, he said.

Ikenberry adieu
------------------
The board and the Urbana-Champaign campus gave Ikenberry and
his wife, Judy, their official farewell reception the same
day. The event was held several months before his departure
in order to catch the trustees in town on the day of a board
meeting and before faculty left for the summer.

Time was taken during the board meeting for the Ikenberrys'
three sons and their families to present the couple with a
framed print showing the family's four homes - from their
first in Morgantown, W.Va., to the house they are building
in Urbana. Above the sketches of the four homes was a
newspaper column that Judy Ikenberry had written for the
Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa., in 1974.

The column spoke of transitions in life, and in particular,
the passing of a home from the care of one family to
another. Son David Ikenberry, who read the column aloud,
noted that the reference to a home could apply to a
university as well.

At the reception program later in the afternoon, the
Ikenberrys received other honors and gifts. Among them was
the announcement of the Stanley O. Ikenberry Endowed Chair,
to be endowed initially with $1.2 million to support the
salary and activities of the faculty member named to the
chair.

The chair will rotate among departments on the Urbana-
Champaign campus, and recipients will be chosen by a faculty
committee.

SSU merger - yea
-------------------
At recent board meetings, Ikenberry had voiced his support
for the idea of a UI merger with Sangamon State, which would
result in renaming that campus as the University of Illinois
at Springfield.

With the governor's signing of legislation on Feb. 28, that
idea now will become reality - effective Jan. 1, 1996 - thus
Ikenberry and other officials were more specific about the
planning for the change now under way.

Ikenberry called the merger "a promising development that
will add a new dimension" to the university. He said he saw
the first year of this "new marriage" as one of "careful
strategic planning, discussions and conversations that will
involve heavily the faculty and the administration at
Sangamon State," as well as faculty and administrators of
the entire university, and the board of trustees.

The merger and its ramifications will be "a very significant
item on the agenda, I would suspect, for the next two to
three years," Ikenberry said.

Sylvia Manning, vice president for academic affairs, said
about 50 faculty members and deans from the two UI campuses
had met in mid-February for an entire day for a study
session devoted to Sangamon State's academic program.

"It was interesting how, at the end of the day, many of the
faculty there were starting spontaneously to think about, to
get excited about, possibilities for cooperation and working
together," she said.

More recently, Sangamon State held a conference attended by
Manning and UI faculty representatives in which they
discussed the UI's shared faculty governance system. The
next step in the process, Manning said, will be for Sangamon
State to go through a strategic planning process that takes
into account the merger.

IBHE power move - nay
--------------------------
Ikenberry liked the Sangamon State merger idea, but he had
made it clear before last week's meeting that he was
strongly opposed to another idea coming out of Springfield -
that of increasing the power of the Illinois Board of Higher
Education. Under the proposal, put forward by the IBHE and
supported so far by Gov. Jim Edgar, the IBHE would be given
the power to reject tuition increases and eliminate academic
programs.

In addition to the strongly worded letter he had written to
the governor on the issue, Ikenberry told the board that he
had had the opportunity to talk to several state
representatives and senators about the proposal, and had
found them responsive to the university's concerns. Since
the issue was "capable of generating more heat than light,"
he said he was looking for a "time of cooling off," during
which he hoped reasoned discussion could take place.

In other business, the board:

oApproved several transactions that will make it possible
for the university to enter into purchase contracts with
MidCon Corp. and its subsidiaries for a 10-year supply of
natural gas for both campuses. The contracts, according to
the board item, "would accomplish the dual business
objectives of attaining a long-term, firm supply of a base
load of natural gas at favorable prices."

As part of this agreement, the board authorized the issuance
of certificates of participation not to exceed $32.5
million.

  * Received a report from Richard Margison, associate vice
    president for business and finance, about a program by the
    UI Foundation to purchase real estate within the areas of
    the campus master plans for both UIUC and UIC. In
    particular, the program will target apartment buildings,
    Margison said, seeking to purchase them when they come on
    the market, rather than when they are needed for a specific
    project.

    The purchases will be made with loan funds, not gift funds,
    he said, and the Foundation will not purchase a property
    unless it can produce a positive cash flow from rent and
    other revenue, taking into account the cost of the loan.
    These purchases will not be part of an investment strategy
    for the Foundation, and the properties will remain on the
    tax rolls until the university is ready to use them, he
    said.

    The program is needed, UIUC Chancellor Michael Aiken said,
    because the university often does not have funds available
    when properties are available - and, in fact, has had to
    forego some recent opportunities.

    The university is about 20 years behind in this kind of
    planning, Ikenberry said. "We're going to be able to start
    playing offense, rather than just defense."

  * Approved contracts for several construction and
    remodeling projects on the UIUC campus, all to begin within
    the next few months. The projects include remodeling of the
    basement cafeteria area of the Illini Union; reconfiguration
    and enclosure of the Illini Union's north interior stair
    towers, along with other life-safety improvements; and
    development of recreation playfields at two different sites.