Trustees approve moving up merger with SSU to July 1

By Elaine Belsito
UIC News Bureau

University trustees approved the integration of Sangamon State University
into the UI, effective July 1.

Trustees gave their final OK to the new UI at Springfield at their June 8
meeting, held in Chicago.

While the Springfield campus will follow the policies of the UI, some
procedures will be phased in gradually. A committee will be established at
the Springfield campus this fall to begin revising academic policies to fit
with the rest of the university.

This committee will include Springfield's vice chancellor and associate
vice chancellor for academic affairs; faculty representatives from each of
the four major academic divisions of the Springfield campus and its
library; a representative for long-range academic planning; and three
representatives from university central administration. The phase-in
process will probably take about two years, said Sylvia Manning, vice
president for academic affairs.

State appropriations to the Springfield campus and the rest of the
university will remain separate for this fiscal year. Springfield's payroll
system will remain the same for at least this year, along with sick leave
and other employee policies. For the next fiscal year, the university will
develop a budget that covers all three campuses.
In other action, the board approved:

 * Changing the name of the UIUC department of physiology and biophysics to
   that of molecular and integrative physiology. The new name more accurately
   conveys the nature of the training program and faculty research.
 * Establishing a Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology within the
   School of Life Sciences at UIUC. The advantages of a separate
   administrative structure for biophysics - which has grown dramatically -
   have been recognized by several  review committees since the mid-1970s, and
   this proposal is the outgrowth of that recognition.
 * Deleting the undergraduate curriculum and bachelor's degree in business
   education due to steadily declining enrollment. Only four UIUC students
   completed student teaching in 1993, and only one did so in 1994.
 * Discontinuing the UIUC's Center for Instructional Research and Curriculum
   Evaluation in the College of Education because of decreased funding and
   activity levels. The remaining resources and purposes of CIRCE will be
   absorbed into a reconfigured, expanded Bureau of Educational Research.
 * Retaining the master of arts degree in public administration at UIUC,
   reversing the board's Nov. 12, 1993, decision to discontinue the program.
   Chancellor Michael Aiken sought advice about the desirability of
   revitalizing the program, and the response has been positive. Until a
   revised program is established and approved, no new students will be
   admitted.
 * Amending a lease agreement with Flightstar Corp. after suspending the
   Staff Air Transportation Service at Willard Airport as of June 30.
   Flighstar will provide the same service as Staff Air at essentially the
   same price. Flightstar also will use two of the UI's Cessna 310s for the
   air service, and will lease hangar space and cover all operational costs.