PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 26, No. 16, March 15, 2007

Trustees vote to support Global Campus Partnership

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@uiuc.edu

Two landmark decisions were made by the UI Board of Trustees at its March 13 meeting in Urbana: the decision to support a consensus resolution to retire Chief Illiniwek, and another to proceed with the Global Campus Partnership, an initiative that will offer degrees, certificates and professional development courses to a worldwide audience primarily through the Web.

The original Global Campus proposal, presented by UI President B. Joseph White to the board in September, called for a separate for-profit company staffed with adjunct instructors was revamped based upon concerns raised by the faculty-student senates at the Chicago, Springfield and Urbana campuses and the University Senates Conference.

According to the new plan, the Global Campus will be a universitywide academic unit led by a chief executive officer reporting directly to White.

Initially the Global Campus will offer only degree and certificate programs designed and governed by partnering academic units at the three UI campuses, but in the future could offer multi-institutional programs developed in collaboration with other accredited institutions, if no UI units are willing to create or capable of creating those programs, White said.

An Academic Council will oversee the curricula, ensure programmatic quality and govern the Global Campus in cooperation with the three campus senates. An Interim Academic Council – appointed by White in consultation with the USC and the three senates – will develop a proposal for selecting and appointing the permanent academic council by the end of the spring 2007 semester.

Courses will be developed and taught by tenured faculty members in partnering units at the three campuses, by part-time instructors hired by the partnering units, or by full-time teachers employed on an annual or multi-year contract basis who will not be eligible for tenure. The dean of the Global Campus, in consultation with the Academic Council and the partnering units, will decide who teaches.

White was adamant: “Every program offered through the Global Campus will be designed, developed and approved through the same process we have today. We are way behind in terms of developing our mastery of important new technologies, except UIS.”

UIS offers eight undergraduate and six graduate programs that consist entirely of online courses, and while trustee Frances Carroll and other trustees were concerned that the Global Campus would pose adverse competition, UIS Chancellor Richard Ringeisen was not. “The Global Campus will only compete when UIS can’t scale a program up to the size that the Global Campus needs, and there are some of our programs that won’t scale up.”

Trustees Robert Sperling, Niranjan Shah and David Dorris voted in favor of postponing board approval pending further discussions, saying there were too many unanswered questions, but the motion failed.

In reference to recent news reports that the University of Phoenix is having financial difficulties, Sperling asked, “Does it give you pause at all that one of the real leaders in online education is suffering some problems?”

“I think the timing of the University of Phoenix running into problems is ideal if we have the courage to move forward,” White said. “If anybody here thinks that we’re not going to do a far, far better job, then there’s no confidence in the university.”

Board chair Lawrence Eppley shared White’s sense of urgency about proceeding with the project. “I think we could plan it to death if we’re not careful,” Eppley said.

James D. Montgomery, who was attending his first meeting as a trustee, concurred. “I think a lot of people don’t want to see things changed. It seems to me that the ball has to start rolling at some point or another.”

A marketing and research analysis will be conducted to identify high demand programs that are self-sustainable and potentially profitable. According to projections, the Global Campus should recoup its $15 million to 20 million start-up costs and generate a profit by FY2011; by FY2012, enrollment should reach more than 9,000 students in 31 degree and certificate programs with 125 full-time staff members.

The start-up costs and working capital will be funded by establishing a line of credit with the university, and by reallocating about $1.5 million in salaries for staff members reassigned from the Illinois Virtual Campus, Illinois Online Network, UI Online and other units. The President’s Office will provide nonrecurring funding of $750,000 in FY07, FY08 and FY09.

In other business, the trustees approved proposals to

• Establish the School of Earth, Society and Environment in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, at Urbana. The school will comprise the departments of geography, geology and atmospheric sciences.
• Construct a $4.9 million Football Personal Performance Center under the new north grandstand at Memorial Stadium that will provide facilities for strength and conditioning, meetings and recruiting.

Board takes final vote, retires Chief Illiniwek
By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@uiuc.edu

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Going, going, gone Only trustee David Dorris voted against the consensus resolution that sealed the fate of Chief Illiniwek. Before the trustees voted on the resolution, Dorris questioned the legality of board chair Lawrence Eppley's Feb. 16 announcement that the Chief would be discontinued, saying that the board had not voted on it. The amended resolution put final disposition of the tradition in the hands of Chancellor Richard Herman.

It’s official: Chief Illiniwek, the symbol of the athletic teams at the Urbana campus since 1926, will be retired. The UI Board of Trustees, which met March 13 in Urbana, voted 9-1 in favor of retiring the Chief, the object of heated debate in recent decades by opponents who viewed him as offensive and racist, and advocates who said that he honored Native Americans.

The names “Chief Illiniwek” and “Chief,” and the related logo and regalia will be retired as well; however, the UI will continue to use the terms “Illini” and “Fighting Illini.” Chancellor Richard Herman will be responsible for the final disposition of the Chief, a process that may take six months to a year as trademark and licensing issues are decided. The board’s action concluded a process that it began in June 2004 when it adopted a resolution that stated it would seek a “consensus conclusion” on the Chief issue.

The consensus resolution adopted March 13 reinforced board chair Lawrence Eppley’s Feb. 16 announcement that the symbol would be retired, with his final performance at the last home game of the men’s basketball team Feb. 21. The announcement made the UI immediately eligible to host postseason National Collegiate Athletic Association events. The UI and several other universities with Native American team names, mascots and imagery were barred from hosting tournaments under a policy that the NCAA adopted in August 2005. The UI’s continued removal from the sanction list would be provisional upon its retiring the name Chief Illiniwek and the related Native American imagery, the NCAA said in a Feb. 15 letter.

However, trustee David Dorris and other people had questioned the legality of Eppley’s Feb. 16 announcement, saying the board had not voted on it. The dissenting vote on the consensus resolution about the Chief’s retirement came from Dorris, who said he is of American Indian, African American and Irish heritage, and said: “Of all the symbols of the university, Chief Illiniwek most clearly evokes feelings of pride and dignity among students, alumni and friends.”

“Symbols don’t create feelings, they reflect,” Dorris said. “If you look at Chief Illiniwek and see hatred, shame and embarrassment, perhaps you should consider where those feelings come from. If you look at Chief Illiniwek and see goodness, strength, bravery, truthfulness, courage and dignity, you have a right to consider where those feelings come from. I can accept change. … What I cannot do is dishonor the memory of the good people that I knew and loved. … The voting to end Chief Illiniwek as the symbol of the UI without continuation of the elements and principles for which it stands that are not related to Native Americans is a public declaration that the people in the past who engaged in this tradition were wrong and committed something that was hostile and abusive. I will never do that.”

Dorris proposed a resolution, which was voted down, that called for the UI to join in a lawsuit by Chief portrayers and students Dan Maloney and Logan Ponce against the NCAA. In part, the suit seeks a declaratory court judgment on the legality, validity and enforceability of the NCAA sanctions. Trustee James Montgomery said he opposed litigating the issue further because it would delay “what I think is inevitable.”

“We heard today and every day that I’ve been on this board from people who were offended” by the Chief, said Trustee Robert Sperling, who chairs the board’s athletics committee. “I think that’s a good reason to change. No one’s going to be happy with this decision; each side’s lost something.”

Debbie Reese, a professor of American Indian Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, who is an enrolled member of the Nambe Pueblo Tribe and longtime opponent of the symbol, was happy with the board’s decision. “I was very pleased to hear board members embrace this issue as one with moral implications, that it’s not a question of majority rule but of doing what’s right for the future and well being of the university and all its students. It’s time to stop wasting money on defending something that should have ended a long time ago and work toward developing a sports program that all students can partake in.”

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