PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 27, No. 2, July 19, 2007

Click photo to enlarge Sylvia Manning

UIC chancellor announces retirement

Sylvia Manning, UIC chancellor since 1999, announced July 12 that she will retire from UIC at the end of 2007. Manning leaves a legacy of campus expansion and enhancement and of rapid growth in UIC’s academic research enterprise.

“It has been a great privilege to lead one of the most dynamic university campuses in the nation,” Manning said. “While I look forward to my own next steps, I will certainly miss the wonders of UIC and working with its terrific faculty, staff, students, supporters and community partners. This is a remarkable campus and it has a tremendous future.

“With a very strong team of deans and other administrators in place and the successful launch of the Brilliant Futures fundraising campaign last month, I felt the time was right to move on,” Manning said.

B. Joseph White, president of the UI, said a national search will be launched to choose a successor for Manning, who will retire Dec. 31.

“Sylvia has provided superb leadership to UIC,” White said. “Every member of the UIC family – faculty, students, staff, alumni and friends – has benefited from her intellect, integrity, collegiality and passion for this campus.”

“Sylvia’s legacy is a campus that embodies ideals she has stated so eloquently on many occasions – that UIC offers excellence and access to an incredibly diverse student body,” said Lawrence C. Eppley, chair of the UI Board of Trustees. “Both as chancellor and before that as UI vice president for academic affairs, she brought an intense focus on students and student achievements.”

Manning was named interim chancellor in September 1999 and permanent chancellor in July 2000, after serving since 1994 as the UI system’s vice president for academic affairs. As vice president, she oversaw development of the state-appropriated budget and coordination of academic affairs universitywide; led the creation of the UI Online, the university’s program for Web-based teaching and learning; and supervised integration of the former Sangamon State University, now UIS, into the UI system in 1995.

With more than 24,000 students and 12,000 faculty and staff members and a budget of more than $1.5 billion, UIC is Chicago’s largest university and ranks among the city’s top 20 employers. UIC operates 15 colleges, including the nation’s largest College of Medicine, with regional health sciences campuses in Peoria, Rockford and Urbana-Champaign, and the state’s major public medical center. 

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