PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 26, No. 6, Sept. 21, 2006

Annual Meeting of the Faculty

Global Campus, Chief Illiniwek discussed Sept. 11

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

About 100 people packed the third floor of Levis Faculty Center on Sept. 11 for the Urbana-Champaign Senate’s Annual Meeting of the Faculty, during which the Global Campus online degree initiative and Chief Illiniwek dominated discussion.

In reviewing the past year’s accomplishments, President B. Joseph White and Chancellor Richard Herman said the first-year goals of White’s five-year/$500 million plan, an initiative to garner $500 million in resources over five years, had been achieved; a deferred maintenance plan was implemented, and more than 100 faculty members were hired at Urbana.

White and Herman emphasized that a partnership between faculty members and university administrators is essential to achieving the Strategic Plan and the Global Campus. White said he wasn’t interested in founding the Global Campus without faculty members’ support.

“The Global Campus is about mission – the mission that brought all of us into education as our life’s work,” White said. “It’s not about revenue or profit, though they matter. It’s about linking the knowledge and expertise possessed by our 7,000 faculty (members) with the educational needs of thousands of people who need it, first in Illinois, then beyond.”

White read a letter from Shawn “Doc” Holliday, a UI alumnus and lawyer-turned-high-school-economics-teacher, who urged White to implement the Global Campus program so that disadvantaged people could earn a quality education, closing his letter with the plea: “And please hurry.”

“It is exactly the right time” to launch the online program, Herman said. “Our biggest challenge is not to think incrementally but to take risks.”

While Patricia Shapley, a professor of chemistry, said the online degree program was “a great idea,” she was apprehensive about plans to hire non-faculty instructors. “I’m worried that you’ll take the same route that (the University of California at) Berkeley has or Pennsylvania State University has and move to outsource instruction on a fee-per-student basis.”

Elizabeth Delacruz, a professor in the School of Art and Design and chairman of the Academic Freedom Committee, was concerned about job security and quality of life for non-faculty instructors and advised bringing them aboard “in smart ways” to ensure they are part of the academic community.

The ideal organizational design would contain “master teachers … “who are usually or always a member of the tenured faculty” and would employ retired faculty members, whom White called “one of our very best resources.” However, non-faculty instructors, whom White called “supplementary faculty,” would allow faculty members time for strategic planning, research and other activities.

When Belden Fields, professor emeritus of political science, asked if the pressures of competing for students and earning profits would supersede the educational mission and compromise ethics, White assured him: “It’s not going to happen here … not on our watch.” Administering the program through a for-profit company would ensure efficient use of resources and provide access to capital so as not to drain the university’s resources, White explained.

Nicholas Burbules, professor of educational policy studies and vice chair of the Senate Executive Committee, discussed concerns that faculty members’ roles in the Global Campus would be marginalized once the program was well established, the potential of siphoning students out of on-campus programs, beliefs that online doctoral programs lack credibility, and that the “current plan lacks a good model of academic coordination and integration across the campuses.”

The proposed plans are intended to catalyze discussion, White said. The senate will sponsor forums about the Global Campus during the fall semester to elicit faculty members’ input.

Tom Bassett, a professor of geography, and Stephen Kaufman, emeritus professor of cellular and developmental biology, challenged university leaders to provide closure on another issue – the perennial controversy about Chief Illiniwek.

“I am, and many of my colleagues are, dismayed at the relative inaction that you bring to an issue that divides the campus and compromises the educational mission of our university,” Bassett said. “The response of the board of trustees and university administration has been ‘trust us, we’re working on it.’ The faculty will no longer accept ‘trust us.’ … What we’d like to know is your strategic plan for resolving this impasse.”

White said he was aware of the senate resolutions calling for the Chief’s retirement and “I think of every issue about this matter,” but the board of trustees has the ultimate authority. “I work not in public on this matter; I work behind the scenes … and I think I’ll need to leave it at that.”

Kaufman said it was “absolutely clear” from his discussions with the trustees that they would welcome White and Herman’s input. “All of your wonderful plans for the university … cannot be realized with this albatross around the neck of the UI.”

Back to Index