Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Acting Chancellor Wilson taking provost candidate suggestions

Acting Chancellor Barbara Wilson said she will accept nominations from every corner of campus in her search to fill the crucial position of vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost.

Ilesanmi Adesida will step down from his post Aug. 31 and return to the faculty after serving as vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost since 2012.

Ilesanmi Adesida will step down from his post Aug. 31 and return to the faculty after serving as vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost since 2012.

Wilson, on the job for just a week, asked for the guidance of campus members on the search for a provost and a host of other issues, which includes the simultaneous search for a chancellor.

“I feel I’m going to need all of you in a big way,” she told members of the Senate Executive Committee at their Aug. 24 meeting.

Wilson said she already had received suggestions to replace Ilesanmi Adesida, who is set to step down from his post Aug. 31 and return to the faculty after serving as vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost since 2012.

Adesida announced his resignation a little over a week after Phyllis M. Wise resigned the chancellorship.

“My association with the university, and particularly its outstanding faculty and students, has been a source of deep pride and fulfillment for me,” he said in a letter to Wilson. “I recognize that current controversies are causing distraction to the administration and the student body, and I do not want to contribute to those distractions.”

Wilson said the resignations and surrounding controversies cannot be ignored, but she is committed to bringing the university together and moving it forward.

“I care deeply about this campus and I want to help,” she said.

Gay Miller, a professor of pathobiology and SEC chair, pledged her assistance and said she would serve as a “conduit” for provost nominations.

A professor of communication and the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Wilson said she will draw on her proven collaborative background to re-instill trust and draw on the fullness of the campus to face collective challenges.

“We have some trust-building to do here,” she said. “We’re at a critical juncture.”

She said the hallmark of her administration will be openness.

“I think a lot about communication,” she said. “I want to be open and transparent, and I want to hear many voices. Communication is about listening, and I will be listening.”

Wilson also has experience working from the administrative side alongside campus faculty leaders. She joined the provost’s office in 2009 and served for two years as the executive vice provost for faculty and academic affairs. In that capacity, she provided campus leadership on strategic and financial planning and regularly presented information to the SEC and senate.

Though she was named dean of LAS last year, Wilson said she is relinquishing most of the operations duties to focus on the chancellor’s role.

“That will reduce my time significantly in LAS, at 10 percent or less,” she said of the new arrangement.

She has appointed professor Brian Ross, who served as interim dean prior to Wilson’s appointment, as the executive associate dean in during her absence.

Wilson has said she will not be a candidate during the search for a permanent chancellor.

She also thanked Adesida for his service to the university, which started when he joined the faculty nearly 30 years ago.

“I have seen firsthand how much this university means to him and how much pride he took in seeing the successes of our faculty, students and alumni,” she said. “He has left a permanent and positive mark on this university and he has my respect and my gratitude. Replacing him will be no easy task.”

Read Next

Life sciences Portrait of the research team posing together.

Minecraft players can now explore whole cells and their contents

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have translated nanoscale experimental and computational data into precise 3D representations of bacteria, yeast and human epithelial, breast and breast cancer cells in Minecraft, a video game that allows players to explore, build and manipulate structures in three dimensions. The innovation will allow researchers and students of all ages to navigate […]

Arts Photo of seven dancers onstage wearing blue tops and orange or yellow flowing skirts. The backdrop is a Persian design.

February Dance includes works experimenting with live music, technology and a ‘sneaker ballet’

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The dance department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will present February Dance 2025: Fast Forward this week at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. February Dance will be one of the first performances in the newly renovated Colwell Playhouse Theatre since its reopening. The performances are Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Dance professor […]

Honors portraits of four Illinois researchers

Four Illinois researchers receive Presidential Early Career Award

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Four researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were named recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. The winners this year are health and kinesiology professor Marni Boppart, physics professor Barry Bradlyn, chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Ying […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010