A former corporation counsel for the city of Chicago who heads the Chicago office of the nation’s largest personal injury law firm became the newest member of the UI Board of Trustees on Jan. 18 at its meeting on the UIC campus.
A graduate of the Urbana campus with degrees in law and political science, James D. Montgomery is a lawyer with Cochran, Cherry, Givens, Smith and Montgomery.
At the trustees’ meeting, trustee Devon Bruce, also a Chicago lawyer, praised Montgomery’s “legendary trial skills” and “utmost integrity.”
Montgomery was appointed to the board by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill the seat formerly held by Marjorie Sodemann, a Champaign County Republican leader who was appointed by former Gov. George Ryan in 2001. The term of trustee Robert Vickrey, a downstate businessman, expired Jan. 8 but an appointment has not been announced.
Lawrence Eppley, a lawyer in the corporate practice of Bell, Boyd and Lloyd LLC of Chicago, also named to the board in 2001, was reappointed to another six-year term and was unanimously elected to a fifth consecutive one-year term as board chair.
Eppley outlined a “To Do list for 2007” that included greater energy efficiency; further attention to capital budget, deferred maintenance and the Illinois Bill of Health initiative; and a new board committee on access to education for students of all income levels and ethnic backgrounds.
“It is also time to finish the work of our consensus process and bring to a conclusion the matter of Chief Illiniwek, so that the university can be removed from the list of NCAA policy violators, move our institution forward and allow our student athletes to compete at the highest levels and free of sanctions,” Eppley said.
Other appointments approved at the meeting included Walter Knorr, former Chicago and Cook County comptroller, as the university’s vice president/chief financial officer and controller; and James Weyhenmeyer, associate vice president for technology and economic development, as interim vice president for technology and economic development.
Knorr, who worked in municipal finance under Chicago mayors Jane Byrne, Harold Washington and Richard M. Daley, has been Cook County comptroller since 2004. Between stints as Chicago comptroller, he was vice president of the Northern Trust Co. and Citigroup Capital Markets.
The CFO position is a new one that includes responsibility for all financial functions of the university, including budget execution, financing and capital projects.
Other action taken at the meeting included:
- Approval of an agreement between the university and the city, as part of Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, to host boxing matches in the UIC Pavilion and the possible construction of a new aquatic facility on the UIC campus. “This in no way obligates the university to any spending,” UIC Chancellor Sylvia Manning said.
- Approval of a $66.4 million project to renovate Lincoln Hall at Urbana, with funding from state appropriations and private gifts. The project will include deferred maintenance, improvements to all building systems, renovation of the auditorium and reconfiguration of space to put classrooms on the first two floors and offices upstairs. “The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences represents the heart and soul of the university,” said Chancellor Richard Herman. “A lot of students are very happy that this plan is progressing,” added Urbana student trustee Christopher Kantas.
- Approval of a proposal to establish the School of Literature, Culture and Linguistics in the College of LAS at Urbana. Pending approval of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the school will comprise the departments of classics, East Asian languages and cultures, French, Germanic languages and literatures, linguistics, Slavic languages and literatures, and Spanish, Italian and Portuguese; the programs in Comparative and World Literature and for the Study of Religion; the Division of English as an International Language; and the Unit for Cinema Studies.
- Approval of about $6.5 million in contracts to rebuild and maintain the elevators in six campus buildings at UIC.
