CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Eight current or former employees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are among candidates for the reorganized board of the State Universities Retirement System of Illinois.
Gov. Patrick Quinn signed legislation in April eliminating the existing governor-appointed board of trustees for SURS, which manages pension funds for more than 70 state universities, community colleges and state agencies.
The new 11-member board will consist of four trustees appointed by the governor, four trustees still making contributions toward SURS benefits who will be elected by other members contributing into the system, and two trustees currently collecting SURS benefits who will be elected by other SURS retirees. The final member will be the chairperson of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, who will serve as president of the new SURS board.
Ballots were mailed to SURS contributors and retirees last week and must be returned by 10 a.m. June 17. Winners will be announced July 2.
Five of the 11 candidates for contributing member seats work on the Urbana campus: J. Fred Giertz, an economics professor and interim head of the economics department; Gregory Knott, assistant to the head and business manager for the department of food science and human nutrition; Dorinda Miller, a clerk in the department of natural resources and environmental sciences; Robert Roman, chief of utility plant operations; and physics professor Scott Willenbrock.
Three retired Urbana-Champaign professors are among seven candidates for seats designated for SURS retirees. They are Kenneth Andersen, professor emeritus of communication; Thomas Conry, professor emeritus of industrial and enterprise systems engineering; and Ronald Peters, professor emeritus of labor and industrial relations.
No more than two of the contributing member trustees may be from the U. of I.’s three campuses, and no more than one of the trustees collecting SURS benefits may be from the U. of I. campuses.
The full slate of candidates is available at http://www.surs.com/pdfs/board/candidates.pd
