Aviators defend institute to UI officials who recommended its closure
URBANA – Dozens of supporters of the Institute of Aviation, two full rows of them in pilot uniforms, called for the University of Illinois to reverse course after a Stewarding Excellence report suggested eliminating the smallest college on the Urbana campus.
In just over 2 hours of public comment, every speaker said the institute fits within the core mission of the flagship state university.
"We're not an aerial truck-driving school," senior Dan Fagan told interim Chancellor Robert Easter and interim Provost Richard Wheeler, who co-wrote the report saying that the institute is seeing decreasing applications for admissions and taking money from the core missions of the university: teaching, research and service.
Their decision is not final. The Urbana senate's Educational Policy Committee will discuss the issue at its March 14 meeting, said the committee's chairman, architecture Professor Abbas Aminmansour.
If the committee reaches a decision, the full senate could vote at its March 28 meeting.
The board of trustees must also vote on the matter, with June being the nearest opportunity.
"Please look for some compromise!" urged Cole Goldenberg, an aviation student who serves as the institute's only senator.
Emeritus Professor Omer Benn said that moving faculty and cutting programs were part of efforts "planned to destroy" the institute, founded by legislative action during World War I and in operation for 65 years.
He noted that millions in research dollars would be lost were the institute to close.
A statement, largely written by interim Director Tom Emanuel, which he said has the support of his faculty, decried "the systematic dismantling of the Institute of Aviation by campus administration," singling out former Provost Linda Katehi as a prime mover. Katehi left the UI in August 2009 to become the chancellor of the University of California-Davis.
UI administrators took several steps, including prohibiting faculty searches for replacements, not hiring either a permanent head of the Aviation Human Factors Division or director of the institute for several years, stopping admittance of transfers for the fall semester of 2009, moving faculty to other colleges in 2010 and requiring future students to apply to general studies as of this fall, the statement said.
Several speakers said the program appeared to observers to be doomed because it was run by interim administrators.
Wheeler noted that he and Easter both held their jobs on an interim basis, as had President Stanley Ikenberry.
"Does the I in Illinois stand for interim?" a member of the crowd yelled out in a rare light moment.
My wife and I have completely lost faith in the governance of this institution. When faculty testified about the underhanded manner in which university officials targeted this program for closure--without even consulting the affected faculty--we were outraged.
However, we were not surprised. This university has long history of insider dealing and a failure to be transparent with the public in its dealings. When we watched administrators behave in an arrogant and unsympathetic manner toward students and family members during this public hearing it only served to reinforced our belief that University of Illinois is now but a pale imitation of the great center for learning that it once was.
In some states, an educational institution that behaves this way would have seen its administration torn apart from top to bottom by an alert and ethical attorney general. In Illinois, sadly, corruption is systemic. We'll be pleasantly surprised if reason prevails and this important program is kept open.
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