CHAMPAIGN — Parkland College isn't making any promises, but it could take over a small part of the Institute of Aviation.

Meeting Thursday on the Chicago campus, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees is scheduled to vote on whether to end more than a half century of pilot and human factors education at the Urbana campus.

Parkland's president said the college is interested in hearing more details, should the trustees vote to close the aviation program.

Tom Ramage said Tuesday that the UI and the community college have "had preliminary discussions about the possibility of some relationship" with pilot training.

"At this point, it's been nothing but discussion, depending on what the (UI) trustees decide," Ramage said.

He said it was "too early" to discuss which aspects Parkland could pick up, but doubted that there would be a degree-granting program.

"Parkland has a very different set of structures from a financial point of view" compared with the UI, he said. "A degree program might be problematic."

Supporters of the institute, many of them pilots in uniform, will show up before the trustees' meeting, starting at 7 a.m. Thursday at the UI Chicago Student Center West, 828 S. Wolcott Ave.

The trustees meeting starts at 8 a.m.

Aviation academic adviser Laura Gerhold said the informational picket will probably have around 50 demonstrators.

"There will be some alumni in uniform, but with nine days' notice, it was hard for some of them to get out of trips," she said.

The trustees' meeting begins at 8 a.m., with a scheduled closed session of about an hour.

The vote to close the institute was put on the trustees' agenda last week, less than two months after Urbana faculty and student senators ended the school year without a decisive vote on whether to retain the institute.

It had come under debate after a Stewarding Excellence report questioned the fit of the institute in the Urbana campus' core mission as the campus restructures.

One of the authors of that report, interim Chancellor Robert Easter, said last week that "in the due course of moving forward, it's the right time to make the decision."

Supporters have urged the institute to be kept open, even if it is broken up and parts of it go to other colleges.

A faculty committee recommended that the master's degree program in human factors find at least a temporary home in the Graduate College, possibly for two years, and then be disbanded if no other unit would pick it up.

Student senator Cole Goldenberg said other colleges are discussing taking parts of the program, including the College of Education.

Interim Aviation Director Tom Emanuel agreed there is some interest from other units of the Urbana campus.

"We are still trying to merge with another unit, which is one of the recommendations in the Stewarding Excellence report," he said.

But the College of Education was absolute on the issue.

"There are no such plans" to acquire parts of the program, Dean Mary Kalantzis said via email.

"The college is not considering any mergers with other units," she further said.