URBANA — At a meeting that wasn't supposed to be necessary, the Institute of Aviation could come up for a second senate vote. Even if it doesn't, the agenda promises to result in a lengthy meeting.

The University of Illinois faculty/student senate will meet at 3:10 p.m. Monday at the Levis Faculty Center, 919 W. Illinois St., U. Last Monday's meeting was to be the final full one of the school year, but the extensive and sometimes emotional debate over the future of the aviation program has made the second meeting necessary.

Senate Executive Committee Chairwoman Joyce Tolliver said that even though Aviation isn't on the agenda, it could come up in new business. On Monday, the senate voted narrowly not to pass a resolution to close the institute.

But another resolution from last week's meeting could attract further debate, opposing the centralization of information technology services.

The resolution said that putting all such functions "under central university control directly violates an explicit promise made by the president to faculty governance groups that academic and research IT would not be centralized" and that any such policy should have been submitted to faculty governance for review. It was not.

Already the Urbana campus IT chief, Sally Jackson, has resigned after a central information officer was named for all three campuses. Jackson remains as a professor and associate provost.

Tolliver addressed Jackson's resignation at Monday's meeting. She noted that on Feb. 11, President Michael Hogan announced that he had appointed Michael Hites as executive CIO and that "each campus CIO will report to Michael on matters relating to administrative IT and IT policies across the university."

She said only nine days before the announcement, a consulting group recommended "the campus CIOs would still be responsible for managing day-to-day delivery of core services along with having primary responsibility for working with campus schools and departments to support academic and research related IT needs."

If campus information officers only dealt with day-to-day issues, it makes sense to report to a central administration officer, she said.

"The problem," Tolliver said, "is that information technology is not envisioned on our campus exclusively or even primarily in terms of the provision of technological services that make our professional lives easier.

"On the contrary: Our campus has been world-renowned for decades for its leadership in transformative technological innovation."

Specifically addressing Jackson's resignation, Tolliver said, her "resignation represents a considerable loss, and, I think, an embarrassment for our campus."

The special prowess of the Urbana campus, which created the Mosaic graphical Internet browser and other innovations, as well as hosting a ground-breaking supercomputer, is diminished by centralization, she said.

"IT on our campus, which last year was recognized nationally for its leadership in the transformative powers of IT to scholarship, is now leaderless and demoralized."

UI spokesman Tom Hardy said that the process began before the current administration.

"An internal Administrative Review and Restructuring Working Group was formed by interim president Stanley Ikenberry in 2009, and issued its final report in June 2010, endorsed by the Board of Trustees, before President Michael Hogan joined the UI in July 2010," he wrote in an email.

Hardy said the restructuring will save the UI an estimated $17 million to $19 million a year by fiscal year 2013.

"It needs to be stressed, however, that there will be continued need to invest in IT in order to build more efficient service delivery systems and to meet the needs of new academic initiatives," he said.

Hardy also said college and unit information technology managers and staff will not report to the executive CIO, but to campus-level officers, and that implementing the IT restructuring recommendations does not entail changing academic or research policies.