UI faculty members applaud outgoing leaders

URBANA – At the prompting of Stanley Ikenberry, University of Illinois faculty stood and applauded the university's outgoing leaders Monday afternoon after they delivered their last formal addresses to the campus senate together.

Standing before many of the same faculty members who earlier this fall called for a change in the UI's top leadership, President B. Joseph White and Chancellor Richard Herman thanked each other for their service to the university and acknowledged the challenges, particularly the financial challenges, facing the UI.

It is an annual tradition for the campus senate to invite the leaders to address the faculty in the fall. This year, the lineup included current president White, whose resignation takes effect at the end of the year; former president Ikenberry, whom the board of trustees tapped to be interim president after White steps down; Chancellor Richard Herman, who last week announced his resignation and whose last day as the Urbana campus leader was Monday; and Robert Easter, dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, who has been acting as the interim provost since the previous provost left this summer.

"These have been tough weeks and tough months," Ikenberry said to the faculty, staff and students who gathered in the Levis Faculty Center on Monday afternoon.

Senate leader Joyce Tolliver described the day's event as a "melancholy moment."

"Both tenures ended in ways no one desired," she said, adding that White and Herman resigned with the best interests of the university in mind.

The campus crisis she said, referring to the investigation into the "Category I" list, which tracked the admissions applications of students with connections to trustees, politicians, donors and others, has caused many faculty, staff and students to become more engaged, and the symbolic and real power of the senate has become more evident, she said.

"My hope is we used our power wisely and humanely, and I believe we have," she said.

Earlier this fall, the faculty senate supported a resolution that called for both administrators to step down.

In addition to filling the vacant leadership positions and dealing with the fallout from the admissions scandal, the university is facing a number of additional challenges as outlined by White and Ikenberry.

Last year, the UI had to cope with a $20 million budget rescission and, given that the state's fiscal condition is not any better this year, the university is preparing for another rescission, White said.

White said he was proud of the fact that during his tenure as president the university has managed to avoid furloughs and layoffs.

However, he said, the university is now facing the rescission threat, as well as cash flow problems with the state being slow to send the university money.

In anticipation of those issues, White said university administrators will be asked to put aside a total of $37 million, and "hiring needs to be constrained for the remainder of the fiscal year."

White does not anticipate furlough days or large-scale layoffs this year, but the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, "looks very challenging," he said. About $45 million in federal stimulus money that the UI receives in 2010 is not expected to recur in 2011.

Ikenberry said a plan is being drafted to cut $15 million from administrative expenses over the next three years.

Controlling and reducing administrative costs, he said, and "doing it at all levels, not just at the campus and university level, but down the structure (at the college and departmental level) of the organization is a real opportunity and an obligation all of us share going forward."

Ikenberry expressed optimism about the board of trustees and the search process under way for the next president. So far, the board of trustees has hired a search firm to help with the process, and trustees are expected to choose and announce the members of a search committee by or at their next meeting Nov. 12 in Springfield. Three trustees will be part of that search committee.

"I think this board has the potential to be highest-performing, highest-quality, highest-integrity board the University of Illinois has known, at least in my memory," he said, adding that from Chairman Chris Kennedy to board member Pam Strobel, the trustees are "remarkable" and "dedicated."

Ikenberry urged faculty in the audience to help with the presidential search by calling friends and colleagues around the country and seeking out candidates.

The goal is to interview final candidates sometime in the spring and have a new president installed by July 1, and if not by July 1, then shortly thereafter, he said.

"My hope is this will be a robust and open search process," Ikenberry said.

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