University of Illinois Board of Trustees officially appointed a number of key University administrators at its meeting Thursday on the Chicago campus. In addition, student trustees from the University’s three campuses were installed.
University of Illinois Board of Trustees officially appointed a number of key University administrators at its meeting Thursday on the Chicago campus. In addition, student trustees from the University’s three campuses were installed. The trustees approved the appointment of Paula Allen-Meares as chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The appointment of Allen-Meares was announced on June 17. In her acceptance remarks, Allen-Meares said, “Today’s world needs UIC’s knowledge and expertise. My years in the academy have taught me one essential truth: There are no small challenges for our communities, our nation and our planet. “This university — in the very heart of Chicago — has taken and will need to continue to take a leadership role in solving pressing societal needs,” Allen-Meares said. “And we will need to join together with other institutions and individuals — in a highly collaborative manner, with unique university and community partnerships — if we are to make a real difference.” (Allen-Meares’ complete remarks at the announcement and those of Board of Trustees Chairman Lawrence C. Eppley and U. of I. President B. Joseph White, as well as high-resolution photographs and other materials on Allen-Meares, the search process and UIC, are available at https://www.uillinois.edu/ChancellorSearch/.) The chancellor serves as the executive officer of the UIC campus and reports to the president of the University of Illinois in a system that, in addition to the Chicago campus, includes campuses in Urbana-Champaign and Springfield and the University’s online Global Campus. Allen-Meares will take office on January 15, 2009 and assume the helm of a UIC campus that ranks 47th nationally in federally funded research; enrolls 25,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students; employs 12,000 faculty and staff; and operates with a total annual budget of about $1.7 billion. Allen-Meares has been dean of the top-ranked school of social work at the University of Michigan since 1993 and is the Norma Radin Collegiate Professor of Social Work, as well as a professor of education at that university. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Allen-Meares was a professor and dean of the School of social work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received her master’s and doctoral degrees. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Trustees also approved a three-year contract extension for UIC men’s basketball coach Jimmy Collins, the winningest basketball coach in school history. Collins came to UIC in 1996 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he had been an assistant coach for 13 years under former Illiniois coach Lou Henson. As a college player, Collins earned All-American status while playing for Henson at New Mexico State University. A first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bulls in 1970, Collins had a short career in professional basketball with the Bulls and also the Carolina Cougars of the old American Basketball Association. The University of Illinois enrolls 70,000 undergraduate and graduate students at campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, Springfield and online, and it awards 18,000 degrees annually.) ______ Copyright 2008 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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