Today is the first University of Illinois Board of
Trustees meeting for our new UIS Student Trustee, Jamaal Hollins. Jamaal is a
Computer Science major from Chicago who is doing a summer internship in the
Systems Division of State Farm. Welcome
to the Board, Trustee Hollins! I look
forward to the leadership you will provide this year for the University of
Illinois in this very important role.
UIS was well represented a few days ago at the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament. As you can see from this photo, I had an exceptional team – husband, Dennis, Head Men's Basketball Coach, Ben Wierzba, and Head Women's Softball Coach, Matt Mundell. We didn't claim the traveling trophy, but I can report that each member of the team made a great shot at least once! More importantly, it was a good opportunity for us to reach out to our community and support the Springfield Chamber. That having been said, I'm planning on working a little harder on my putting as soon as I get the chance!
I've been in Annapolis for the past few days participating in the AASCU Summer Presidents and Chancellors meeting, a gathering of my colleagues, all of whom lead regional public universities throughout the U.S. We had the pleasure of meeting Joel Podolny, Senior Vice President of Human Resources of Apple, Inc. and Dean of Apple University, who provided a provocative keynote presentation and discussion about "change". It's no secret that much about how we engage in and deliver higher education is changing rapidly and the same is certainly true at Apple. I've come home with much to think about and among those thoughts is this statement from Joel: "Everyone must agree that where we are now is not where we want to be."
Last
night UIS hosted the annual Forty Under 40 reception co-sponsored by the UIS College of Business and Management, the Springfield Business Journal and
Security Bank. "Forty Under 40" is a group of
young Springfield professionals, selected each year because they are among our
community’s best and brightest. The impressive list of honorees included
13 UIS alums and three current members of our UIS community - Dr. Nathan
Steele, associate professor of Management, Dr. Ashley Kirzinger, director
of the Survey Research Office in the Center for State Policy and Leadership and
Sheleda Doss, who is an adjunct professor at UIS in addition to being a deputy
director at the Illinois Department of Transportation. Each of
these 40 individuals has made and will continue to make contributions to our
local community and I couldn’t help but have a sense of pride knowing that 16
of this year's "Forty Under 40" class have such close ties to the University of
Illinois Springfield. Congratulations to all the honorees!
The Springfield Area Arts Council hosted the city-wide Exhibit and
Awards presentation for the "On My Own Time" program last night and UIS staff
members took home several awards. Our very own Douglas Levi Brackney from Career Services took first place in the painting category and
Donna Haynes from Conference Services took third place in mixed media. "On My Own Time" is
a city-wide exhibit of visual art works created by employees of local
businesses, agencies, and institutions in their off-duty hours. Judging by the Arts Council took place in early June and
our first-place winners became part of the city-wide exhibit. Thanks to
all UIS faculty and staff who took part in and exhibited work on campus this
past June. The award- winning artwork will be on display at Union Station in
Springfield until July 12, 2013.
home
