UIS braces for budget cuts

The UIS Journal

Admins cautiously reassure community about university finances

December 9, 2009
By Andrew Mitchell
Copy Editor

In the wake of the statehouse's ongoing budget stalemate, the University of Illinois system is bracing itself for a possible fiscal emergency this school year and budget cuts for the next.

No one is hitting the panic button yet, but in an e-mail sent by former University President B. Joseph White last month, all three campuses were encouraged to prepare themselves.

“Whether the Governor and General Assembly will make downward adjustments to our current budget is unknown and may not be known for several months,” he wrote. “Given this possibility, however, we must take steps now to manage as prudently as possible.”

The problem, according to the e-mail, is that the state has been slow in paying out money it allocated to the University in their budget for Fiscal Year 2010. (A fiscal year starts in July and ends in June and is named for the end year.)

According to UIS Provost Harry Berman, out of the approximately $343 million budgeted for the University this semester, the state has only around paid around $400,000.

“It puts everybody in a bind,” he said.

Half of the school's funding comes from the state, while the other comes from tuition. Unlike Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, who recently had to appeal to the state for funding just to make payroll, the U of I system has, “more flexibility…more capacity to endure,” said Berman, because of tuition, research funding and other sources of funds.

“But it can't go on forever,” said UIS Chancellor Richard Ringeisen. Which is why he and others in the university are nervous to see how the state will try to get out its $12 billion budget shortfall when the General Assembly reconvenes in January.

Despite the general uncertainty, the university is planning for a 10 percent budget cut from the state, which would mean a five percent cut to their overall budget. Students could see that budget cut in a variety of ways, from fewer sections of a certain class and less supplies, to bigger class sizes for general education courses.

“We will be able to offer the required classes you need to graduate,” said James Ermatinger, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIS, “it's just that you may not get the courses you want, meaning that instead of say four elective opportunities, you may have a choice of three.” He added that instead of having the option to take a class at 8 a.m. or 2 p.m., there may be only one time available.

Tuition will also almost certainly rise to make up for part of the difference.

But Ringeisen and Ermatinger both say there is some hope in UIS's growth on-campus and online; more students attending means more tuition dollars added to the budget.

University employees can also pin some hope on the fact that President White said there were no plans for any unpaid furlough days this calendar year.

“Furloughs are the next to last thing I want to do, with the first being layoffs,” Ringeisen said.

Under the planned scenario, Ermatinger said there was no danger of anyone losing their job, but the number of adjunct professors would likely decrease and the university will hesitate to replace any professor planning to retire.

Until the state government takes action or delivers on their funds, Ringeisen says the university will do all it can.

“When you're a big ship at sea, and a big storm is coming, you don't shut your engines off,” he said. “You move forward or else you get washed ashore.”

State budget in crisis: Why you should care about where your money goes

From Beyond: The Journal 's biannual magazine

November 17, 2009
By Andrew Mitchell

It's generally safe to assume that the average college student does not know, nor really cares to know, much about Illinois's budget. But everyone, including them, is feeling the pinch of the current fiscal crisis gripping the state.

Take the recent controversy surrounding financial aid for low-income students. The summer before the fall 2009 semester, Governor Pat Quinn signed into a low the budget for fiscal year 2010. Roughly half of the funding for the Monetary Award Program, better known as MAP grants, was cut from the budget. This meant that many of the 138,000 students who depended on the financial aid in the fall, would have missed out on the funds the following spring, putting their college careers in jeopardy.

Students from all over the state, outraged by the cuts, organized to demand the money be reinstated. They wrote and called lawmakers. They gathered signatures and sent petitions. Their protests hit their climax on Oct.15, when bus loads of students, some estimates saying more than 2,000 students, teachers and activists from all over the state, rallied both inside and outside of the Capitol, chanting, “We want MAP!” to lawmakers inside, attending to veto session business.

Their calls were heard loud and clear that day, as lawmakers quickly passed an appropriation of $205 million to fund MAP grants for the spring. Even Governor Quinn praised the move and the students' to pass get the funding back – this despite him signing the budget that cut the program in half in the first place.

But students should not have gone home completely satisfied. Sure, the legislature approved use of millions of dollars, but actually getting the money to the schools? That was another problem, and not an easily solved one. Currently, the state's debt is more than $10 billion. Bills are still waiting to be paid. Other financial obligations, like funding Medicaid and the state's pension system are on shaky ground because of this. How can the government find the money to pay for college students?

“One day at a time,” is how Governor Quinn told reporters he would handle this. What about next year's MAP grants? “We'll work on next year when next year comes.”

Some students seemed even less likely to care about that detail as well. David Ballard, a senator-at-large for the UIS Student Government Association said in UIS video posted on Youtube, “I don't know how we're going to fund it, but that's my concern.”

And that, in a nutshell, is one of the bigger problems with the state's current state of finances. There is not enough money to pay for the services the state provides; yet the services are still in demand. Furthermore, when facing a problem of this magnitude, the state seems more likely to put a small band-aid (usually via borrowing money) on the problem, which only worsen things down the line.

Now the state's deficit is at an all time high, and with gubernatorial primaries on the horizon, candidates will expound on how they would fix the state's fiscal fiasco.

It is time to for students, and the rest of the state, to start paying attention.

State Budget for Dummies

In the same way an average family plans out how best to spend their money, so too does the state government organize its own finances. However, the annual budget proposal the governor presents each year is different, because it serves as political statement, showing how a particular administration wants to prioritize state programs.
Money comes to the state in a variety of ways, but the two largest sources of revenue come from the state income tax and the sales tax. Because of this, Illinois has seen its revenues shrink as the recession swept over the nation – because when people make less money, they pay less income tax, and when people want to save money, they spend less on goods, which means less sales tax revenue.

The state also gets money from the federal government, with the recent stimulus money being cited as one of the reasons things are not as bad as they could be economically, and legalized gambling. Kent Redfield, professor at UIS's Institute for Legal, Legislative & Policy studies says recent efforts to expand and rely more on gambling for revenue are misguided.

In fact, by looking at the data from the State Comptroller's office, the budgetary balance at the end each fiscal year, after lapse period spending (money spent on bills obligated during the fiscal year after it has ended), jumps from surplus to deficit with the economy.

“We've been here before,” Redfield said, “We have a revenue structure that doesn't keep pace with our services.”

Because of this, Illinois suffers from a “structural deficit,” as much as it does an economic one. It is a fair claim to make that much of the state's woes comes from the problems of the international economy. No one anticipated the credit collapse a year ago. “Even if we did everything right,” Redfield said, “we'd still be on the margins.”

But the state's seemingly inevitable decline was made worse by years of bad decisions.

UIS professor and political scientist Ronald Michaelson placed some blame in ousted Governor Rod Blagojevich. During his campaign, Blagojevich pledged that he wouldn't raise taxes, and did everything to keep that promise, even at the determent of the state. The previous administration of George Ryan had left a then-record $1.2 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2002.

A more responsible governor might have gone back on the no-tax promise, Michaelson said. “He should've said, 'I had no idea things were this bad... we've got to do this.' He could have said it was Ryan's fault. I'm sure he could've sold that. But he didn't.”

Instead, Blagojevich expanded health care spending (Medicaid already being one of the biggest expenses in the state budget), and proposed one-time revenue sources, like selling the Illinois Lottery to a private company and forgoing payments to state worker's retirement pensions.

Other legislators and government officials only compounded the problem by not being more vocal about the problems. “You could see the wheels falling off,” Michaelson said. “but no one was saying, 'Hey, this is absurd.'”

Because of this, Governor Quinn entered office during a fiscal year with a new record $3.4 billion deficit. That it continues to multiply has people like Redfield and Michaelson tensely waiting to see who will fix it and how they will do it.

The “who,” will be answered soon enough in the upcoming primary and general elections for governor, and the “how,” sounds simple enough at first; cut spending, say no to any new spending and increase taxes. But that last particular point is especially difficult to sell in an election, and there isn't $9 billion of waste spending.

Such a message is difficult to convey to the public. In a recently released poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, based in Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, a majority of Illinois voters know there is a problem with the budget and think cutting out waste is the only way to fix things; they just have no idea what specific cuts should be made.

Nearly two-thirds of those polled opposed raising incomes taxes as well, which puts the state in a catch-22; people want the services and programs the state provides but do not want to see their taxes, which would pay for the programs, rise at all.

But many economic and political experts say that solving the state's fiscal problem requires both, no matter what the candidates say.

“Anyone that tells you that all we need is more revenue is just nuts,” Redfield said. “You can't raise enough money.”

Michaelson cited the governor's election of 1968, when the two candidate, Richard Ogilvie and Samuel Shapiro met and decided not to talk about income taxes in the campaign, so that whomever got elected would have an easier time raising it once elected.

However, the problem is perhaps far too big now to ignore in the general campaign, and the costs of fixing it are still not politically popular. “If you're really going to solve the problem, you need to acknowledge that you'll be a one-term governor,” Michaelson said.

Student radio station still a work in progress

New internet-based station holds possibilities for UIS community

November 4, 2009
By Andrew Mitchell
Copy Editor

There aren't many people sitting behind the microphone at the Prairie Star, UIS's online streaming campus radio station.

But that's soon going to change said Associate Professor Jim Grubbs. The veteran broadcaster is putting the finishing touches on the studio and audio lab to prepare for students taking his Introduction to Radio class this spring.

“It's almost like I've gone full circle,” he said from his desk in the audio lab. Grubbs first came to campus as a media technician back when UIS was called Sangamon State and the Student Affairs Building was the library. The studio and lab is located in what used to be the library's receiving area.

“I started here and now I'm back here,” he said. But this time, the room is equipped with new carpeting, a new coat of paint, computers, headphones and microphones ready to be set up and played with.

Photo by Andrew Mitchell Communication professor Jim Grubbs sits in the main studio of the Prairie Star, UIS’ campus radio station. Grubbs hopes to have students in the hot seat as early as next semester.

Grubbs signed on to organize the station after student interest he said reached, “a critical mass.” The Prairie Star officially signed on from its original location, a small room in University Hall, on Valentine's Day, 2008.

The station didn't feature a lot of UIS voices that day. Grubbs had set up the station to be a fully automated music station, playing almost everything from current hits to music from the 1960s on up.

“It was as much as anything just to prove the point that it could be done,” he said. The station remained on automation from then and through Grubbs's academic sabbatical last year.

Now in its new location, Grubbs hopes to provide an open door for students interested in getting into radio, whether as a career or for general fun.

“Certainly students are most interested in music programs,” he said, “but there is almost an infinite number of possibilities.”

Other stations close by include National Public Radio member station WUIS, or WQNA, the community station operated out of the Capital Area Career Center on Toronto Road.

Grubbs said the Prairie Star can differentiate itself by focusing primarily on campus and school related issues and concerns.

“Our difference is we're the UIS campus radio,” he said. “WUIS is a service for the community at large.”

Randy Eccles, WUIS's Development Director, sees the situation similarly. The station employs current UIS students and gladly accepts volunteers, he said. They are also looking to get more students involved in their new HD radio station. But still WUIS does not primarily cater to the university.

“We want to serve the campus, but we also serve the broader community of central Illinois,” he said.

Plus, with the limited number of opportunities for students to get on the air at WUIS, Eccles thinks the Prairie Star can serve as a great entry point for students looking for more experience.

Grubbs hopes to get things fully operational for next semester so he can provide students with valuable radio experience, try things out and help turn the Prairie Star into the student-run station it can potentially be.

New technology enhances online learning

October 28, 2009
By Andrew Mitchell
Copy Editor

It used to be that anyone who wanted to listen to UIS Biology Professor James Bonacum's lecture had to actually show up to his class. But now, his lectures are just one of several educational podcasts available on UIS's own iTunes store.

UIS content has been available through iTunes U since 2006, which meant that students and faculty had to log in to access audio content. But this year, podcasts are now available for everyone on or off campus via the iTunes store, easily found by searching “UIS.”

This puts UIS with some impressive company, said Munindra Khaund, multimedia education coordinator for ITS. “UIS is now listed alongside Berkely, Cambridge, MIT, Stanford, Yale, museums, and [other] public media organizations,” he said.

So far, the most popular downloads come from Professor Michael Cheney's course, “The Beatles: Popular Music and Society.” Other features include a column for UIS “Staff Favorites,” programs from public radio station WUIS, recordings from the ECCE Speaker Series and “Illinois Springfield Originals,” original work created by UIS faculty staff and students.

Khaund says that the growth of UIS podcasts, from a single course in the fall of 2005 to the thirteen now widely available, shows how well its been received by students.

“I continue to receive requests from students who would prefer to have course-related content delivered via podcast,” he said.

The podcasts can also be used as a recruiting tool for UIS now that its content is available for everyone, Khaund added. But he also stressed that iTunes won't be replacing the buildings on campus anytime soon.

“We provide the means of sharing course content with students in a manner that helps our students learn more,” he said. “[But] technology is a tool and podcasting is not going to replace classroom instruction.”

Online portal opens possibilities

Classroom technology became easier this year in another way with the introduction of the my.UIS portal, which boasts a single sign-on feature for many student needs.

“Before my.UIS, students had to login to Blackboard and then again if they wanted to check their DARS report and again if they wanted to check their grades or their student account,” said UIS Director of Education Technology, Tulio Llosa.

“With my.UIS, students just need to sign in once and can navigate their way easily to the applications they most use.”

Perhaps more exciting, Llosa said, is the customizable features for students my.UIS home pages. Users can design their portals to feature yahoo accounts, RSS feeds or other websites they frequent.

Llosa added the portal is still a work in progress, with new features still to come, such as easier eDoc distribution and announcement listings.

“We are hoping to convert email distribution lists such as 'campus announcements and UIS Student - Official Information DL' to portlets,” Llosa said. “So when an email is sent to them the message goes to the portal instead of the inbox.”

But the customization of portals is what Llosa says could unlock my.UIS's greatest potential. “Maybe we should hold a contest for most innovative student portal design,” he said.

For a guide on making the most of your my.UIS page, go to this link.
http://bit.ly/uE26z

UIS's iTunes store can be found at http://itunes.uis.edu

Researcher examines online class effectiveness

October 28, 2009
By Andrew Mitchell
Copy Editor

In a presentation to UIS faculty and staff, research specialist Bill Bloemer called on his colleagues to further develop research into the effectiveness of online courses.

The number of students taking UIS courses online has grown steadily throughout the years, Bloemer said, to the point where now almost a third of the school's student body takes classes only online.

Furthermore, more than half of the student body took all their classes on campus five years ago. Now, only a third are strictly on-campus students, while the other third takes a combination of on-campus and online courses.

“When I look at that, two things come to mind,” Bloemer said. “One is that this institution is uniquely positioned to do real research into the [effectiveness] of online education. There aren't many places that do it like we do... We really do have experience and numbers here.

“And the other thing that occurs to me when I look at these numbers is, 'Oh my God, I hope this is working.'”

Because the online courses have helped increase enrollment for UIS, Bloemer said the university must ask whether it is effective, rigorous teaching. Online courses are often perceived to be lighter or easier than their on-campus alternative.

In preliminary data, Bloemer showed the grade point average of on-campus students as lower than online-only students. But several variables could go into this, including the level of student taking the course as well as the subject and level of the course itself.

On a larger scale, the research asks whether one can predict if a student will struggle in a certain kind of class more than another will.

Ray Schroeder, director of the Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning at UIS, added to Bloemer's call for reasearch.

“You see what rich data is available,” he said. “I think the implications here are significant. This may be useful certainly for programs, program coordinators, student support. There are many ways we can go at this.”

MAP Grant Resotred

Money promised to students, source of funding still unclear

October 21, 2009
By Andrew Mitchell
Copy Editor

Photo by Andrew Mitchell Protestors from Lewis University display their homemade signs outside the State Capitol Building on Oct. 15. Students from several universities in Illinois travelled to Springfield to make their voices heard by state legislators.

The rallying cry to reinstate funding for the Monetary Award Program, the higher education financial program also known as MAP, came to a climax Thursday as hundreds of students descended on the Capitol, holding up signs and shouting, “We need MAP!”

Their shouts were not ignored; later that day the Illinois Legislature passed an appropriation of $205 million to fund MAP grants for the spring semester, providing money for about 138,000 students, including 827 at UIS.

But questions remain about how the state will pay for grants. Lawmakers have given no word as to where the $205 million will come from, and reports show the state’s deficit in the billions.

Unexpected Crowd

For Student Government Association Members Derek Felix and Jaime Casinova, the rally of students from colleges and universities all over Illinois satisfied them in a very big way.

“It’s a lot bigger turnout than I expected,” said Felix in the Capitol, while other students waved home made signs inside and out. Casinova said even while he helped organize the statewide coalition among other colleges, he didn’t realize he struck a collective
nerve.

“It started out with somebody going, ‘Hey, we’re putting together a bus,’ and I thought, ‘That’s great.’” he said. “Then the same university later said, ‘We’ve got two buses coming for sure.’ We said, ‘Awesome! We’re just happy with a bus.’ Suddenly … there were more universities saying [they had] five buses committed. I mean, committed and paid for … I was just amazed.”

Outside of the Capitol, Governor Pat Quinn joined the students in rallying. Earlier in the week, he traveled to the major state universities to drum up support for the program.

“This was really an inspiring display of demonstration, of grassroots democracy,” he said. “I am really proud of the students of Illinois, and their universities and colleges [and] how they came together, not for profit but for a cause they believe in.”

The stopping of MAP grants would have put a dent in university enrollment, with over 18 percent of the UIS student body receiving grants.

“I think that holds potential to literally invert our enrollment record,” Felix said.

It painted a worse picture for smaller universities. Owen Kerschner, a junior from Knox College in Galesburg, said a more than a 20 percent of Knox students accepted MAP grants, including himself.

“I’ve got a twin brother at UIUC,” he said. “It’s tricky enough [for my parents] sending two kids to college at the same time.”

Concerns still linger

But problems still linger for Illinois’s finances. Even as state leaders almost unanimously agreed to reinstate MAP grants for spring, they acknowledged that they didn’t know how they would pay for it.

Last year, the state hit a record high in budget deficit, over $3 billion. Some critics have balked at Quinn’s approval of a spending program without a clear sense of where the money will come from.

Earlier, Quinn suggested an added tax on cigarettes to pay for MAP. House Republicans proposed a tax amnesty, essentially waiving penalties for late income or sales tax payments.

Quinn did not say whether either or any other revenue source would be used, but said in regards to amnesty, “I’m going to look at that. The basic line is that you can’t use amnesty to get to heaven.”

Regardless, Quinn said that the MAP funding was a matter of setting priorities for the budget, with college educations being high on the list.

Still, some wariness remains. “[We’ll work on this] one day at a time,” Quinn said. “We’ll work on next year when next year comes.”

Best Album [of the week]

October 14, 2009

Best album: The Big Pink - "A Brief History of Love"

At first glance, one might want to compare the English electro-rock duo, the Big Pink, to the '80s one-hit wonder [Soft Cell]. But be warned, there is "Tainted Love" and then there's the Big Pink's black leather, grainy photographed version of love. For their video, "Velvet," we get a more shots of scantly-clad women tied up than a Boy Scout handbook. For the video, "Dominos," we see ice sculptures of naked women explode into snowflakes around the band. Sounds edgy? Sounds uninviting? Well, here's the trick -- "Dominos" has one of the catchiest, most confident choruses of the year. And the rest of their debut album, "A Brief History of Love," lives up to the swagger and cockiness of its singles.

Now that Trent Reznor has put Nine Inch Nails on hiatus, the Big Pink's debut record should fill the void for catchy hard-rock laced with a bracing shot of electronica. From the hypnotic title track to the radio-ready hooks of "Tonight," the Big Pink show that while their image might go for the darkest corners of love, their music shoots for the stadiums. It's one thing to name a song, "At War With the Sun." It's an something else entirely to sound like they could put up a good fight if they needed.

-Andrew Mitchell

Book published on life of Illinois politician

Published: October 7, 2009
The Journal

While people like former Governor Rod Blagojevich represented for many the worst aspects of Illinois Politics, historian Robert Hartley focused instead on one of Illinois's most beloved politicians, Paul Simon during a presentation Thursday morning.

Hartley recently published a book about Simon's life and legacy, titled, “Paul Simon: The Political Journey of an Illinois Original.” For many young people, Paul Simon's career is a distant memory. Before he died in 2003, he served in various political offices, starting in Illinois House of representatives in 1955 until his retirement from the U.S. Senate in 1997.

Still, he remains a relatively underrated figure in Illinois history; “When I told one of my good friends from the newspaper business that I had written a biography … of Paul Simon,” Hartley said, “his first comment was to ask if my next book was going to be about Art Garfunkel.”

From the podium in the Brookens Auditorium, Hartley shared stories of Simon's past, showcasing the politician’s unique dedication to public service.

“[He was] not perfect, because frankly, I don't know of any who are perfect or have been,” Hartley said, “but he was about as close as anyone could get.”

Hartley told of Simon's early work as a southern Illinois newspaper reporter and editor, including an incident where he helped shut down two houses of prostitution by visiting them and writing about the experience in the first person.

“Oh yes, he escaped with his virtue intact,” Hartley said.

Simon continued writing columns even as he rose to prominence as the politician with horn-rimmed glasses and bow tie, and even though he declared himself to be a loyal Democrat, he had no problem criticizing prominent members of his party, as he did in 1979 with a column titled, “Why I Support Kennedy.”

In it, Simon criticized the leadership skills of then president, Jimmy Carter and threw his support behind Ted Kennedy. Kennedy would get crushed in the primaries, but Simon never wavered from his support, which Hartley said showed a man who was true to his beliefs.

Simon would also found and be the first the director for UIS's Public Affairs Reporting program before he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974 and a Senate Seat in 1984. He would also unsuccessfully run for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1988.

Throughout it all, Hartley says, Simon was a unique politician in that he showed a visible determination to act on his principles, take unpopular positions and explain them in his own words via his written work.

Before there were any meaningful campaign finance laws, Simon would report his spending for public scrutiny, while others did not. UIS Junior English major, Ashleigh Hall, said that was the most impressive thing she learned about Simon.

“He reported his spending when he didn't have to,” she said. “I think most people wouldn't do that if they didn't have to.”

Hartley said it's just one example from, “a public life worth imitating. His political story is as current as a Twitter message.”

Senate looks at Master Plan

Published: September 30, 2009
The Journal

The proposed location for the new Public Safety Building and Child Care Center is once again up in the air according to a report from SGA President Matt Van Vossen to the Campus Senate.

According to Van Vossen, the building’s current proposed location on the UIS Campus Master Plan, along Vachel Lindsay Drive and across the street from townhouse courts Pennyroyal and Foxglove, benefits from being along the university's utility lines.

But the UIS police would still like to consider another location that would allow for more access points.

“The police chief wants to be at a point on campus where squad cars can go in multiple directions,” Van Vossen said. “It's just a matter of utilities.”
A potential spot, he added, is along Shepherd Road, where the Master Plan says a golf driving range will be built.

Also announced at their Campus Senate Meeting were words of support for two university related controversies. In response to UIUC president Joseph White resigning his post in December, Senate Chair Tih-Fen Ting and Provost Harry Berman, spoke kindly on how he is handling his exit.

If White had stayed on until the end of January, he would have been entitled to a retention bonus of roughly $475,000. But his decision to leave earlier in December, Ting said, shows he's considered the financial strains of the University.

“I think that's a great gesture,” Ting said, “As an individual faculty member, I'm very sorry to see that he has decided to resign because I don't think that his very limited involvement with admissions actually constitutes a cause for his removal.”

Ting also said at their next meeting, Friday, Oct. 9, the Senate would bring up a resolution to strongly urge Governor Pat Quinn and the legislature to restore MAP grant funding in advance of a planned rally at the Capitol protesting the cuts.

Business closed with the reconsideration of a resolution passed at the previous meeting, adding three members to the athletic committee. After words from the Faculty Athletics Representative, Marcel Yoder and discussion amongst the senate, a 15-2 vote was passed to keep the committee at its original membership and not add three members.

Springfield news veteran Rich Bradley retires

Photo Courtesy of WUIS Rich Bradley works at a typewriter in his early days at WUIS, then known as WSSR.

Photo by Melissa Conrad As decades at the station passed, technology was forced to change. Bradley sits in his office, checking email and listening to an HD radio.

Published: September 23, 2009
The Journal

This Friday will be a day 35 years in the making for WUIS's Rich Bradley. The veteran broadcaster, a man who has been with the public radio station since it first went on the air, will read his final newscast before retiring.

And true to his nature as a journalist, he is still not sure whether or not to say anything on the air to mark the occasion or simply read the news as he has always done.

“I haven't thought about it too much,” he said of his final days as WUIS's news director.

But for the rest of the station's listeners, Bradley's retirement is quite the sea change. He has been the station's sole news director since day one and his authoritative anchoring of “Morning Edition,” and “State Week in Review,” have informed and made sense of Illinois news for many.

As a boy growing up on a farm in Ogden, Ill., a small town east of Champaign, Bradley said the closest he came to dreaming of a career in radio was when he sent away for something called a Heath Kit.

“When I was in high school, I sent away for an electronics kit that could build an AM radio transmitter,” he said. “It would only transmit about 25 or 50 feet though.”

It wasn't until he transferred from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, that he found his calling.

Unlike UIUC, SIU allowed their students to run the station, which immediately sparked Bradley's interest.

“It really was one of those situations where it was like a bug that bites you and infects you,” he said. “I just fell in love with the business.”

Bradley moved to Springfield in 1965 to work for a rock and roll station and co-founded a statewide audio news service before learning of an opening at UIS, then called Sangamon State University.

“I heard that Sangamon State was looking to start a non-commercial, educational station,” he said. “Later we'd call it public radio.”

Bradley applied the news director position and in 1974 was offered the job of WUIS's first news director.

“At the time I was 34 and it represented for me a career goal,” he said, “to get in on the ground floor and help build a radio station from scratch.”

When he started, National Public Radio was still building itself too, and WUIS had to compete with Springfield's other commercial news radio stations. But with time, public radio grew into a primary source for news and information as commercial news radio declined.

Throughout it all, Bradley has been behind the microphone, covering state politics, organizing an Illinois Public Radio network, and mentoring budding journalists. WUIS reporter Jenna Dooley remembers meeting Bradley for the first time as a Public Affairs Reporting Student in 2007.

“He's always offered creative freedom to choose the stories you want to work on,” she said, “and he'll provide background and context. That's the value and the institutional knowledge that he has.”

Upon Bradley's departure, Dooley will take over the reins as anchor for Morning Edition. She says she's not nervous about following Bradley, because as she puts it, the quality and quantity of news won't change.

“Just by nature of the fact that I'm female and younger, I know my style, without even trying, is going to be drastically different,” she said. “[But] I know how he values news judgment ... I know his tips on news gathering and how to put a newscast together. And in that way, it won't be that different from the way Rich does.”

Bradley says he looks forward to seeing how WUIS grows without him, as the station puts together a new studio and expands their digital broadcasting options. As far as post-retirement plans, Bradley says he doesn't have anything “hard and fast,” picked out yet. He would like to travel to all the Illinois Public Radio affiliates he has worked with for years from Springfield but was never able to see first hand how they operated.

Or he could celebrate his signing off by taking up an old hobby.

“Once upon a time I enjoyed woodworking,” he said, “I might take that up again. I've got a bunch of tools shoved off in a corner of the garage.”

New police building placement raises concerns from faculty

Published: September 16, 2009
The Journal

A group of UIS faculty has raised concerns about the proposed placement of the new Public Safety Building.

The new facility, which will replace the old UIS Police Station on the north end of campus, will be built along Vachel Lindsay Drive, across the street from campus housing, according to the university's Campus Master Plan.

But some faculty members said at a recent campus forum they were worried that a police station placed too close to the students might have a silencing effect on those who should report crime.

Michael Murphy, assistant professor of Women and Gender studies, has worked in rape and sexual assault prevention. He said that even though one in four women will survive a rape or attempted rape while attending college, it is not guaranteed that they will report it.

"We know that one of the reasons survivors of sexual assault are reluctant to report these crimes is a fear that it will become public knowledge," he said. "Because women are charged with controlling sexual access to their bodies ... a good deal of shame and self-blame is observed in rape survivors."

Therefore, he said, a survivor might be even less inclined to report an attack if a police station is within eyesight of a location where a rape might occur.

“This is because the survivor’s peers or her assailant or friends of the assailant might actually see her entering the Public Safety Building.”

Murphy added that he and his colleagues were not in direct opposition to the building’s proposed location, but rather, wanted to raise legitimate concerns before the building location was, “set it stone.”

They plan to present those concerns to a soon-to-be formed committee that will eventually put forward recommendations to UIS Chancellor Richard Ringeisen. Another committee will handle concerns for the proposed Child Care Center, located next to the Public Safety Building.

Associate Vice Chancellor of Administrative Affairs, Dave Barrows said the new facility would take care of some concerns the current police station already suffers from.

“I think a primary problem with the present building,” he said, “is the size and lack of privacy … Wherever the new building is placed on campus, it will be designed to segment or cordon off a victim, or for that matter, as assailant from everyone else.”

Peru program gave students a global perspective

Published: September 16, 2009
The Journal

When Kimberly Bach and eight of her fellow UIS students arrived in Cusco, Peru this past summer, they found a whole new meaning to the phrase “higher education.”

That's because the South American city in which they began their 17-day study abroad trip is almost 11,000 feet above sea level. Needless to say, there were some problems.

“When we first arrived,” Bach said, “a lot of people in our group were having problems due to the altitude.”

Luckily, the students were able to easily find a cure for “soroche,” the Peruvian word for altitude sickness, in the abundant Coca leaves.

The students learned that by putting them in tea, and even chewing them, they could overcome the dizzying symptoms of soroche.

“Our host mother Gladys made sure we had enough rest and coca tea everyday before we left for school in the morning,” Bach said.

Dealing with altitude sickness is just one of the things Bach, her fellow students and their guide, Modern Languages professor Veronica Espina, will share Thursday, Sept. 17 in PAC conference room F at noon. Photos from their trip have also been shown in the PAC cafeteria throughout this week.

Espina and the nine students left in May of this year to take Spanish immersion courses and visit ancient Incan landmarks like Machu Picchu. Cusco was once the capital of the Inca Empire.

All from UIS took the language classes together, which meant Espina found herself learning alongside her students as much as she taught them.

“Attending school with my students in the morning,” Espina said, “studying with them during our excursions and visits to the ruins in the afternoon, and traveling to remote places taught me how to be a better teacher and enriched my teaching.”

The students kept bilingual journals for their trip, writing in Spanish about the Peruvian culture and critical reflections in English on the environmental, historical, and social issues they encountered while abroad.

“I wanted to study Peruvian and Incan history from the point of view of those who resisted the conquest, from those who don’t usually get to write the history books,” Espina said.

“We learned from the community we lived in and received wonderful examples of how to be culturally literate, socially responsible, and great language learners.”

One such social lesson occurred when the group witnessed an organized protest for worker rights in Cusco.

“Many of us experienced quite a reality check when seeing first-hand how people are responding to Globalization and the influence the United States has throughout the world,” Craig Pelka, a student who participated in the program, said. “We all know the U.S. has an impact globally, but to witness that impact is a truly unique and disturbing experience.”

The group was also able to experience the day-to-day joys of their hosts while staying on Amantani Island.

“My favorite part of staying on the island was attending a fiesta with our host mom where we got to dress in their traditional clothing and dance and listen to a local music group,” Bach said. “It really gave us an opportunity to experience life on the island.”

The group described the trip as something more than a Spanish class. According to them it was a conduit to reflect on their place in the world and how they can impact.

That much was true when student Randi Brewbaker visited Machu Picchu. “I couldn’t help but imagine what it must have been like to live in such an extraordinary place,” she said. “It gave me a newfound respect and appreciation for Incan contributions to our world.”

See pictures from the trip abroad

New building stuck in limbo

Published: August 26, 2008
The Journal

UIS Police Chief Don Mitchell wishes the new Public Safety Building was already done and ready for use.

Unfortunately, he will have to wait at least 18 months before ground can even be broken on the new police station.

That is because the state still has to raise the money for the project. The legislature approved the budget in the Capital Bill this spring, that is only step one according to Associate Vice Chancellor for Administrative Affairs, Dave Barrows said.

“Unfortunately the state process is very slow,” he said. “Even though they approved it, [the state] has to sell bonds to pay for it.”

After that, the project will go before the Capital Development Board, the construction management agency that oversees the construction and renovations of state government buildings. “Only after then can we hire an architect and break ground,” Barrows said.

Barrows added the Public Safety Building marks the first capital funding project for UIS in six years. Student fees go toward the University's maintenance and other projects like the recent Founders Hall dormitory.

Barrows says a new police station was the kind of project for which UIS could get state money. But the trade-off seems to be the lengthy process this entails.

Which is why he and Mitchell say the hardest part of the process is the waiting game.

“We've been requesting a new building for many years,” Mitchell said. “It's outdated and in dire need of replacement. We don't meet a lot of regulations.”

One such hardship of the current facility is its lack of holding cells. Mitchell said that if someone were to be arrested on campus, they would have to wait until the Springfield Police Department came and picked them up or a UIS officer transported him or her.

Still, Mitchell is glad that at least there is the prospect of a new facility on the horizon.

“The university [has] built a lot of buildings and spent millions of dollars,” he said. “I think they saw this a project they could get through easier.”