At town hall-style meetings throughout the semester, faculty and students have raised concerns regarding the University’s Global Campus Initiative, the plan to create a strictly online sector. Today, the faculty and students may formalize those concerns when the Urbana-Champaign Senate decides whether or not to endorse the Global Campus proposal.

A plan to push forward with the Global Campus could go in front of the Board as early as their meeting Jan. 18 in Chicago.

In a report prepared by the Global Campus Task Force, a group made of students and faculty from the UC Senate, nine key issues are questioned, including financial structure and design of the Global Campus.

The report states that the task force recommends “that the Senate expressly withhold its endorsement” and urges reconsideration to create a better consensus. They are unwilling to endorse a proposal that “is problematic in its academic and business plans . and leaves much to be desired” in aspiring to leadership in online education.

Chet Gardner, special assistant to the president, said he and University President B. Joseph White take the issues raised by the report seriously. Gardner said he feels that outstanding issues can be resolved prior to the launch of the Global Campus.

However, at a meeting held Nov. 28, Gardner said he didn’t “think it’s necessary to have a consensus on this initiative.”

Jason Webber, vice president of Illinois Student Senate, said he was surprised by Gardner’s statement.

“It’s like he was saying ‘we don’t need you to move along (with the initiative); you can come along, or we’ll do it without you,” Webber said.

Ryan Ruzic, president of Illinois Student Senate, said that the questions raised by the Global Campus Task Force’s report must be raised now because “once it goes in front of the Board of Trustees, it’s too late to go back.”

Gardner said one of the most pressing issues involves the financial structure of the Global Campus.

Currently, it is proposed that the new entity will be organized as a for-profit Limited Liability Company, rather than an academic unit. As an LLC, the Global Campus would be a profit-seeking company, run by a board of managers, rather than the Board of Trustees which operates the University. Essentially, the Global Campus would be a company carrying the name of the University of Illinois.

Gardner said that such a structure would be advantageous because it would allow for decisions to be made in a quick and nimble manner, necessary in a competitive market like online education. However, the benefits and retirement packages necessary for the LLC’s employees would be more costly than those of the University’s employees.

If, instead, the Global Campus were created as a new academic unit, the employees under the Global Campus would latch onto the University’s already existing system of benefits packages.

However, Ruzic, said he is concerned about the business-like approach proposed by University Administration. Ruzic said that the University, as it stands, strives to educate students and provide research opportunities.

“If we approach this from too much of a business perspective, we’re steering away from the overall mission of the University,” Ruzic said.

Webber also said that organizing the Global Campus as an LLC could compromise the integrity of the University by forcing a decision between making money and providing quality education.

“Our alumni are not known for being generous donors,” Webber said. “By organizing it this way, we could be creating a competitor for the University. By bringing another entity in, people could choose to invest in Global Campus in order to get money back on that investment, instead of giving to the University.”

Webber said it would be up to the Board whether or not the LLC would be publicly traded.

Both Ruzic and Webber said they would be voting Monday to postpone advancement on the Global Campus plan until such questions can be resolved. They said they expect the UC Senate’s decision as a whole will be the same.