Board of Trustees to vote on new provost, majors, design center
The University of Illinois Board of Trustees will vote on plans for a Siebel Center for Design at the meeting on Wednesday.
March 14, 2017
The Board of Trustees will meet Tuesday in committee meetings before convening Wednesday. Here are some of the issues the trustees will vote on.
Appointments
The Board will vote to appoint John Wilkin as interim provost. He currently serves as University library dean. He will replace interim provost Ed Feser, who left to take a job at Oregon State University.
The Board will vote to appoint Barry Benson as vice chancellor for advancement and senior vice president of the University of Illinois Foundation. He currently serves as senior vice president of development, university campaigns, regional development and gift planning at the University of Arizona Foundation.
Health insurance increase
Student health insurance costs would increase 24 percent next year if approved. For the fall semester, undergraduate student rates would increase from $320 to $397, and graduate student rates would increase $409 to $508.
UnitedHealthcare, which insures students, attributed increased costs to a spike in inpatient and outpatient services and prescription drugs, according to the proposal.
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New majors
If approved, the University would offer a bachelor of musical arts in lyric theatre. The major would be interdisciplinary and incorporate dance, theatre and music. Students would choose to concentrate either in performance or creative.
The Board will vote on another new major: a bachelor of science in computer science and crop sciences. The program would blend technology and agriculture. It would be the newest CS and X program, which the Board of Trustees voted to establish in 2012. This program allows students to major in computer science and another major referred to as X.
Eliminated major
The University would no longer offer a bachelor of veterinary medicine if the Board approves this proposal. The College of Veterinary Medicine accepts a group of students without a bachelor degree into the program and awards them one after the second year.
An accreditation review determined it was not appropriate to award bachelor and doctoral degrees within the same time.
Design center
The Board will vote to officially name the new design center the Siebel Center for Design. The Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation donated $25 million to the project. Construction is scheduled to begin in the summer.
