The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois System made decisions on appointments, budgetary concerns and program implementation in a meeting held at the University on Thursday.

John Coronado has been appointed as vice chancellor for administrative services. He will be working on a twelve-month service basis beginning on April 9. He is the current Project Management Analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Other appointments include the selection of six professors as fellows to the Institute for the Humanities for the academic year 2018-2019. These fellows include assistant professors Mahrad Almotahari, Adam Goodman, Michael Jin, Atef Said, Julia Vaingurt and Professor Laura Hostetler.

The fellows are to be released for teaching and administrative duties for approximately a year so they may put their full efforts toward research.

The University will establish a bachelor of science degree in computer science and geography or geographic information science, pending approval from the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

This degree is a part of the “CS + X model” established in 2012 and including the majors of anthropology, astronomy, chemistry and linguistics.

According to a trustee report, “The major in computer science and geography and geographic information systems provides an integrated way for students to learn about location-aware devices, geospatial technologies, and to understand and mine the large amounts of data these technologies and devices generate.”

Also subject to Illinois Board of Higher Education review is the establishment of a Clinical Sciences department within the Carle Illinois College of Medicine in Urbana.

The Clinical Science department will be composed of clinical faculty who will be responsible for the clinical aspects of the curriculum.

“Creation of this department will reduce or eliminate barriers that can be found in existing medical schools in which departments are organized by specialty areas,” the report said. “The future of medicine and healthcare delivery is dependent on teams of healthcare providers working together to deliver the highest quality care and provide the best course of treatment from an integrated point of view…”

This proposal comes with a companion proposal for the establishment of the Biomedical and Translational Sciences department, which, according to the trustee report, will be responsible for the basic health sciences and engineering-based aspects of the curriculum.

Other items covered at the meeting include the increase in project budgets for the addition to the dining facility at ISR, as well as an increase in budget for the renovation and addition to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

The board also made the decision to close the University liaison office and related bank account in India. According to the report, state budget uncertainty resulted in a change of priorities, and the office in India was never staffed.

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