August

Salaita controversy commences

While we wouldn’t want Steven Salaita to be our professor, we didn’t agree with the process of how his position to join the American Indian studies program was handled. In August, the University rescinded its job offer to Salaita after a slew of biting tweets on his personal Twitter account. On Sept. 11, weeks after he would have begun teaching as a tenured professor, the board officially denied his appointment. That action led to a divide between professors and students as well as leading to talks of academic freedom. On Nov. 17, Salaita filed a lawsuit against the University after a Freedom of Information request for emails sent among 15 officials with 14 keywords was ruled “unduly burdensome.” As a whole, we had multiple issues with the way the entire Salaita situation was handled by the University, and we hope it has learned from its mistakes.

September

Expanding student nationality

Time and time again, Chancellor Phyllis Wise reiterates the emphasis she wants to place on diversity, and as of this year, it looks like most of that emphasis was placed on bringing international students to the University. In September, The Daily Illini reported that a record-breaking number of international students enrolled at the University. This year, we have 9,871 international students who account for 22 percent of the student population, which is a 10 percent increase from 10 years ago. While we admire the addition of a variety of students of different backgrounds on campus, there is still much work to be done with regards to the University’s integration efforts.

October

Lack of racial representation

While the efforts of attracting international students to the University have clearly worked, it seems the University has forgotten the importance of promoting racial and ethnic diversity. For the past decade, the number of African-American students on campus has declined. As reported in October, only about 37 percent of African-Americans accepted into the University actually enrolled here for the fall semester. And for an institution that prides itself on promoting a welcoming, inclusive environment, we can’t say that holds true when it seems the University isn’t attracting people of different races to our campus. We are hoping strong efforts are being made by the administration to stop this trend, and we hope they are working toward ways to increase this low yield of African-American students.

November

Continuing College of Medicine talks

This semester, the University continued conversations on the development of a College of Medicine with a bio-engineering focused program on our campus, and we are glad that it’s still being considered. At the Nov. 13 Board of Trustees meeting, trustees approved directing President Robert Easter to explore each proposal. The new college would give students on our campus more opportunities, encourage more professors to work here and help create partnerships with Carle Health System and Presence Covenant Medical Center, which have both shown interest in partnering with the proposed college. 

Hello Killeen

After a nearly eight-month search, Tim Killeen was named the 20th president of the University of Illinois on Nov. 19. He will replace current President Robert Easter, whose term will be up in June. The University doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to its leaders. Both B. Joseph White and Michael Hogan, Easter’s predecessors, resigned amid controversy. Killeen has dealt with controversy at his current institution, the State University of New York, so we hope he can continue to lead the University of Illinois in the right direction. We hope he can recruit and retain the best faculty and students, we hope he can boost the University’s financial and socioeconomic status, and we hope he can push for diversity, in every sense of the word.

Goodbye Kennedy

University Board of Trustees Chairman Chris Kennedy decided to step down after Bruce Rauner was elected governor. He announced this during the board’s Nov. 13 meeting. Kennedy helped guide the University through three presidents and two admissions scandals during his term. While we didn’t agree with everything Kennedy and the board did, the University is a better place because of him, and we thank him for that. We hope the next chairman of the board will take some notes from Kennedy on how to best serve the University. 

Addressing campus bike concerns

It’s no secret we think the University fails at many things bike planning related. Bike lanes are poorly placed, infrastructure is shoddily maintained, and the long-awaited, updated campus bike plan continues to cycle through various stages on its Tour de Incompletion. As such, we were heartened to see overwhelming support and passage of the student-initiated $1 bike fee during November’s referendum vote. However, it never should have had to come to the point at which students felt it necessary to take on additional fees to, hopefully, resolve these issues.  

Kilgore reconsideration

When James Kilgore, professor in African studies, lost his job in April, we were saddened by the lack of respect the University had toward the laws already in place. Kilgore had already served his time and was upfront about his involvement in the Symbionese Liberation Army. The Board of Trustees should not have ruled on the situation and should allow members to join society again after prison and live new lives out of the system. Everyone deserves a second chance, and we are pleased to see the Board OK’d Kilgore to teach again at the University at its Nov. 13 meeting.

Underwhelming voter turnout

Most notably, this year’s midterm election brought big wins for the Republican party, as it now has a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. In Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn lost to his Republican opponent, businessman Bruce Rauner, while Sen. Dick Durbin kept his role, defeating Jim Oberweis. Meanwhile, it seems young voters didn’t do much to influence these outcomes — only 13 percent of 18 to 29 year olds comprised the national electorate in the 2014 election cycle. While politics may sometimes seem less than thrilling to follow, it is vital to get active young voters out to the polls to weigh in on who will run our government.

December

Getting ahead with winter classes

Starting this month, University students will now be able to take courses over winter break if they so choose. With the addition of winter classes, undergraduates can take initiative and work toward their degrees over break — something we are glad to see come to fruition. Starting on Dec. 22, these classes run for four weeks and end on Jan. 16. These winter classes are online, making it easy for any student to take them, and they are taught by our esteemed University faculty. Classes can be chosen from the subjects atmospheric sciences, business administration, economics and sociology. While this is a great start, we hope to see the addition of more class options in the future.