On her first official day on the job, Phyllis Wise, chancellor and vice president, will speak before the Urbana-Champaign Senate at its meeting Monday afternoon. However, this is not her first time addressing the senate.
During her previous visit to campus, Wise sat in on the senate’s Sept. 12 meeting, briefly giving remarks.
Appointed to the position on Aug. 3, she said she is thrilled to join the campus.
“I am humbled and privileged to be able to help to lead this campus in this critical time in higher education,” Wise said.
She also told senators how fortunate they were to have Robert Easter, former interim chancellor and vice president, despite him being in the interim role for about two years. She said he kept the University moving ahead during challenging times because “he had a faculty senate to work with where shared governance was truly put into action, not just words.”
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
She said two important searches will be conducted during her first semester in office: one for the provost and the other for the vice chancellor for research, which has already started.
“I look forward to having your input on both,” she said to the senators.
In addition, the senate will reconsider a proposal to establish the agricultural education program from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences that was passed at the senate’s Nov. 8 meeting. However, the proposal title on the agenda was inaccurate, while the actual proposal was correct.
After being discussed by the Senate Executive Committee, the senate will vote again on the proposal.
Gay Miller, educational policy committee chair and professor of pathobiology, said there was a technical error in creating the agenda.
She added that proposals from the Educational Policy Committee are now presented to the senate by having the body at the top rather than the summary, which will be placed at the back of the proposal packet.
“That should help prevent this error for proposals where the title changes between when it is first received by the (Educational Policy Committee) and when it goes to the full senate,” Miller said.
