The University was rife with scandal after scandal in the high ranks of the school’s administration over the past decade, but after a year with Robert Easter as president, it seems that those days have passed. Because of this, the Board of Trustees will likely extend Easter’s two-year appointment another year through the end of June 2015 at its bimonthly meeting Thursday.

Easter has held countless positions throughout the Urbana campus, both as an academic and as an administrator, which, together, proved his capability of leading the University. Although Easter continues to promote the ideals of the University, the board will make a strategic move to extend his term with a base salary of $450,000 (which while high, is still lower than previous presidents here) and a performance-based, or incentive-based, portion in addition. According to the board’s agenda for its Thursday meeting, the trustees want to “align the interests” of President Easter and future presidents “with those of the University.” 

One of the biggest issues facing Easter when his term began last July was an exodus of faculty and professors, aided by a dismal state pension system. And that problem hasn’t gone away: The Illinois House failed to pass legislation to secure a pension system for a state with the lowest credit rating in the union. This problem may become all the more apparent as the University tries to add 500 new faculty members over the next five to seven years, per Chancellor Phyllis Wise’s Visioning Future Excellence outcomes report this past week.

This ambitious goal in tandem with a state, whose coffers are more empty than full, will prove to be a challenge for both Easter and Wise. Over the past year, Easter and Wise have proven to be a compatible duo, though. Another two years with them at the forefront could position the University as a stronger world leader in academia.