From: Official Announcement Date: September 4, 2007 2:01:39 PM CDT To: OFFICIAL_FACULTY@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Subject: [OFFICIAL] Campus Interviews for Vice Provost for Health Sciences Reply-To: dcwright@uic.edu TO: University Faculty, Staff, Students and Alumni FROM: R. Michael Tanner Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs RE: Campus Interviews for Vice Provost for Health Sciences Last fall, a search committee was charged with conducting a national search to identify candidates for the position of Vice Provost for Health Sciences. The search committee, with the support of the health science colleges and others, has identified three outstanding candidates who will interview with the campus community in the upcoming weeks. I am pleased to announce the following candidates, along with the dates of their campus visits: Mark M. Rasenick, PhD – September 11 and 12 Distinguished University Professor, Physiology and Biophysics and Psychiatry & Director, Biomedical Neuroscience Training Program University of Illinois at Chicago Gary E. Raskob, PhD – September 17 and 18 Dean, College of Public Health & Associate Vice President for Clinical Research University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Susan J. Curry, PhD – September 25 and 26 Director, Institute for Health Research and Policy & Professor, Health Policy and Administration University of Illinois at Chicago University faculty, staff, students, and alumni are encouraged to meet each of the candidates at forums scheduled during their visits to campus. The forums will allow candidates to introduce themselves, speak on their visions for realizing the potential for this new position, and answer questions. Your advice and comments on the candidates will be essential to the selection of UIC’s first Vice Provost for Health Sciences. Candidate forums will be held on the west side of campus on the following dates, times and locations: Tuesday, September 11, 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm College of Medicine Research Building, Moss Auditorium – Room 1020 (Dr. Rasenick) Monday, September 17, 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm College of Dentistry, Lecture Hall South – 4th floor (Dr. Raskob) Tuesday, September 25, 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm College of Pharmacy, Room 134-3 (Dr. Curry) Finalists’ curricula vitae and other information about the search are available on the search Web site at http://www.uic.edu/depts/oaa/search. If you have any questions about the search or campus interviews, please contact Dana Wright, search staff person at (312) 355-1308 or dcwright@uic.edu. From: Official Announcement Date: September 11, 2007 2:30:43 PM CDT To: OFFICIAL_FACULTY@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Subject: [OFFICIAL] Message from the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Reply-To: ovcsa@uic.edu Dear Colleagues: As we begin the new academic year, I welcome and acknowledge you as an essential part of the broad network of campus support for our students. The importance of that support is critical as we reflect upon increasing concerns across the country for the safety and well-being of our university students and communities. We want to continue our effort at UIC to enhance individuals' abilities to assist our students and to help the university community maintain an environment of compassionate concern, knowledgeable preparedness, and informed responsiveness for student distress. With that in mind, I invite you to become familiar with a program supported by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, "Helping the Emotionally Distressed Student" designed to assist you to become more knowledgeable and comfortable in recognizing and responding to student distress. The program is offered by the professional staff of the Counseling Center. Please take advantage of the opportunity to have the program brought to your department for an interactive presentation. The program can be tailored to meet the needs of your faculty or staff. In addition, please take time to visit the Counseling Center’s website "Helping the Emotionally Distressed Student: A Referral Guide for Faculty and Staff" (www.counseling.uic.edu) and additional links to managing distress following a tragedy and classroom discussions following a crisis. The Counseling Center is a resource for referral of emotionally distressed students, consultation about how best to respond to a student of concern, and assessment of students in crisis. In addition to regular weekly intake appointments, ten hours of weekly emergency intake slots are made available to students who are experiencing a crisis. Call the Counseling Center (312-996-3490) for any of these services or to schedule a "Helping the Emotionally Distressed Student" program. Your willingness and ability to recognize and respond to students who appear to be emotionally distressed is an invaluable university asset. I look forward to a continued strong partnership on behalf of all our students. Sincerely, Barbara Henley Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs From: Official Announcement Date: September 13, 2007 3:27:26 PM CDT To: OFFICIAL_FACULTY@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Subject: [OFFICIAL] Message from the Chancellor Reply-To: coi@uic.edu Dear Colleagues: I write to request your participation in the annual submission of Reports of Non-University Activities (RNUA). Illinois law and University statutes and regulations require all salaried faculty and academic staff to complete the report and obtain prior approval for external activities. The form is due to your department head by Friday, September 28, 2007. The reporting and approval process is not intended to discourage non-University income producing activities. It is fully recognized that most of these activities are consistent with, and often beneficial to, your university roles. The reporting and approval procedures assist in ensuring that external activities are compatible with University obligations. The form and instructions are available under the RNUA link at http://www.research.uic.edu/conflict. The Policy on Conflicts of Commitment and Interest, including sanctions, is also available at that location. This policy applies to academic staff. Civil Service employees are covered under a different policy and do not complete the RNUA form. If you have any questions, please contact the Conflict of Interest Officer, Rebecca A. Lind, at coi@uic.edu or (312) 996-4070. Thank you very much for helping to ensure that UIC complies with the law. Sincerely, Sylvia Manning, Chancellor From: Official Announcement Date: September 18, 2007 2:39:43 PM CDT To: OFFICIAL_FACULTY@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Subject: [OFFICIAL] Message from the Chancellor Reply-To: donnaj@uic.edu September 18, 2007 Dear Colleagues, In recent weeks I reported on the state of the campus to the Board of Trustees, the Alumni Association Advisory Board and the Provost’s Leadership Retreat. From what I had to tell, a theme emerged: something is happening at UIC, and people know it. It is generally believed that a university can grow the size of its freshman class, raise the class scores on standard indicators such as the ACT, or increase its diversity, but can’t do all three at once. UIC has done it. We sought an increase of 8% in the freshman class this fall and got 15.4%. The class’s ACT scores held constant, its average high school percentile ranking went up, and its representation of African American students increased by 27% and of Latino students by 25%. Our experience with transfer students was even more dramatic, though with smaller numbers. We over-shot our goals because, using the standard historical methodology, we underestimated the proportion of students who would accept our offer of admission. Some mistakes are a good sign. --In August, we opened the James Stukel Towers, creating space for a record total of 3,800 students to live on campus, including 50% of our freshmen. I think we have reached critical mass, creating an environment that will be more attractive for our commuting students too – as well as the thousands who move to the immediate neighborhood. Certainly the Chicago Tribune thought so, as it featured the opening of Stukel Towers and the increase in our resident student population in a front-page, above-the-fold story. --2007 was a banner year for UIC in the media. Significant references on TV grew from 1,287 in fiscal year 2006 to 2,002, and of those, the number of positive (not just neutral, but positive) stories grew from 67% to 92%. The number of significant stories in six major national print outlets (the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press and USA Today) grew from 100 in 2006 to 243. Much is happening at UIC, and people know it. --On September 5, Connie Payton and other members of her family joined us to dedicate the Walter Payton Liver Center. The facility will provide state-of-the-art treatment for diseases of the lower abdominal region; its tag-line is “Where the best care available is available for everybody.” You may have seen the TV commercials starting with Connie Payton and ending with that tag-line echoed by Brian Urlacher and Brett Favre. --FY07 marked the Medical Center’s seventh consecutive year of positive budget performance. Patient satisfaction remains strong, and the Center has been featured in the press and on television for its ground-breaking patient-safety program. --Edwin Cook, professor of psychiatry, will direct a new Autism Center of Excellence supported by a $9.6 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health. This will be one of five funded centers in the nation and the only Midwest site. --The Urban Education Leadership program in the College of Education, co-founded by Peter Martinez, director of school leadership coaching, and Steve Tozer, received a $2.1 million grant from the Eli Broad Foundation to prepare 50 principals for Chicago Public Schools over the next three years. --Four UIC faculty members received Fulbright Scholar grants for this academic year: Ralph Cintron, English and Latin American and Latino studies; Mark Liechty, Anthropology and History; Laurie Schaffner, Criminal Justice; and Joseph Tabbi, English. --Steve Guggenheim, Earth and Environmental Sciences, was elected a foreign member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italy’s official scientific academy that claims Galileo in its history of membership. --Robert Grossman, Mathematics, director of the National Center for Data Mining, received the 2007 Service Award from the Association for Computing Machinery’s special interest group on knowledge discovery and data mining, the highest award in the field of data mining and knowledge discovery. --Three researchers received Young Investigator Awards from NARSAD, the Mental Health Research Association. The $60,000, two-year grants were awarded to Yogesh Dwivedi, Psychiatry and Pharmacology; Suma Jacob, Clinical Psychiatry; and James L. Reilly, neuropsychology fellow in Psychiatry. --Caswell Evans, associate dean for prevention and public health sciences in the College of Dentistry, is the new president of the American Association of Public Health Dentistry. He will serve a one-year term. --Honors College and LAS graduate Liat Shetret was named a 2007 fellowship recipient by the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Ms. Shetret is among 100 students nationwide to receive the award, which supports first-year graduate studies. I signed a surprising number of pledges this summer, some of which some of you will have heard about. First, I joined with the Education Conservancy in an agreement not to complete the reputation census of colleges from the US News and World Report and not to use its rankings as publicity for the campus, though we will continue to supply the data they request. Then came the letter written by Lee Bolinger, President of Columbia University, protesting the British UCU boycott of Israeli scientists (look for a 2-page ad in the New York Times on October 16, with more than 400 signatures). And finally, upon the recommendation of the Task Force on Sustainability, I signed us up as early members of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. I look forward to writing to you again next month with another update. Sincerely, Sylvia Manning