BASKETBALL SHOWCASE Juniors Hill and Nunn set to lead injury-plagued Illini squad SEE INSERT
THE DAILY ILLINI
TUESDAY November 3, 2015
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 145 Issue 43
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Breuder bill could cap University severance BY LILLY MASHAYEK STAFF WRITER
The Breuder Bill, which limits community college employee severance pay and term limits, went into effect in September 2015 and could lead to smaller severance packages for University executives. The bill, signed by Governor Bruce Rauner, limits community college employee terms to four years and increases the visibility of employee contracts to the public, requiring them to be informed of any changes to an employee contract. Named after College of DuPage’s former president Robert Breuder, the bill aims to lessen the air of controversy that has recently surrounded a number of college and university employees and their severance packages.
HANNAH AUTEN THE DAILY ILLINI
This species of turtle is the Terrapene carolina, otherwise known as the common box turtle. This specimen was collected in Jackson County, Illinois over 75 years ago and is part of a collection from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
National History Survey receives thousands of specimen donations SIUC donates reptiles, amphibians and fish with grant BY ALI BRABOY STAFF WRITER
The Illinois Natural History Survey has described itself as the guardian and recorder of biological specimens of Illinois since 1858. And recently the collection got even bigger. Southern Illinois University Carbondale, , gave 12,000 specimens containing amphibians and reptiles and more than 700,000 spe-
cies of fish to the survey, said Chris Phillips, curator of amphibians and reptiles at the survey. Although the specimens were donated, they did not come without a cost. The survey received a $141,889 Rapid Response Research grant from the National Science Foundation to bring the specimens to Champaign. The grant started on May 15, covering the cost of transportation and the man hours it took to pack and label the collections. Without the grant, Phillips said the survey wouldn’t have been able to get the specimens. According to the grant’s
abstract, if the specimens weren’t transported to the University, SIUC would pack and move the specimens off-campus without a trained staff to maintain the collections. The collections would have been “stored indefinitely at that off-campus location and not curated or monitored.” If SIUC had boxed and stored the collections, it’s unclear what could have happened to the specimens. Phillips said it depended on how long the storage was going to be for and the conditions involved. He said wet collections need to have their fluid levels checked on a regular basis, which wouldn’t have been possi-
ble had the collections been stored.
So, why are natural history collections important? To understand the world, there needs to be collections for people to perform continuous studies of natural history specimens, according to The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections. The survey has more than 9.5 million specimens, according to its website. The collection’s work as a resource for documenting changes “in species distributions,” and the survey’s
State legislators, in general, know very very little about complexities of running a large university.
SEE HISTORY | 3A
UI and Carle Health System announce research agreement BY MARYCATE MOST AND CHARLOTTE COLLINS ASSISTANT NEWS EDITORS
In a statement released Monday morning, the University announced that a new research affiliation agreement with Carle Health System, which will establish new policies regarding joint research and governance, was completed. The agreement, which was signed last week, was part of an affiliation agreement signed by the Board of Trustees in July, said Kayla Banks, executive director of Operations and Planning at Carle-Illinois College of Medicine. The Board and Carle decided in July to sign the additional agreements within 90 days of the affiliation agreement, which led the University and Carle to “work diligently” to establish the new policies, Banks said. “(The agreement) really creates a governance structure for collaborative research between the two
organizations and between University researchers and Carle physicians,” Banks said. “It really creates a road map for translating research from the laboratory bench
director of the University’s Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Initiative. Banks said the shared governance structure will support coordination
“(The agreement) really creates a road map for translating research from the laboratory bench to the point-of-care delivery...” KAYLA BANKS
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS AND PLANNING
to the point-of-care delivery, and with that, sparking innovation to allow for provisions of care to more patients at a lower cost with better outcome.” The joint governance structure will be led by a steering committee consisting of four administrators — Peter E. Schiffer, University vice chancellor for research, Matthew Gibb, Carle chief medical officer, Carle’s vice president of research, and
between the University and Carle through a variety of mechanisms. “The mechanisms are the governance committees that will be put into place and then also providing some roadmaps for the nitty-gritty of research, like intellectual property management,” Banks said. On Sept. 30, the University and Carle announced the creation of a search committee to name a dean of
RAYMOND D. COTTON
PRESIDENTIAL COMPENSATION AND CONTRACT LAWYER
the college. According to a University press release, the committee will aim to have a dean named by spring 2016. “(The committee will be) looking for a candidate with extremely strong collaborative leadership skills,” Gibb said in a previous interview with The Daily Illini. He said the committee will also look for someone of “national prominence” who can help recruit the caliber of faculty the college will seek. Robin Kaler, campus spokeswoman, said in a previous interview, once a dean is chosen, the “first order of business” is establishing job requirements; the committee is not yet sure what exactly they’re looking for in a candidate. Regardless, she said external nominations are encouraged. “The dean will be heavily involved with development of curriculum and logistics such as space needs and facility needs,” Kaler said.
The bill was sponsored by the Illinois Senate’s Subcommittee on Public Higher Education Executive Compensation, said Illinois state senator and subcommittee Chairman Bill Cunningham, who co-sponsored the bill. Some of the controversies include former College of DuPage president Robert Breuder’s misuse of college funding, former University of Illinois at Chicago chancellor Paula Allen-Meares’s longevity payout and former Illinois State University president Timothy Flanagan’s misdemeanor charge. The committee also put out a report in May that looked at compensation issues and administrative costs in Illinois compared to other states and found that there are increasing administrative costs across the nation, Cunningham said. “I’ve seen how much tuition costs have increased over the years, and one reason is increased administration costs which have gone up over 30 percent over the last 10 years,” Cunningham said. “This is one of a number of ways to get some of those costs under control.” The bill currently only applies to community colleges, but there is talk of amending the bill further to include four-year institutions, including the University. Some pending reform bills, Senate Bills 2155 through 2159 and 2174, look to require public
SEE BILL | 3A
KEVIN VONGNAPHONE THE DAILY ILLINI
Illinois governor Bruce Rauner talks with supporters after a preview of the State of the State at the I-Hotel Ballroom on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015.
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Illini legend sits down to talk about the 2005 season and his future at Illinois
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