In this month's issue
Almeida turns reading passion into a career
Richardson's early interest in puppetry leads to 'side adventure'
Illinois State in the News
Adams named interim vice president of Student Affairs
Rosenthal heads Enrollment Management and Academic Services
Governor releases funds for Stevenson and Turner Halls
McLean County Business Incubator receives federal funds
McCormick Hall
If you are planning on visiting campus in the near future, get ready to see some changes. Richard Runner, director of Facilities Planning, said not only are there a large number of construction projects currently underway, but a tremendous amount of construction activity will continue over the next five to 10 years.
In the last decade, Illinois State constructed the Science Laboratory building and the College of Business (COB) building, renovated Schroeder Hall and began a renovation of university residence halls. Wilkins Hall was the first residence hall to receive a new roof, exterior windows, renovation of all bathrooms and mechanical systems and creation of suites on each of the floors. Haynie Hall will reopen for fall semester with similar renovations, Wright Hall is being renovated this academic year and the renovations will then shift to East Campus. The East Campus Residence Hall Complex will get a new entrance linking both buildings in the area currently inhabited by Vrooman Dining Center, which will be renovated into lounge spaces, meeting rooms and team rooms for student and academic activities.
Dunn and Barton Halls
‘We will renovate Linkins Dining Center in West Campus starting in January,” Runner said. “The design will allow Campus Dining Services to bring much of the cooking into a food-court atmosphere where students can watch their food being prepared at a series of stations with food from different nations. The entrance will be changed to the lower level, with a central staircase up to the food preparation area and inviting, dine-in areas.”
Renovation of Stevenson and Turner Halls will start next summer. The three-phase project will primarily address fire and life-safety building deficiencies, but due to asbestos abatement, new light fixtures and floor surfaces will be installed in both buildings and Turner will get a new roof. Runner said the additions will create a different look and feel to the buildings, which should be completed by 2010. Faculty offices and some classes will temporarily move to Williams Hall, which has seen limited use since the College of Business moved into their new building.
The biggest change to campus will begin in the next two to five years when Walker Hall, Dunn-Barton Hall and McCormick Hall are decommissioned and razed, and a new Student Recreation and School of Kinesiology and Recreation building constructed. Runner said the building “will be the biggest in terms of footprint the University has ever built.” He said it will be as large as Redbird Arena and perhaps as tall as the COB building, but emphasized they will design it to “fit in, so as not to make it an overpowering building.” He said the building would be in the preferred campus architectural style with a Georgian flavor and will have lots of glass and windows. Preliminary plans call for the building to consist of two buildings separated by University Street, with an overhead, enclosed, pedestrian bridge similar to the one that connects Julian Hall and the Science Laboratory building. The large activity spaces will be on the west side of University with gyms, pools, climbing walls and activity courts.
“We are exploring the option of saving some portion of the McCormick Hall façade that faces the Quad,” Runner said. “We think it is intriguing to try to keep a small portion of the original campus gymnasium building.”
Other current and planned construction projects include:
- Moving the tennis courts to Gregory Street
- Constructing the University’s fourth parking deck adjacent to the existing deck on University Street, which is adjacent to the University Housing Services building
- Constructing a southeast zoned chiller to provide chilled water to Stevenson Hall, Watterson Towers and Watterson Commons
- Renovating Bone Student Cener by moving and expanding some retail spaces, opening up the building interior by bringing natural light into the building, constructing new and different dining options and creating additional meeting spaces
- Replacing the Hancock Stadium field turf as well as redoing all of the underground drainage and surfaces that surround the football field
Long-term campus renovation will include an expansion to property that used to be the University Farm. Runner said preliminary plans include expanding campus along the Gregory Street property for various university programs and activities. Additional uses of the property might include physical education and recreation fields and student residences. When completed, the Gregory Street property has the potential of expanding the existing Illinois State campus by 30 percent.
The 2006 incoming freshman class is one of the highest caliber in the history of Illinois State University, and the University is receiving an unprecedented number of applications for admission due to the hard work and innovation of Admissions and Enrollment Management and Academic Services staff.
“Our new student academic profile just keeps getting better and better,” said Steve Adams, former assistant vice president of Enrollment Management and Academic Services and current interim vice president of Student Affairs. “Illinois State has become a very special place for very special students.”
Molly Arnold, director of Admissions, credits her staff’s creative approach to recruitment as one reason for the increase in applications and the resulting high quality students who attend the University. She said they have used consultants from the University’s Communication department to assess messages, presentation style and program format and to help them “grab the attention of students who receive a minimum of 2,500 pieces of mail during their senior year in high school.”
Further innovative initiatives include the establishment of High School Counselor and Community College Advisory Counsels to help Admissions stay on target with what students want to help them make their college decisions. Admissions has scheduled online Chat University evenings so that students can talk with Admissions staff in Web real time about topics of interest such as financial aid and housing. They conduct application workshops in schools with large numbers of students who are either educationally or economically disadvantaged.
Throughout the application process, students are informed of their status through the Welcome2ISU Portal Web site, and intense follow-up efforts include phone calls, e-mail and personal notes. All of the initiatives are in addition to the yearly 260 high school visits, 110 high school/college night programs, 68 special requests for visits, 27 special programs, 11 Freshman Information Nights and eight articulation programs for high school counselors. Admissions also hosts visitors each week day and Saturday during the academic year to accommodate those who can’t take time off school or work to see the campus. They hold information sessions followed by campus tours, including residence hall tours. Arnold said six of her 10 staff members are responsible for the high school visits and the majority of high school programs.
Adams believes the University faculty has much to do with the higher quality of new students. “Our faculty have a primary emphasis of teaching, so students feel much better when they know they will be working with the best in their fields,” he said. “We have so many outstanding fields of study and programs at Illinois State, such as the nursing program and interior design sequence, among many others. We also have new and newly renovated facilities, which allows for advanced technology and more interactive teaching strategies.”
In the past three years, Admissions has increased their new freshman student applications by 13.5 percent, and the average ACT score has risen from 23.6 to 23.9. To the uninformed, the .3 increase might not seem like much of a difference, but to the admissions experts it is a huge jump. The high school grade point average of the incoming freshman class is 3.5 on a 4.0 scale with 90 percent in the top half of their class and 50 percent in the top quarter. The numbers of underrepresented students have also climbed.
Adams said Illinois State University was one of the first universities to “go beyond the numbers” by looking at the student in a holistic manner. They accomplished this by asking for personal statements from students and sometimes seeking recommendations from teachers, counselors and administrators.
“We are becoming a school of choice,” Adams said. “There is no question that we are a rising flagship institution in Illinois.”
2006 Preview Guides
During the academic year, the quad and campus buildings teem with students. The University sees less traffic in the summer, but thanks to Preview, some 350 parents and students traverse the walkways and building corridors each day for seven weeks.
Preview is Illinois State University’s two-day summer orientation and registration program for incoming freshmen. The program gives students the chance to interact with their peers and begin building relationships, meet with their academic advisors, register for classes and interact with faculty and staff.
Mary Jo Fabich, coordinator of Transition and Orientation Services, says Preview began in 1966 because former President Robert Bone wanted to keep the small campus feel while Illinois State was growing into a larger university. “We plan 22 Preview sessions each summer, and I tell people it’s like planning 22 weddings that occur within seven weeks,” Fabich said. “It takes coordination and many meetings to get everyone on the same page.”
Fabich is assisted in getting everyone on that page by the woman she calls “the heart of Preview,” Angie McKinney, the business office manager. They are helped by an assistant business office manager, a student reservation coordinator and one or two graduate assistants.
C&I Advisor Diane Meister talks at Preview
Students and parents attend a Preview session
Every area of campus is involved in some way with the Preview program. Fabich said that bringing everyone together to develop a comprehensive program to welcome new students and their families to Illinois State is one of her favorite parts of the job.
Fabich hires a mix of students for the 20 Preview guide positions. She said they all share the trait of caring about the new students and their families. Fabich noted that their diverse Preview guide staff includes quiet guides, involved guides, energetic guides and guides who have struggled through some classes. The diverse staff allows freshmen to see someone they can relate to in the guide group. “We encourage guides to tell the truth tactfully, and participants appreciate the realistic accounting of life at Illinois State,” Fabich said. “That honesty is really a positive public relations tool for Preview and Illinois State.”
In her 16 years with Preview, Fabich said she has seen many positive changes. “In 1991, students went to Julian Hall to register for classes, where they formed long lines to wait their turn; now they register throughout campus in computer labs in a matter of minutes,” she said. “We also used to group participants in a large room and bring in countless campus representatives to describe their offices and services. Now we have an information fair and a series of conference sessions that allow more time for course and department information, advisement and registration.”
Fabich said while Preview has benefited from evolving technology, getting people to turn off cell phones during sessions is one technology enhancement that has caused Preview staff some challenges. She and her staff have experienced many funny and unexpected situations, such as the ceiling collapsing in a building just 10 minutes before 300 people were due for a session, and the scrambling to find an alternate space and direct everyone to it. One weekend, the Preview Guides decided to go rollerblading, with so many of them sporting scrapes, cuts and bruises that participants said they didn’t realize how tough the Preview guide job really was.
“At the Preview welcome, we started a tradition where parents stand and welcome their student,” Fabich said. “We often get a hello or how are you shouted out. One father, not content with such an average welcome elected to bring his son to the podium and asked him to show off his new tattoo. The son took off his shirt and showed us the tattoo on his back. Then another father stood up and said his son’s tattoo was better and advised him to show everyone. Before the second shirt came off, I ran to the podium and asked everyone to keep their clothes on. Before I finished my request, the audience started yelling for me to show them my tattoo. That is the closest to Jerry Springer I have ever felt.”
The deadline for nominations for the Alumni Association Awards has been extended to Sept. 15.
The Alumni Association Awards program recognizes the professional and service accomplishments of alumni as they progress in their careers. Nominations may be submitted by members of the University community, alumni, colleagues or friends of the University.
For details on the award categories and the new online nomination form, please visit Awards. Award recipients will be honored on Founders Day, Feb. 15, the first event of Illinois State's sesquicentennial celebration.
Illinois State Athletics invites all alumni and friends to the Redbird Fan Fair on Saturday, Aug. 19, from 5-7 p.m. on the plaza between Horton Field House and Redbird Arena and then to pack the stands at the annual Red/White football scrimmage at 7 p.m.
Redbird Fan Fair is a chance to meet coaches and players and enjoy games, music and food. Participants are also invited to the annual Red/White volleyball scrimmage at 1 p.m. in Redbird Arena.