UIUC Updates

This post covers numerous recent news items and updates on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign related to policy and government. There's a separate Cheat Sheet post on recent news and updates on the University of Illinois Police Department and public safety here.

At the recent Board of Trustees meeting, a tuition freeze was approved. From Smile Politely:

The Board of Trustees announced last week they would be freezing tuition rates for incoming in-state freshmen and non-resident undergraduates for the 2021-22 academic year...

The board also approved small increases in room and board fees.

Full blurb here. Full news release from the Board of Trustees meeting here. President Tim Killeen reiterated the need for additional aid last week, noting that the pandemic may end up costing the University system half of a billion dollars altogether:

Killeen and other university presidents in Illinois sent a letter last week to federal legislators seeking more aid as a new COVID-19 relief package is being debated...

In the first relief bill passed in March, the UI got about $66 million, about half of which went to emergency financial aid for students.

In the second bill passed in December, the UI got about $95 million, with a third of that going to emergency financial aid, Killeen said.

Full article at the News-Gazette here. Presidents of other universities have also joined in calls asking for debt relief.

There were a couple updates on renewable energy on campus. The new solar farm on campus is up and running. From the News-Gazette last week:

The new 20,000-megawatt-hour solar farm at the northwest corner of First Street and Curtis Road went online last week...

In addition to the 7,000 megawatt hours generated by the first solar farm on Windsor Road, the new one will help the UI meet the 25,000-megawatt-hour goal set in its Climate Action Plan.

Solar Farm 2.0 features “bifacial” panels, which take in energy from both sides and rotate with the sun to maximize output.

Full article here. Tom's Mailbag also had some additional information on the embedded solar panels on the new Sidney Lu Mechanical Engineering Building on campus and answered other questions on the University's various renewable energy projects here.

There were some updates on future education opportunities to prisoners. From WCIA:

Federal financial aid to prisoners has been restored. The U.S. Department of Education now has until 2023 to reinstate Pell Grant access to people who are incarcerated.

The grants were previously banned in 1994. Pell grants are typically awarded to low-income undergraduate students.

“We would like to see a lot more universities and colleges across the state, both public and private involved in providing higher education in prison, and Pell Grants can make that much more feasible for those institutions,” UIUC Criminal Justice Rebecca Ginsburg said.

Full blurb here. Illinois Newsroom had more coverage on the issue nationwide here. The pandemic is still limiting UIUC's education outreach to incarcerated individuals. From the Education Justice Project main page: 

We have suspended programming at Danville Correctional Center, and all events and activities on campus and in the community. The suspensions are indefinite, but will almost certainly be in place throughout 2020. Please stay posted.

EJP students completed the Spring 2020 semester via correspondence. They received grades, course credit, and “good time” credit as normal. We plan to offer correspondence courses again in Spring 2021.

In a recent Cheat Sheet update on local libraries, we highlighted a couple events with UC Books to Prisoners as well.

WAND had coverage of a recent winter firefighting training event at the University's Illinois Fire Service Institute:

The 26th Annual Winter Fire Training Event brought in first responders from around the Midwest to better their skills. Most of the participants are Volunteer Firefighters from smaller counties...

First responders take in classroom courses throughout the event and then apply that knowledge into their hands-on training. Classes such as saving a family from a burning home or forcing their way inside a locked door. "They can utilize their skills and hone their skills in that environment the same environment that they'll respond to, in their community,” [Director, Tom Shubert] says...

Each year, IFSI trains over 60 thousand first responders. In 2020, the number dropped to 52 thousand because of COVID-19. But IFSI is hoping the numbers increase in 2021. 

Full article here.

There was also some new doppler weather equipment for . From WCIA:

Some students at the U of I will now have the opportunity for hands-on field training. The Department of Atmospheric Sciences is getting a multi-million dollar mobile radar.

The Doppler on Wheels will allow students to collect data on rain and wind systems. The doppler is basically a radar on a truck. This then allows students to research tornadoes, hurricanes, and winter weather.

The contract also comes with three other vehicles, which includes three weather balloon launch systems and several other features.

Full article from WCIA here. Additional coverage from the News-Gazette yesterday here.

The University's plan to handle Native American imagery released last December was discussed in the local Smile Politely editorial section:

Nevertheless, it’s important that the U of I has a blueprint, even a flawed one, to move toward that more inclusive future. Though some of the components of this report genuinely induce eye-rolls, there are plenty of promising proposed changes. You can find a link to the entire report here. There are many points of discussion in the document, but we’ve narrowed down three main ideas worth highlighting below.

More at the editorial here. Full University Native American imagery implementation plan here.