Illini Insider | 'Major' changes on trustees' agenda

Luke Taylor, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
·2 min read

May 14—Just after the end of the academic calendar, it may be no surprise that May's UI Board of Trustees meeting is looking to be pretty low-key.

The Chicago campus is up for approval on a few construction projects, but a good portion of the meeting will be dedicated to reviewing reports the success of diversity and fuel use reduction initiatives.

For those of us here in C-U, here's the quick list of items to look out for (each subject to the approval of the board, of course).

— The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is looking to rename the Biology Master's and PhD programs to the Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior programs.

The Biology program already serves students with the EEB concentration, so the idea is that updating the name will reflect what the program is actually doing.

Additionally, it would match other programs in the School of Integrative Biology: the Department of Plant Biology offers an MS in Plant Biology, the Department of Entomology offers and MS in Entomology and, with this change, the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior would offer an MS in Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior.

— The university at large is asking to eliminate the Master of Science in Special Education.

Students will still be able to study special ed at UI; they already do that over in the Master of Education in Special Education.

The last time the MS in SPED program saw enrollment was 2019, from two students who soon switched over to the Education in Special Education program.

— The Department of Computer Science has plans underway to become the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science thanks to a generous gift from an alumnus.

I've already written an entire article detailing those plans, .

— Ariana Mizan has the campus vote to be the student trustee for Urbana-Champaign for next school year.

Mizan is a Champaign native and graduated from the University of Illinois high school.

She is the food insecurity chair on the Student Success Undergraduate Advisory Board and representative on the Student Affairs Council.

Previously, she served on the Senate Committee for Student Life.