Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1994 [PAGE 214]

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[February 22

The purpose of the meeting was to interview candidates for the position of president of the University of Illinois. The notice indicated that the board would meet in closed session.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

Chair Lamont, referring to Section Two of the Open Meetings Act, stated: "A motion is now in order to hold an executive session to consider information regarding the appointment, employment, or dismissal of employees or officers, to discuss pending, probable, or imminent litigation, the acquisition of real property, to discuss campus security, and to receive legal advice from counsel.'' The following motion was made by Mrs. Gravenhorst: I move that this board go into executive session to consider a matter of personnel and that the board continue to meet in executive session until a matter of personnel is considered thoroughly. The board shall recess and reconvene as needed on the following dates: February 16, 19, 20, 21, and 22. All of these meetings will be at the Sutton Place Hotel, Chicago, Illinois. This motion was approved by the following vote: Aye, Mrs. Calder, Mr. Engelbrecht, Dr. Gindorf, Mrs. Gravenhorst, Mr. Lamont, Ms. Lopez, Mrs. O'Malley, Ms. Reese; no, none; absent, Dr. Bacon, Governor Edgar. (The student advisory vote was: Aye, Mr. Didato-Castillo, Mr. Rose; no, none.)

Remarks from the Chair of the Board

Mr. Lamont then spoke to the board members assembled about the purpose of the meetings scheduled for the next several days and indicated that the meetings with candidates for the position of president of the University of Illinois would be extremely important sessions in which the trustees would need to make a decision concerning future leadership of the University. He suggested that after the previous set of interviews with potential candidates, that some issues seemed to be of paramount importance to the University for the near future and it would be important for the new president to be comfortable and well prepared to address these issues, among many more. Suggestive of these major concerns were: implementing the urban land-grant mission of the Chicago campus in the face of constrained resources; adapting to the demands of managing a teaching and research hospital in the environment of managed care and cost containment; facing the threat of dwindling Federal funding in some traditionally important areas and seeking resources in different areas; meeting the demands of a changed higher education structure in Illinois; and working with a different kind of board.