Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1994 [PAGE 342]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

330

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[July 13

O'Malley and thanked the students who elected him as their representative.

OLD BUSINESS

There was no business presented under this aegis.

CERTIFICATE OF APPRECIATION, STANLEY O. IKENBERRY

Chair Lamont invited Trustee Gravenhorst forward and asked President Ikenberry if he would stand. Mrs. Gravenhorst then read the following expression of appreciation and tribute.

To Stanley 0. Ikenberry: For the past sixteen years, Stanley O. Ikenberry has led the University of Illinois in facing challenges to higher education from many directions. State budgets were tightened by increasing demands from other sectors and revenues could not keep up with all of them. Federal funding, on which research institutions depended so heavily, diminished drastically as well. And higher education, like many other traditionally revered institutions, faced a crisis in public confidence on a national level. With energy and enthusiastic, imaginative leadership, he has met those challenges and prepared the University to face the twenty-first century in the front rank of American universities. Pursuing a commitment to excellence, President Ikenberry has fought to maintain and expand the University's facilities to meet new educational demands for future students. He has spearheaded initiatives to provide access to those facilities to underrepresented citizens of Illinois. The consolidation of the two campuses in Chicago under his direction has enabled the University to finally fulfill the promise of a major public University there. The united campus has joined the ranks of nationally renowned research universities and given the city and people of Chicago an invaluable resource. His status in the State of Illinois, not only as the leader of public higher education, but as a respected advisor to government officials has reflected favorably on the University and added immeasurably to the store of confidence placed by the public and government officials in the University. That confidence has allowed the University to compete with some success for scarce State funds with other important agencies. At the national level, President Ikenberry has served in leadership positions in all of the major higher education organizations and is recognized as a spokesman for the American higher education community. On the campuses of the University, his dedication to excellence and his commitment to faculty participation in governance have united the academic staff. The openness of his presidency has given students and staff members alike a sense of community. The history of the University of Illinois is marked by the stability and dedication to excellence of its Presidents. Stanley O. Ikenberry, by his sixteen years of distinguished service has placed himself high in the ranks of that company of eminent educators. For his warm, effective and positive leadership of the University and for his constant inspiration and support of the Trustees in their stewardship, the Trustees hereby convey their grateful appreciation and that of all of the people of Illinois to Stanley O. Ikenberry.

Mrs. Gravenhorst then invited Mrs. Ikenberry to join her and the president for recognition from all of the trustees. At that time, Mrs. O'Malley rose to make the following remarks: "I have served as a