President

Ryan Kamphuis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

A unique IIT tradition that has formed
over the past few years has been that of the
once a semester President and Provost Foruml
Hosted by the Student Government Association
(SGA) and put on shortly after the midterm, the
Forum provides an opportunity for students and
faculty members to ask any questions they may
have about the university and its policies to the
two staff members in charge of shaping those
policies and assembling a staff to make those
policies happen

This semester’s Forum took place in
the Hermann Hall ballroom over the lunch
hour on November 1, The forum had fewer
individuals in attendance than past forums, but
the Ballroom still found itself full of people as
SGA Executive Vice President Raghav Girijala
brought the room to order and opened the
Forum Questions were posed both by people
in attendance at the Forum and through a web
form that was set up by SGA,

The first question of the forum was
posed via the online form, and asked how the
administration of the university could help
increase school spirit and athletic involvementl
President John Anderson began by responding
with a few possible ideas, bringing up the
fact that he personally purchased pizza for
the attendees of early basketball games as
an example of a potential idea, citing the
fact that attendance double when he did,
Provost Alan Cramb then took a chance to
respond, mentioning his belief that increasing
school spirit and athletic involvement was not
something that the administration could do,
saying that issues such as this one needed to be
driven by the student body He explained that
students should support other students who are
athletes just like they support other students
who are leaders in student organizations, and
that this was necessary to create a true campus
community at IIT

The next question, also from the online
form, asked if the university could begin
promoting itself as Illinois Tech as opposed to
IIT This questions was answered by the Provost,
who explained his personal preference for the
name Illinois Tech due to the fact that it puts the

 

Student newspaper of the Illinois Institute of Technology since 1928

Provost forum looks to future

University in company with welleknown schools
such as Caltech and Georgia Tech, He went on
to explain, however, that we promote ourselves
as Illinois Tech and IIT because while Illinois
Tech is a great university name for individuals
in technical fields, students in nonetechnical
fields, such as business or psychology, would
probably have greater success in the job market
referring to their university as IIT The Provost
concluded by saying that individuals should
choose for themselves how they would like to
refer to the university and which name they
would like to call it

The next question was the first question
from a member of the audience, asking what
the current status of the Innovation Center
was The Innovation Center is the proposed
new campus building that would become the
first new academic building on IIT’s campus
in over 40 years The President responded by
saying that there is still quite a bit of money
that needs to be raised before the Center can
be built The Innovation Center will need
$45 million to be built, and only $7 million
to $8 million of this had been raised This
amount has allowed planning to begin on the
building, though, The President explained that
five different architectural firms are currently
submitting proposals for both the design of
the building and the facilities the building will
provide, and that the university will announce
the final architectural firm chosen for the project
in January

This question was followed up by another
question from the audience, in which a student
mentioned a story that had been published
in TechNews earlier in the semester, In the
article, two students shared an anecdote about
how their Resident Advisor had told them not
to go south of 35th street; advice which they
chose to ignore in order to visit a restaurant
on 95th street The student asked if it was the
University’s ofiicial policy to tell students not
to go south of 35th street, explaining that the
South Side is just as much a part of the city as
any other part of the city, and not an area to
simply ignore, The Provost took the lead on
the question, explaining that this was not the
ofiicial opinion of the University, and that the
idea in and of itself is an old mentality, born 20
or 30 years ago and not relevant any more The
Provost advised students to stay smart and safe

no matter where they are traveling since IIT is
in a city He also brought up how many students
at IIT give back to the city of Chicago in all of
its communities, both north and south of 35th
street

The next question posed regarded many
of the changes happening at the University
currently, and whether or not the University had
a roadmap for its future as all these changes were
occurring, The President stressed that one of the
biggest goals of the University for the future is to
further improve its financial status, explaining
that, “if your finances aren’t in order, it’s hard
to do anything" The President also mentioned
that goals for the future included increasing
the total enrollment of undergraduate and
graduate students to 9,000, and building a new
recreation center for students, although he
caveated that the recreation center was a very
long term goal, The Provost further expanded
on what the President said by mentioning
that the University is working on becoming
internationally known for what it does, and that
it is investing in tech centers both on campus
and in the city of Chicago in order to open up
possibilities for students, The President closed
by saying that the main goal of the University for
the future was to take the advantages afforded
to the University since it is small, and mitigate
the disadvantages brought to the University by
being small,

A follow up question was then asked
by an attendee, who was wondering if newly
renovated buildings would be made compliant
with the Americans with Disabilities Act, The
President and Provost deferred to Bruce Watts,
IIT’s new head of Facilities and Public Safety to
answer the question, who explained that all new
and renovated buildings would be made ADA
compliant, and that the University had hired
one of the top firms in the city to do this Watts
also mentioned that capital funds were currently
being spent to repair the crumbling handicap
ramp into Hermann Hall in the upcoming
weeks,

The next question again dealt with the
upcoming renovations of campus buildings,
asking if there was a timeline in place for these
renovationsl President Anderson explained
that the first phase of the Engineering One
renovations had already begun, and that they
would be completed by August 31, 2014,

 

technewsiit.com

OPINION 2
CAMPUS 3-4
AErE 5
SLIPSTICK 6
SPORTS 1

at which point in time the building will be
renamed the John T Rettaliata Engineering
Center He also mentioned that the renovation
of the Life Sciences building was staggered a year
behind that of Engineering One, so it would be
complete by August 31, 2015,

One of the final questions was posed by
an architecture student in attendance, asking
how the administration could help with the
frustration felt by many students in the College
of Architecture regarding the many changes
brought about by the new Dean of the College,
Wiel Aretsl The Provost answered the question,
explaining that it was his belief that much of
the concern felt by students within the College
was due to lack of communication. The Provost
stressed that, contrary to the belief of some
architecture students, the Dean of the College
was being held to the same standards as other
Deans on campus, and that students should
talk to the Dean and the Associate Deans of
the College to learn all that is happening, which
would help solve the communication problems
that exist and alleviate student’s concerns,

The final question posed was in regards
to the IEEE Great Lakes Symposium, which
was held on campus in September The student
talked about how exciting it was to have so
many industry professionals on campus during
the symposium, and asked if it was possible for
things like this to happen again, Provost Cramb
responded to the question by explaining that
it isn’t IIT that organizes conferences such as
the Symposium, but the hosting organizations
themselves and the departments at IIT related
to the conference topic, ultimately saying that
there is little we can do to decide whether or
not a conference or symposium is to be hosted
on campus

With the end of the lunch hour
approaching, the Forum was then closed
President Anderson finished the event bytaking
an opportunity to talk about the upcoming
speakers that were a part of the Presidential
Lecture Series, The series is currently focusing
on the topic of Immigration, and the President
shared that professors from both Princeton
and the University of Washington were being
brought to campus to speak, with the first lecture
taking place on November 141

  

Photos by Kevin Zheng