This 2007-08 University of Illinois annual report represents another
chapter in the rich history and traditions of excellence and access at the
University of Illinois and its campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago,
and Springfield.
The story of our University is a story of its people. Our campuses boast
talented faculty whose collective curiosity and passion for teaching represent
the intellectual capital that expresses itself in the classroom and in the
discovery of new knowledge. Our students are eager to learn. They reinvigorate
the campuses when they arrive each fall and they remind us of our central mission
of education. More than 17,000 students became alumni in 2007.
As always, this past year included numerous remarkable achievements. The
National Science Foundation chose the Urbana campus' National Center for
Supercomputing Applications at the home for a $208 million supercomputer
that will be 500 times faster than today's compute engines. One of the
beneficiaries of this vast computing power is the new Institute for
Genomic Biology, an interdisciplinary research center that already
conducts multidisciplinary, transformative life science research.
In Chicago, we continue to build upon our health-care excellence. Significant
grants will advance research in autism, identify ways to imporve the early
growth and development of premature infants, and study end-of-life transitions.
A new partnership with the City Colleges of Chicago is expected to increase
the number of minority nurses earning bachelor's degrees. The world's
most powerful MRI machine, housed in the Center for Magnetic Resonance
Research, will soon offer physicians a real-time view of the human brain.
UIS gained accolades and media attention for its online learning initiatives.
The campus earned a national award for excellence in institution-wide online
teaching and learning programming from the Sloan Consortium and was featured on
National Public Radio. The College of Business was accredited by the premier
accrediting agency for collegiate schools of business. And the doors opened
on the new Recreation and Athletic Center in time to start the new academic year.
The $2.25 billion Brilliant Futures capital campaign was announced last summer
and on New Year's Day we had an opportunity to reflect on an outstanding
turn-around football season.
Join me in celebrating some of the many U of I success stories featured in this
year's annual report. We couldn't have done it without you.
Sincerely,
B. Joseph White
