Chancellor Susan Koch
Megan Waldschmidt is a senior social work major who transferred to UIS as a junior. During her whole first year, she says, she didn’t know who the chancellor was. At the time, an interim chancellor was serving the campus as the university interviewed candidates for the permanent slot, which eventually resulted in the hiring of Susan Koch.
“It just seems like the chancellor we have now is really trying to get out there and make herself available to students and staff,” Waldschmidt says. “I actually met her on a sidewalk going to class. She asked my name, shook my hand and asked me, ‘If there’s anything I can do, let me know.’” Koch says listening and learning have been priorities. “The most useful experience to me so far has just been getting out and about on campus and out and about in the community so I could listen to people,” she says.
Last week, in one of three open forums where faculty, students and staff were welcome to ask all manner of questions, Koch noted her administration’s plan to institute a chancellor’s blog, complete with a cartoon likeness.
She listed that effort, as well as the open forums and a promise to better communicate UIS’ budget planning process as evidence of her administration’s goals for transparency. “This is really about shared governance and making sure that members of the campus community are involved in a wide variety of decisions,” Koch said in response to a question from a forum audience member.
Though UIS is ranked first in Illinois and fourth in the Midwest among regional public universities by U.S. News and World Report, Koch says the university can be even better.
She’s now working with the UIS student body president, Erin Wilson, and student representative to the board of trustees, John Tienken, to bring a student union building to campus. “She’s been incredibly receptive to the idea,” Tienken says.
Two years ago students overwhelmingly rejected a referendum that would have increased student fees to pay for the structure, but Tienken says this time around things could turn out differently. “I think when somebody new comes in, there’s new insight, a new perspective and I think that provides something of a jump start for a reevaluation of a lot of different things,” he says.
“The reason people leave this campus is because of student life,” says Samuel Remington, a graduate student studying business. “It’s the biggest drawback next to having to pay for it.”
Koch is promoting a possible solution to the cost complaint as well – “Access Illinois,” a University of Illinois system-wide campaign for more scholarships. All three U of I campuses are working toward raising $100 million for the program, which Koch says would keep good students coming to UIS.
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