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University of Illinois System News
Read the latest University of Illinois System news from the Office of External Relations and Communications.
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  • Cover of Empowering Extraordinary annual report with young woman arms raised in celebration

    2022 report highlights system initiatives in new, interactive format

    Oct 6, 2022 1:15 pm

    U of I System President Tim Killeen: I invite you to read just some of the many stories from all across the U of I System that show how we are laying the foundation upon which we can build a better future for all of Illinois.

  • Aijah Welch sits on porch steps wearing her gray Digital Scholars t-shirt

    Real Impact: Once-reluctant Chicago area teen raises her hand for tech

    Oct 4, 2022 9:30 am

    Digital Scholars helps high school and college students build confidence and skills while connecting them with Chicago’s dynamic tech community. The program represents one facet of the future-focused work happening at Discovery Partners Institute (DPI), part of the University of Illinois System.

  • Graphic and photo with U of I System President Tim Killeen with Mexican delegation and Mexico's flag in the background

    University of Illinois System opens office in Mexico City

    Sep 30, 2022 10:15 am

    The new system office in Mexico City will focus on student recruiting and alumni engagement, as well interactions with Mexican universities and the private sector.

  • Two Synchrony interns and two employees pose in front of an inspirational sign that says driven

    Real Impact: Synchrony culture empowers next-gen innovators

    Sep 28, 2022 10:30 am

    Synchrony is a University of Illinois System partner in fueling innovation. Leaders discussed growing that partnership at Synchrony Chicago during the U of I System’s 2022 state tour.

  • Graphic with Paul Ellinger photo and title, plus University of Illinois System logo

    System names Paul Ellinger vice president/CFO and comptroller

    Sep 26, 2022 2:30 pm

    Paul Ellinger served as vice president/chief financial officer and comptroller on an interim basis since July 2021. He succeeded Avijit Ghosh when he was named interim executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs.

  • Woman with laptop, her image reflected in the glass wall she leans on

    DPI, partners launch Chicago/Skills to develop diverse tech talent for Illinois companies

    Sep 23, 2022 2:45 pm

    Chicago/Skills will provide tuition-free technology training and paid apprenticeship opportunities to as many as 2,500 people over five years.

  • Concept image of new building complete with lots of windows

    Pritzker, stakeholders unveil design for Discovery Partners Institute

    Sep 23, 2022 1:30 pm

    Located on a one-acre site southwest of the Loop, the new DPI headquarters will provide more than 200,000 square feet of office, classroom, lab, and event space for DPI and its university and industry partners.

  • Chicago skyline with "MCS in Chicago: Built to accelerate your career"

    UIUC to launch Professional Master of Computer Science Degree with DPI in Chicago

    Sep 22, 2022 1:30 pm

    The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is launching a new Professional Master of Computer Science degree in Chicago with the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI), designed as a path for CS students to continue their education and accelerate their careers.

  • exterior of Specialty Care Building

    UI Health Specialty Care Building opening access to care, jobs

    Sep 22, 2022 1:15 pm

    The newest clinical building on the University of Illinois Chicago’s health sciences campus will open to patients Sept. 26. Leadership from UIC and its health system, UI Health, marked the occasion with a ribbon-cutting event outside the $194 million building Sept. 14. 

  • U of I seal on iron gate

    Trustees approve $7.65 billion budget for current year

    Sep 22, 2022 12:15 pm

    The University of Illinois System Board of Trustees on Thursday approved a $7.65 billion operating budget for the current academic year that prioritizes the commitment to student affordability and access.

    The new budget provides a second consecutive year of increased financial support for the three system universities and is 6.5 percent larger than last year’s $7.18 billion operating budget.

  • rendering of new DPI facility in downtown Chicago

    DPI receives $1.5M grant for clean transportation research partnership

    Sep 15, 2022 12:45 pm

    A multi-institutional and multidisciplinary team led by the Discovery Partners Institute has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation PIRE program to reduce pollution in South Asian cities and accelerate a transition to clean transportation.

  • Chicago skyline

    DPI shares in $7.5M award from NSF to improve science gateways

    Sep 13, 2022 10:45 am

    The Discovery Partners Institute is among the recipients of a $7.5 million CyberInfrastructure Center of Excellence Award from the National Science Foundation. The funding will support a five-year project to improve science gateways. 

  • Three panels with a new graduate in cap and gown from each University of Illinois university in each

    U.S. News & World Report ranks U of I System universities high

    Sep 12, 2022 3:00 pm

    All three University of Illinois System universities again ranked high among public institutions and universities nationwide in the 2022-23 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings.

  • 94,800 students strong

    Sustained growth sees U of I System reach record 94,800 students

    Sep 7, 2022 11:00 am

    Enrollment across the University of Illinois System reached a record high this fall of more than 94,800 students, driven by managed growth after five years of robust expansion, President Tim Killeen announced today.

  • woman with doll in baby carrier talking to another woman

    U of I System launches Diverse Supplier Development Program

    Sep 2, 2022 11:00 am

    The University of Illinois System on Friday launched its new Diverse Supplier Development Program, welcoming the inaugural cohort of 25 firms from across the state. The program was created to help business owners from diverse backgrounds grow their companies and increase options for serving as public-sector vendors.

  • three campuses

    Fall 2022 welcome

    Aug 25, 2022 1:30 pm

    President Killeen welcomes students to campus for the Fall 2022 semester.

  • five men pose with awards in front of IIN banner

    Illinois Innovation Network honors innovators from across state

    Aug 17, 2022 3:00 pm

    The Illinois Innovation Network (IIN) announced recipients of its second-annual innovation awards Wednesday at the Illinois State Fair’s Tech Prairie STEAM Expo, recognizing individuals from the IIN’s 15 hubs who have made key advances in research, technology commercialization and education.

  • Chicago skyline

    Chicago awarded $18.5M in federal funds to create new jobs in the region

    Aug 17, 2022 2:15 pm

    The Discovery Partners Institute and P33 will spearhead tech-specific workforce development programs in support of an $18.5 million federal Good Jobs Challenge award announced earlier this month.

  • U of I System Leadership Tour 2022 graphic

    Killeen, chancellors plan statewide tour to focus on partnerships

    Aug 11, 2022 3:30 pm

    President Tim Killeen, chancellors from University of Illinois System universities and other system leaders on Tuesday will begin a statewide tour to explore new ways the system can work with partners around the state to meet key challenges and opportunities facing the citizens of Illinois, and to highlight areas where cooperative efforts are already paying off.

     

  • We Hear You CEO and COO

    Real Impact: Start-up shows what happens with the right support

    Aug 11, 2022 2:00 pm

    Through collaboration-centered innovation, start-up and spin-off companies related to the University of Illinois System generated $838 million in added income for the state economy in fiscal year 2021.

  • Lura Buckley, University of Chicago and One Million Degrees graduate

    Real Impact: Giving back tops driven alum’s list of successes

    Aug 11, 2022 1:00 am

    University of Illinois System alumni contribute to the economy and to society by working as well as volunteering, mentoring and supporting others. Their public university education instilled in them the desire to give back.

  • Eli and Linsday Cook and their dog Colby Jack at their Springfield home

    Real Impact: UIS alum stays to help fuel employment pipeline

    Aug 10, 2022 3:45 pm

    Coming full circle, 2017 University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) graduate and Northwestern Mutual financial advisor Eli Cook now recruits and trains the next generation of interns.

  • Sylvia Puente headshot

    Governor appoints Puente to U of I Board of Trustees

    Aug 9, 2022 3:30 pm

    Longtime public policy leader Sylvia Puente has been appointed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

  • Stich Me Apparel owner Brenda Nelson portrait

    Real Impact: New program boosts business for diverse companies

    Aug 9, 2022 12:45 pm

    Beginning in September, Stitch Me Apparel owner Brenda Nelson will be part of the first cohort of the Diverse Supplier Development Program.

  • COVID-19 update and colorized seal of the university

    Fall 2022 COVID guidelines

    Jul 26, 2022 10:15 am

    President Tim Killeen sent a massmail today to students, faculty and staff across the University of Illinois System about Fall 2022 COVID guidelines.

  • building in downtown Springfield

    Trustees approve purchase of new UIS Innovation Center home

    Jul 21, 2022 11:00 am

    The University of Illinois Board of Trustees on Thursday approved the purchase of a property in downtown Springfield that will become the new University of Illinois Springfield Innovation Center.

  • Man at work on a laptop with headphones on

    U of I System ends debt-related transcript holds

    Jul 7, 2022 11:45 am

    University of Illinois System universities have ended the practice of restricting access to transcripts for students with past-due balances.

    The old policy was a barrier for students as they sought transcripts to get jobs, transfer to other educational institutions or pursue advanced degrees. Withholding transcripts, he said, also disproportionately affected students from lower-income backgrounds.

  • Discovery Partners Institute building

    Discovery Partners Institute, UIC CHANCE expand Digital Scholars

    Jul 5, 2022 11:00 am

    The Discovery Partners Institute and University of Illinois Chicago (UIC’s) CHANCE program, in partnership with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, today announced the expansion of its Digital Scholars Program to support and develop promising and diverse tech talent in Illinois.

    Digital Scholars, now in its third year, is an intensive, free, five-week summer program for high school students and incoming UIC freshmen.

  • New U of I Trustee Joseph Gutman

    Governor appoints Gutman to U of I Board of Trustees

    Jun 27, 2022 12:15 pm

    Retired financial executive Joseph D. Gutman has been appointed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Gutman will fill the seat being vacated by Ricardo Estrada and, pending confirmation by the Illinois Senate, serve a term that runs through 2025.

  • IIN logo

    IIN awards seed grants to 8 new projects

    Jun 16, 2022 12:00 pm

    The Illinois Innovation Network (IIN) on Thursday awarded nearly $240,000 in seed grants to eight research teams focused on projects that include using renewable technologies to design equitable STEM education programs, making construction materials from wastes and industrial byproducts, developing a game-like energy career exploration platform, and creating high-performance computing simulation tools for additive manufacturing.

  • aerial rendering of future DPI campus

    DPI’s IWERC awarded funding to expand research on Illinois education issues

    Jun 16, 2022 11:15 am

    The Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative (IWERC) at the Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) has been awarded a total of $275,000 in funding from three organizations — CME Group Foundation, Joyce Foundation, and Crown Family Philanthropies —  that will expand IWERC’s research on Illinois education issues.

  • child kneeling on gym floor spitting into tube

    IDPH to offer free covidSHIELD tests for public schools for 2022-23 school year

    Jun 14, 2022 2:30 pm

    The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today announced a renewed agreement with SHIELD Illinois that offers every public school outside of Chicago the opportunity to use the University of Illinois System’s innovative, saliva-based COVID-19 testing platform at no cost for the 2022-23 school year. 

  • masked women in lab processing test

    SHIELD program a model for effective pandemic management, data show

    Jun 9, 2022 8:15 am

    A new paper in the journal Nature Communications details the innovations in modeling, saliva testing and results reporting of the SHIELD program that helped mitigate the spread of the virus at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the surrounding community.

    SHIELD has been deployed in schools and communities across the state through the U of I System's SHIELD Illinois unit, and around the world through the university-related organization Shield T3.

  • students walking on three campuses

    U of I System universities formalize partnerships with Hope Chicago

    Jun 7, 2022 10:15 am

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois Chicago, and University of Illinois Springfield are among the 23 institutions that have formalized partnerships with Hope Chicago, the innovative two-generation scholarship program providing college and vocational scholarships to Chicago Public School students and their parents.

  • aerial rendering of future DPI campus

    DPI aims to diversify Chicago's tech sector

    Jun 7, 2022 10:00 am

    The U of I System-led Discovery Partners Institute's Pritzker Tech Talent Labs are a resource to help increase the diverse supply of tech talent for Chicago-area businesses. DPI Director Bill Jackson writes about why it is so important in an OpEd in Crain's Chicago Business.

  • The U of I System generates $19 billion a year for the state's economy

    U of I System impact: $19 billion annually on Illinois economy

    May 19, 2022 12:15 pm

    The University of Illinois System generates $19 billion a year for the state’s economy and supports more than 164,000 jobs, one of every 46 jobs in the state, according to the preliminary findings of a new study revealed Thursday by U of I System President Tim Killeen.

  • U of I seal

    U of I trustees appoint new chancellor at UIS

    May 19, 2022 11:00 am

    The University of Illinois Board of Trustees on Thursday appointed Janet. L. Gooch as the next chancellor of the University of Illinois Springfield. Trustees also appointed University of Illinois Chicago Provost Javier Reyes as interim chancellor while a search is conducted to replace Chancellor Michael Amiridis.

  • Chicago skyline

    SHIELD Illinois opens two free COVID testing sites in Chicago

    May 17, 2022 3:00 pm

    SHIELD Illinois is opening two additional free community testing sites in Chicago this month, bringing its total number of locations statewide to 45. The sites will be located at Northeastern Illinois University’s locations in the Bronzeville and El Centro neighborhoods. These newly opened community sites increase access to COVID testing in underserved communities. 

  • Provost Javier Reyes poses on campus

    UIC Provost Javier Reyes will serve as interim chancellor

    Apr 29, 2022 11:00 am

    University of Illinois Chicago Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Javier Reyes will serve as interim chancellor of the university upon the departure of Chancellor Michael Amiridis, University of Illinois System President Tim Killeen said today.

  • silver seal of the university

    U of I System President Tim Killeen tests positive for COVID-19

    Apr 26, 2022 10:15 am

    University of Illinois System President Tim Killeen tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 on Saturday and, following guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is isolating at home in the President’s House at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

  • posed group photo at the Research Park

    NSF visits Urbana to announce two awards totaling more than $40 million

    Apr 25, 2022 12:00 pm

    The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign highlights a recent visit from the director of the National Science Foundation, and shares how federally funded research at our nation’s universities creates new companies, industries, opportunities, and jobs—and the tech-savvy, educated workforce needed to fill them. 

  • Illinois Capitol building

    State budget provides increase in U of I System appropriation

    Apr 12, 2022 4:15 pm

    The new state budget passed by the Illinois General Assembly and expected to be signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker will provide $655.2 million in general operating funds to the University of Illinois System for the coming fiscal year, as well as a $122 million increase for the Monetary Award Program (MAP), the state’s primary student financial aid program.

  • radio facilities at U of I circa 1925

    WILL celebrates 100 years in broadcasting

    Apr 8, 2022 12:15 pm

    One hundred years ago, on the evening of Thursday, April 6, 1922, the University of Illinois’ radio station went on the air for its first broadcast. WRM, the service that would become WILL Radio, was cutting-edge technology in 1922. 

  • Female speaking at podium in front of law class

    UIS partners with UIC Law to help students earn degree faster

    Apr 6, 2022 12:00 pm

    University of Illinois Springfield undergraduate students now have the opportunity to earn both their bachelor’s degree and a law degree in six years (compared to the typical seven years) thanks to a new agreement with the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law.

  • UIC ARC building

    UIC chancellor search committee

    Apr 4, 2022 4:00 pm

    Dean Karen Colley has agreed to chair the committee that will advise Interim Executive Vice President Avijit Ghosh and President Tim Killeen in the search for the next chancellor of the University of Illinois Chicago.

  • Janet L. Gooch

    Janet L. Gooch named chancellor of University of Illinois Springfield

    Mar 22, 2022 11:00 am

    Janet L. Gooch, the executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at Truman State University, an accomplished higher education leader and educator, has been named chancellor of the University of Illinois Springfield and vice president for the University of Illinois System, pending formal approval by the Board of Trustees at its May 19 meeting.

  • U of I seal

    Trustees introduced to Access 2030 initiative

    Mar 17, 2022 11:30 am

    Plans for the University of Illinois System’s new Access 2030 initiative to increase the number of graduates from ethnic and racial minorities were introduced to the Board of Trustees at its regular meeting on Thursday.

  • U of I seal on iron gate

    Support for our students, faculty and staff

    Mar 3, 2022 10:45 am

    University of Illinois System leadership issued a massmail to students, faculty and staff today regarding the invasion of Ukraine.

  • Close up of test tubes in lab

    Inside the massive SHIELD Illinois testing operation

    Mar 2, 2022 10:15 am

    WTTW visited a school SHIELD Illinois testing site and one of the SHIELD Illinois labs recently to take a look inside the University of Illinois System's massive COVID-19 testing operation.

  • Chicago skyline with UIC campus in foreground

    UIC named top school in the Midwest for diversity, No. 6 in U.S.

    Feb 24, 2022 12:30 pm

    The University of Illinois at Chicago ranks highest in the Midwest for the diversity of its students and faculty in the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings.