FEATURE STORY — September/October 2006

Growing Globaly ...

By Mary Timmins

Ambitious goals propel UI plans far from home

Research meccas of the future
In time, UI researchers may land at the Biopolis and the Fusionopolis, city-within-a-city research meccas for Singa-pore's burgeoning research agenda. A 500-acre campus devoted to research in genomics, nanotechnology and other bio-tech areas, the Biopolis houses labs and companies, clustered around costly shared resources such as X-ray crystallography machines and MRI scanners. Still under construction, the Fusionopolis is a physical science research facility, built on the same "test-bedding" model as the Biopolis, which will bring together the arts, business and technology in a "live, work, play, learn" environment.

The Biopolis is attracting top scientists and companies that want to be in on the research, such as pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. Opportunities are immense. According to Park, who has visited the Biopolis, it's "a fascinating place with cutting-edge technology that brings together a lot of different scientists. A lot of fascinating collaborations could be there for our University."

Yet Asian models of economic growth through research don't always snuggle up comfortably with Western ideals of advancing knowledge for its own sake — and this can be catastrophic when long distances, high expectations and lots of money are involved. In June, the government of Singapore pulled its funding for the research arm of Johns Hopkins Singapore Medical Centre. Located in the Biopolis, the biomedical sciences facility will close next year. "Some models are not successful, and we will learn from those," said Zukoski. Yet, he added, "if there aren't some failures, we're not trying hard enough."

Low-tech and no-tech
With technology driving the futures of Singapore and the

U of I, what about the low-tech and the no-tech? What becomes of the arts, the social sciences and the humanities? For Zukoski, answers include content and collaboration.

"Technology without uses has no reason to be," he observed. "What you and I want from electronics is entertainment. How do you get content? You turn to the people in Fine and Applied Arts." Art historian Jonathan Fineberg views creativity as critical to technology and growth. Society must have art, he said, "because that's where we can deal with things so new that we can't talk about them." Fineberg has established an unusual joint program between the University and the Phillips Collection, a museum in Washington, D.C., offering work and study opportunities to Illinois art students. The relationship heralds a major new foray into the nation's capital, where the University already has a wide and deep network of ties to government offices and funding agencies.

Growing a Washington presence
For UI students hungry for first-hand experiences in politics, government and service, the city on the Potomac has long been a destination. As for UI professors, "the number of faculty who go to D.C. to discuss their research every week is staggering," said Zukoski. Having a University of Illinois liaison for ready sit-downs with government officials and agency decision-makers is imperative, according to the vice chancellor, who expects that appointment to be made within the academic year.

"We want to be at the table," Zukoski said. "If we're in on building the agenda, we're more likely to get the grant." The University of Michigan recently launched a program in Washington, though it's well behind the University of California system and Boston University, both of which have centers there.

In fact, a cadre of about a dozen UI undergraduates now lives in BU's Washington dorm. As interns in a new program offered through the political science department, the students work for members of the Illinois Congressional delegation and at agencies like the State and Justice departments and the CIA. Political science professor Peter Nardulli hopes to rapidly build the internship cohorts and even envisions a UI building there, with dorm space as well as office and classroom facilities. Add in engineering students (many of whom also intern in Washington) and those at the Phillips, and such a building could be a self-sustaining proposition. Nardulli noted that a University center in Washington could also be "a base for re-engaging with alumni."

For Herman, the nation's capital is a place to "study abroad at home" where a cosmopolitan, complex environment allows students to experience new challenges and pleasures. Ultimately, the chancellor said he hopes that such experiences will become ‚ in words he credits to former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar '69 ‚ "a signature of undergraduate education at U of I."

Change with growth — and without
The ambitious, global vision of the University, however, is a costly one.

Beyond support negotiated through partnerships and collaborations ‚ a key component of expansion in Asia ‚ are the four traditional sources of funding: state money, tuition, research grants and gifts and endowments. Among these, the campus' strategic plan forecasts growth, particularly in tuition and private giving. More money, nonetheless, must be drawn, inevitably, from reallocation. "We have been taxing [academic] units for a long time," Zukoski said of a University-wide policy requiring units to return a portion of their annual budget to the administration. The new strategic plan calls for 3 percent annually for the next five years.

"We also have to learn how to change without growing," Zukoski observed. Faculty positions may be reallocated when they come open. Redirection of faculty research within departments and disciplines — meaning that more support for key research programs may come at the expense of other areas ‚ is an essential, albeit painful, part of this process. This does not, however, mean top-down directives from the administration — rather, the opposite.

"We follow the faculty," Zukoski said. "We listen and try to capture the tone of things that many, many faculty think are important to our institution and our state."

The land-grant mission revisited
Ultimately, leadership from the faculty, shaped by an administrative vision, fashions and sustains the University of Illinois as a model public research institution.

"We're good, and we believe our reputation will evolve," said Herman. "Our excellence will be recognized. It has brought us to be one of the greatest public research universities in the country. We have helped define the model of a great public research institution. And we will continue to do so."

And the payoff for the state of Illinois?

Two-word answer this time: translational research. In creating knowledge, the U of I creates prosperity by developing new products, new economies, new partnerships, new directions.

"We improve people's lives by providing jobs for them and their children and by increasing their wealth," Zukoski said. "I regard that as part of our land-grant mission."