Tuesday, July 3, 2012

New UI President Easter says his first priority is budget issues

His colors have been orange and blue for almost four decades, but Bob Easter is adding several other color schemes to his wardrobe: red and blue for the University of Illinois at Chicago and blue and white for the UI at Springfield.

"I truly do look forward to the time before us," he said on Monday, his first official day as president of the University of Illinois.

The soft-spoken Easter, a native Texan who has spent nearly 40 years on the Urbana campus, will lead the UI and its three campuses for the next two years. He takes over presidential duties for Michael Hogan, whose nearly two-year, often rocky tenure culminated with his resignation at the end of March.

Easter, who joined the faculty as an animal sciences professor in Urbana after earning his doctorate here and was most recently the UI's interim chancellor, said one of his goals was to create a sense of stability.

Easter was featured in a July 3, 2012, article in the Champaign News-Gazette.

Read the article online