Thank you to director of GPSI program

About a year ago, Tad Huskey of Springfield was busy working two part-time jobs and taking three classes to wrap up his master’s degree in accounting at the University of Illinois Springfield.

"Sure, I was stressed... but it was my last year of school. What an exciting time," he said.

But life doesn't go by the academic calendar. Tad's mother, Diane Huskey, was diagnosed with cancer - again. Tad, of course, wanted to be at home in Vandalia as much as possible, and considered dropping a class he did not need to graduate - but it was too late in the semester to avoid having his transcript say he didn't finish a class he started.

Tad sought the opinion of Kim Hayden, director of the Graduate Public Service Internship Program, who had provided good advice in the past.

Kim is just one of a number of area residents who received a big "thank you" from readers of The State Journal-Register who wrote to us about mentors, coaches, loved ones and others who helped make those they helped the people they are today.

Huskey's story was featured in a October 3, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Portrait of the artist in a recession

Another local artist who relies on found material in a different way is painter Ken Pease.

His art consists of bright, colorful cartoon characters created with recycled paint on found wood. He’ll buy paint that’s been returned to a home store, and he’s made friends with employees at cabinet shops. “You can call it recycling or you can call it cheap,” he quipped.

Pease has noticed a difference in the sales of his art since the recession began. Before moving here last year (his wife, Jenene Case Pease, joined the University of Illinois Springfield faculty), Pease worked full time as a graphic artist for a Florida company that made logo T-shirts of college sports teams.

“I moved here with thoughts of teaching art classes before all that was cut,” Pease said. Instead, he works part time as the manager of the Visual Arts Gallery at UIS.

“Who knows? If the economic times were better, something might have turned into a full-time position, and it would have made things a little easier,” Pease said.

Pease was featured in a October 1, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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UIS ignores attorney general's ruling on records

The University of Illinois Springfield is refusing to release records detailing conduct by athletic coaches that led to their forced resignations last year despite a ruling from the state attorney general’s office that the school has not overcome a presumption the documents are public records.

“UIS has failed to meet its burden of establishing that disclosure of the information … would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy of the student,” wrote Sara Gadola Gallagher, deputy public access counselor for Attorney General Lisa Madigan, in a Sept. 30 letter to Derek Schnapp, UIS spokesman.

In a letter Friday to The State Journal-Register, Schnapp said the requested records will not be released despite the ruling.

“Our belief is that the students’ personal privacy concerns clearly outweigh the public’s right to know,” Schnapp wrote.

The attorney general’s office ruled without seeing the records in question and without issuing a subpoena to compel the university to release the documents to the agency’s public access counselor, who has subpoena power in public-records cases. The university has told the attorney general’s office that it believes federal law bars release of the records.

The records request was featured in a October 2, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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