Springfield unlikely to be split again among members of Congress

Since the 2000 Census, the city of Springfield has been represented by three different members of the U.S. House, but that could change now that the first results of the 2010 Census are in.

Illinois has 19 House members, but the state will lose one representative in Congress starting with the 2012 election cycle because its population has not grown as fast as those of other states.

Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Illinois Springfield, believes it’s unlikely that Springfield will again be divided into three districts after redistricting is complete.

One of those districts is the oddly shaped 17th Congressional District, now represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, although Republican Bobby Schilling takes over in January.

The 17th District snakes around the western edge of the state from the Quad Cities area, picks up Galesburg, Macomb and Quincy and then cuts across Central Illinois to pick up parts of Decatur and Springfield.

“What happened a decade ago basically was an incumbent protection map,” Redfield said. “The only way to get enough Democrats into (former U.S. Rep.) Lane Evans’ district was to do this crazy map picking up the east side of Springfield and the more African American areas in Decatur. This time, you don’t have to protect an incumbent Democrat.”

Redfield's comments were featured in a December 22, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Census set to show Illinois losing one U.S. House seat

With the expectation that Illinois will lose one of its congressional seats, the state's politicians are poised to begin their once-a-decade finagling over drawing the state's political boundaries based on new census data.

On Tuesday, Census Bureau officials plan to release initial population estimates for the nation. A continuing population shift from the north to the south and west means Illinois is likely to lose one of its 19 seats in the House, and the clout that goes with it.

So-called redistricting is a tedious and politically charged process that protects strongholds, affects influence in Washington and makes or breaks political careers. The task over the next few months is analyzing population data while considering geography, race and political interests so legislators can re-divide the state's population into nearly equal pockets.

"Redistricting is the most political activity that occurs in a decade," said Chris Mooney, a political science professor at the University of Illinois in Springfield. "It's almost purely about who gets what and who wins what seat."

Mooney's comments were featured in a December 21, 2010, Associated Press article.

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Singing for a world record

It was a performance that literally was record-setting Saturday night at the Sangamon Auditorium.

Performing with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra for their annual "Holiday At The Pops" just days after her 100th birthday, Pauline "Polly" Roesch set a Guinness world record for the oldest person to make a singing debut with a symphony orchestra.

The paperwork to make Polly's record official in the Guinness Book of World Records has already been submitted. All that was needed to make it complete, was video proof that she performed with the orchestra.

One of her biggest followers? Her 103 year old sister, Esta.

The story was featured by WICS-TV 20 in a December 19, 2010, report.

Watch the story on News Channel 20's website

Balanced Prairie Stars blow out Eureka

Senior point guard Brandon Farmer scored a season-high 16 points and five University of Illinois Springfield players finished in double figures Saturday in the Prairie Stars’ 95-52 men’s basketball victory over the Eureka Red Devils at The Recreation and Athletic Center.

Farmer made 6-of-6 shots, going 4-for-4 from 3-point range. He also grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists.

UIS (4-5) raced to a 35-8 lead, holding Eureka scoreless for more than six minutes.

The Stars led by 35 points after freshman Brandon Snowden made a layup with 3:42 to play in the half. UIS shot 61.1 percent (22-for-36) from the field in the half, committed just three turnovers, and led 56-25 at halftime.

Michael Fakuade scored 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds for UIS. Jermaine Love-Roberts added 12 points, Kendall Burrage chipped in 11, and Steffen Spinks scored 10 for the Stars, who made 13 3s.

Eureka (0-10) finished with 29 turnovers.

UIS will play its conference opener when it hosts Indianapolis in a Great Lakes Valley Conference game on Jan. 2 at 3 p.m.

The win was featured in a December 19, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Beale ignites offense as UIS women defeat Eureka

Junior Bailey Beale scored a career-high 25 points and freshman Megan Bergerud had her first double-double as the University of Illinois Springfield women’s basketball team defeated the Eureka Red Devils 87-70 Saturday at The Recreation and Athletic Center.

Beale made 9-of-14 field goals and went 7-for-8 beyond the 3-point arc. Bergerud scored 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds. Paulina Pogorzelski added 12 points as the Stars made 10 3s and shot 49.3 percent (34-for-69) for the game.

UIS (4-4) never trailed, opening up a 21-3 lead in the first half to take a 43-22 advantage into halftime. Junior Cristina Nevins had a game-high 10 assists, and Mallory Beck scored eight points off the bench for UIS, as did Alyssa Palmer. Emilee Brown scored 19 points to pace Eureka (2-5).

The Stars will host Truman State on Dec. 29 at 5:30 p.m.

The win was featured in a December 19, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Prairie Stars offer free admission with donation

Fans who donate items from the Ronald McDonald House of Central Illinois’ wish list will receive free admission to the University of Illinois Springfield women’s basketball game Saturday.

UIS hosts the Eureka College Red Devils at 1 p.m. at The Recreation and Athletic Center on Ronald McDonald House Day.

A list of eligible items, which include canned foods and household supplies, is available at www.uisprairiestars.com.

The game was featured in a December 14, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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University professors preparing troops for Afghanistan

Dozens of National Guard officers headed to Afghanistan are training in Springfield, and they're not breaking a sweat. Instead they're hitting the books. It's part of a pilot program found only in Illinois.

Professors from the Springfield and Champaign-Urbana campuses of the University of Illinois are teaching troops everything about Afghanistan they don't learn in basic training. That includes how to address women there, how the school systems work, even an overview of how the country manages its waste and water system.

It's information that helps officers better understand locals, many of whom aid the military. Colonel Gary Schmitt started the program with the help of UIS. He says another plus: the National Guard will be able to get more use out of officers during the short time they're overseas.

"The usual soldier will get over there and at about three months will have their 'aha' moment," says Schmitt. "Well, wouldn't it be more affective if they understood that before they got there?"

Some of the 40 plus officers on the UIS campus today are leaving for Afghanistan as early as next month.

Colonel Schmitt says that while the classes are part of a pilot program, he predicts it will become a regular part of predeployment exercises.

The partnership was featured in a December 10, 2010, report by WCIA-TV Channel 3.

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OTC and University of Illinois finalize transfer agreement

Ozarks Technical Community College and the University of Illinois at Springfield have finalized a new transfer agreement between OTC Online and UIS, an OTC news release said.

This is the second online transfer agreement. The community college has recently inked a similar agreement with University of Maryland University College.

The signing ceremony between OTC and UIS was held this morning at OTC’s Springfield campus.

The agreement is designed to provide a seamless transfer for qualified Ozarks Technical Community College students into online programs at UIS.

“Increasingly, universities from all over America are recognizing the importance of strong articulation agreements with community colleges,” OTC President Hal Higdon said. “Partnerships like this are beneficial not only for both institutions, but also for the students, who now have the opportunity to transition smoothly from OTC to UIS.”

OTC online enrollment is up more than 15 percent this fall, with 2,327 students taking the majority of their classes online.

A total of 4,104 students are taking at least one online class.

The agreement was featured in a December 10, 2010, article in the Springfield, Mo. News-Leader.

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OTC to announce another transfer agreement

(Springfield, MO) -- Ozarks Technical Community College is teaming up with another school to help students further their education.

OTC will sign an agreement with the University of Illinois-Springfield on Friday, Dec. 10.

The agreement will give qualified students a seamless transfer into UIS.

The school's are scheduled to sign off on the deal at OTC Friday morning at 9 a.m.

The agreement was featured by OzarksFirst.com (KSFX-TV Springfield, MO) in a December 10, 2010, report.

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Tamara Browning: UIS wraps up annual benefit and auction

Selling to the highest bidder during the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD VISUAL ARTS GALLERY 2010 BENEFIT & SILENT AUCTION are several pieces of artwork ranging from photography to ceramics.

The 2010 Benefit & Silent Auction will conclude with a closing reception and final bidding to take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. today.

Sponsored by the Friends of the UIS Visual Arts Gallery, the annual auction offers donated art objects available to the highest bidder who submits a bid, name and contact phone or e-mail. Proceeds will benefit future gallery programming.

Among the pieces displayed through today in the Visual Arts Gallery at the Health and Sciences Building at UIS is the sculpture “Crayon Bullets in Large Plastic Case” by JOEL WALTER. The minimum bid is $10 for the sculpture, which looks so realistic that you could mistake it for boxes of crayons to be used to write down bids on accompanying bid sheets.

Other art includes work by FELICIA OLIN, LORENA JOHNSON, JIM MURRAY, CHRIS BRITT, UIS and LINCOLN LAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE art faculty, members of the PRAIRIE ART ALLIANCE and more.

The auction was featured in a December 9, 2010, article by Tamara Browning in The State Journal-Register.

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Beyond civil unions: What's next?

In nearly every way except for the title “marriage,” same-sex couples joined by a civil union will have state-level rights and benefits identical to those of a married couple. Those rights include state tax benefits, the ability to make medical decisions for a spouse in an emergency and the option of not testifying in criminal court about a spouse.

Typically, states offer about 300 benefits or special rights to married couples, says Jason Pierceson, a professor of political science and legal studies at the University of Illinois Springfield and co-author of "Same-sex Marriage in the Americas: Policy innovation for same-sex relationships". According to Equality Illinois, Illinois offers nearly 650 benefits and protections to married and now civil union couples.

While Equality Illinois will continue pushing for Illinois to call civil unions by the same name, the next real battles lie at the federal level, says Rick Garcia, political director for Equality Illinois.

Pierceson agrees, adding that married couples receive about 1,000 federal benefits. He says Illinois is the last progressive state, besides New York, to approve a same-sex couple recognition law, meaning the states are now firmly either anti- or pro-gay unions and unlikely to budge on the issue in the near future. According to the Human Rights Campaign, Illinois is the sixth state in the nation to offer civil unions while five states and Washington, D.C., allow gays and lesbians to marry.

Pierceson's comments were featured in a December 9, 2010, article in the Illinois Times.

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Ivory Tea

On the campuses where students have started up Tea Party groups, some have found support from faculty members — if not for their ideas, then for the fact that they are interested in talking about them.

“To the extent that a Republican Party and Democratic Party can have clubs on a campus, I can see no reason not to have a Tea Party on campus,” says William Kline, an assistant professor of liberal and integrative studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Kline, who is currently advising TeaPartyStudents.org founder Daniel Oliver on a master’s degree in liberal and integrative studies with a focus on liberty studies, says Tea Party principles are not necessarily at odds with strains of political and economic thought that are taught widely in academe -- particularly the writings of Friedman, John Stuart Mill, and Adam Smith.

“It is a big-tent movement,” he says. “If there are young students who find they are interested in the ideas of what they think limited government should be, well, sure, there’s all kinds of stuff to read about that in the ivory tower.”

The important thing for ivory-tower Tea Partiers to remember, Kline says, is that Glenn Beck -- the conservative talk show host who has styled himself as the movement’s celebrity-in-chief -- didn’t invent the idea of small government. Tea Party students who profess a belief in ideas such as “liberty” and “small government” should be willing to educate themselves on the origins of those ideas and humble themselves upon the writings of their critics, Kline says.

Kline was featured in a December 8, 2010, article by Inside Higher Ed.

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'Workaholic' turns efforts to reducing plastic bag use

A group of UIS students has taken up The Better Bag effort as a class project. The university students and sixth-graders at the Capital College Preparatory Academy also have combined on design and poster projects.

“Some of our members have actually gone around campus collecting plastic bags,” said Haesun Chang, a sophomore in biology at UIS.

The students planned a bake sale at the Walmart on South Sixth Street this weekend to raise money for reusable shopping bags.

Chang said the students were given a choice of projects.

“We read the descriptions ,and The Better Bag project seemed to fit,” said Chang, who added that the group is looking at ways to reduce bag-clutter downtown.

The project was featured in a December 6, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Prairie Stars face difficult test on road

University of Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars men’s basketball coach Ben Wierzba needed just a few words to describe tonight’s opponent, the University of Findlay (Ohio) Oilers.

“They’re really good,” he said.

The Stars face Findlay, which is tied for No. 2 in the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division II poll, at 6:30 CST on the Oilers’ home court. It is the first meeting ever between UIS (3-4) and Findlay (6-0).

Findlay has a 94-game home winning streak in regular season games at Croy Gymnasium. The Oilers last lost a regular-season contest at home on Feb. 12, 2004.
Findlay’s home record is 127-2 in the last eight years.

The University of Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars women’s basketball team plays a road game today at 6 p.m. CST against the Oakland City (Ind.) Lady Oaks.
UIS (3-3) and Oakland City (3-3) split a pair of games last season.

Senior Paulina Pogorzelski leads the Stars in scoring and rebounding with 13.8 points per game and 8 rebounds per game.

The games were previewed in a December 7, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Inman to continue softball career with UI Springfield

Sam Inman, a 2009 graduate of Okaw Valley, has signed a National Letter of Intent to continue her softball career at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Currently, Inman is a sophomore at Parkland College where she earned plenty of honors, including being named to the NJCAA Division II All-Region 24 softball team and a second team all-Mid-West Conference player as well as receiving All-American honors.

"I visited Quincy University and talked with the coach at St. Ambrose (Davenport, Iowa), but they really didn't interest me that much," said Inman, a three-sport athlete at Okaw Valley. "I really like UIS. It is closer to home and it is a nice campus. I just really liked it. The coach (Mat Mundell) came to a couple of games last spring and really seemed interested. I felt like he really wanted me to come play for him."

UIS, a school with an enrollment of 4,711, is in its second year of competing at the Division II level after making the move from NAIA. The Prairie Stars are in their second year of competing in the 15-team Great Lakes Valley Conference.

"Sam is the lone junior college player in the 2012 class," said Mundell, a graduate of Normal. "She is a difference maker for us. She is coming off a freshman year where she was named an All-American. She is the rare combination of speed and power in the middle of the lineup and a go-get'em center fielder with a ton of range."

Inman was featured in a December 7, 2010, article in the Mattoon Journal-Gazette & Charleston Times-Courier.

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More college students taking degree programs online

Danny Ashcom reports for class in the living room of his Uptown one-bedroom apartment.

The 32-year-old counselor is earning an online master's degree in computer science through the University of Illinois at Springfield. He started the program in August, the same month he graduated with a traditional bricks-and-mortar master's degree in psychology from a different school.

"Doing psychology I wouldn't have thought about an online degree because you need to be face-to-face with people," he said. "In computer science, there is no real price to pay for doing it on your own. You can do it quickly and efficiently."

Ray Schroeder has taught at the U. of I.'s Urbana-Champaign campus and then its Springfield campus every semester since 1971. He now leads online programs at the Springfield campus, which offer more online courses than the other two U. of I. campuses combined.

"What drives many of us in this field is serving the student who cannot come to campus," he said.

Students include those with disabilities, military students or others working full time and parents who can't make it to class at a specific time and place. Almost all of them are paying for their own education.

Schroeder said more than half of the school's students are enrolled in at least one online class during the fall semester. For students seeking degrees totally online, the average age of an undergraduate is 34, the average master's is 35, he said.

Online programs at UIS were featured in a December 6, 2010, article in the Chicago Sun-Times.

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"Day of Dialogue" at UIS

With student suicides and bullying heavily in the spotlight, area college students at the University of Illinois Springfield are confronting the issues head-on.

A daylong event that centers around being different and what it means to have your own identity in today's world. It's called a "Day of Dialogue".

"We start to really talk about personal issues, social issues and to continue discussion and dialogue, which is really the only way we're going to be able to effect any positive change," said Holly Thompson, assistant professor of Human Development Counseling.

The University of Illinois Springfield is taking a proactive stance against student bullying, hate crimes, and suicide.

"On our campus we have a number of students who have experienced, not necessarily here, different forms of bullying," said Thompson.

The "Day of Dialogue" was featured by WICS-TV 20 in a December 3, 2010, report.

Watch the story on News Channel 20's website

Professor's Beatles podcast reaches second on iTunesU

Students at the University of Illinois Springfield are learning about The Beatles timeless tunes and impact on society in a unique way.

Professor Michael Cheney has created podcasts, which are now the second most downloaded on iTunes U.

According to Entrepreneur.com a podcast is, " A pre-recorded audio program that's posted to a website and is made available for download so people can listen to them on personal computers or mobile devices."

Cheney is a communications professor at the Univerisity of Illinois Springfield and teaches online the online Liberal Studies class classes "The Beatles: Popular Music and Society".

The UIS professor has taught the class since 1999, but the started using the Podcast in 2005.

Cheney was featured in a December 2, 2010, report by WCIA-TV Channel 3.

Download a PDF of the text article

Watch the story on WCIA's website

UIS Beatles Podcast

iTunes is not longer just for music. College students can now get an education through iTunes U.

The site offers more than 350,000 lectures from professors at universities around the world. Out of all of those, the second most popular podcast on all of iTunes U is from a professor at UIS.

So what's he talking about that's got people so interested? Well it's not math or science. Professor Michael Cheney's series of lectures is all about one of the most popular musical groups of all time, The Beatles. To listen to the podcast yourself go to http://itunes.uis.edu.

Cheney was featured in a December 2, 2010, report by WICS-TV 20.

Watch the story on News Channel 20's website

Prairie Stars hit road for GLVC games

With their minds and bodies rejuvenated, the players on the University of Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars men’s basketball team are prepared to tip off Great Lakes Valley Conference play.

The UIS players are coming off an 11-day break from games. The stretch included three days completely off for Thanksgiving.

The Stars (3-2) resume play in their GLVC opener tonight at Drury (4-1) in Springfield, Mo.

UIS has played just once on the road this season in a regular-season game, a 76-68 loss to Lincoln University on Nov. 20.

“We played fives games in nine days, so the past two weeks we’ve had some time to work and get better,” UIS coach Ben Wierzba said. “That’s what we need needed. They had several days to get rested up, rejuvenated, healthy and better. We’ve had a good week and a half of practice.

“I’m excited to get out there and see what progress we’ve made in the last two weeks.”

The team was featured in a December 2, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Exonerated former death row inmate speaks at UIS

The first man exonerated from death row because of DNA evidence spoke Monday about the importance of groups like the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project to save wrongfully convicted people from punishment for crimes they didn’t commit.

Kirk Bloodsworth spoke at University of Illinois Springfield’s Brookens Auditorium during a ceremony commemorating the Innocence Project’s receipt of a $687,000 federal grant named after Bloodsworth. The grant will help the Innocence Project aid people like Bloodsworth, who was convicted of killing and sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in 1984.

The girl was beaten with a rock, sexually abused and then strangled in a wooded area in Rosedale, Md. Bloodsworth was convicted and sentenced to death in 1985. His lawyers appealed, and he was found guilty a second time. Following the second trial, he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms.

It wasn’t until June 1993 that DNA evidence proved Bloodsworth was not the culprit.

“Basically we just asked the prosecutors in Baltimore County, where this all happened,” Bloodsworth said Monday afternoon. “’There’s this new technology called DNA, and I’d like to take the test to prove once and for all that it’s not me.’”

The appearance was featured in a December 1, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Area colleges: Bergerud lifts Stars in women's basketball

Freshman Megan Bergerud scored a career-high 18 points and the University of Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars defeated the Blackburn Beavers 76-61 Monday at The Recreation and Athletic Center.

Bergerud finished 9 of 11 at the free-throw line and grabbed seven rebounds. Junior Bailey Beale poured in 17 points and four 3-pointers, and Paulina Pogorzelski chipped in 14 points on 7 of 11 shooting for UIS. Alex Blair made a pair of 3s and finished with 12 points for the Stars, and Mallory Beck pulled down 10 rebounds.

UIS never trailed, taking an early 11-point lead. The Stars closed the first half on an 11-5 run with Beale scoring eight points during the spurt. UIS shot 63.3 percent (19-for-30) in the first half, but cooled down in the second, making 7 of 25 (.280) shots. The Stars made 16 of 21 foul shots (.762) while the Beavers struggled, hitting 19 of 35 (.543).

Sierra Shipley and Kariann Hill combined for five 3s and each scored 18 points to lead Blackburn (0-5).

The win was featured in a November 30, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Wrongfully convicted men to speak at UI

Three men released from prison after being wrongfully convicted will be featured speakers at appearances on the University of Illinois campuses at Springfield and Champaign.

A release from the UI College of Law said the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project at UI Springfield has been awarded a Bloodsworth Postconviction DNA testing grant from the U.S. Department of Justice that will support a collaboration with the UI College of Law and Southern Illinois University School of Law.

The grant is intended to defray the costs of post-conviction DNA testing and help wrongly convicted inmates try to prove their innocence.

To mark the grant, events will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Brookens Auditorium, 1 University Plaza, University of Illinois Springfield, and from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Illinois College of Law, Max L. Rowe Auditorium, 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave., C. Both events are free and open to the public.

Featured panelists will include:

– Kirk Bloodsworth, the first person to be exonerated from death row in the nation through post-conviction DNA testing and for whom the grant program was named. He had been wrongfully convicted – twice – of the 1984 rape and murder of a 9-year-old Maryland girl.

– Randy Steidl, exonerated after 12 years on Illinois' death row after having been wrongly convicted of the 1986 murders of a Paris, Ill., couple.

– Jerry Hobbs, cleared in the summer of 2010 of the 2005 murders of his own daughter, 8, and a 9-year-old girl in Lake County, Ill.

– Keith Grant, chief of special defense and project development with the office of the Lake County Public Defender, and several Lake County staff, all of whom were associated with Hobbs' exoneration.

The grant will allow students to work on prospective cases that may, through DNA testing, demonstrate actual innocence of individuals serving long sentences in Illinois prisons. The students will work with law school faculty to evaluate evidence and the merit of the actual innocence claims and to develop motions for testing that will be brought to the courts.

The event was featured in a November 29, 2010, article in the Champaign News-Gazette.

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Oklahoma poll shows support of programs for female inmates

Many Oklahomans believe the state locks up too many women and think it is because of a lack of adequate alternative programs, a recent Oklahoma Poll found.

With Oklahoma No. 1 in the female incarceration rate, most residents say the state's current stance on crime and punishment is not making them safer.

Historically, public policy and research focused only on the experience of incarcerated men, said Juanita Ortiz, assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Illinois-Springfield, who also completed her doctorate degree at the University of Oklahoma studying female recidivism rates.

"With this newly arising examination of women as offenders, there has also been an increase in understanding their different pathways to crime and the greater effect that their incarceration tends to have on children left behind," Ortiz said.

Ortiz's comments were featured in a November 28, 2010, article in the Tulsa World.

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Multitasking, wireless printing come to iPad

Apple Inc. released new software on Nov. 22 that lets users of its iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad devices print wirelessly over Wi-Fi networks. The software addresses what has been a key complaint about the iPad to date—that users can’t print their documents from the tablet—and ed-tech observers say it could help spur more widespread use of the device in schools.

Ed-tech observers said the new software is a significant upgrade that could help further position the iPhone and iPad as instructional tools.

“This update is most welcome for those who have iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads,” said Ray Schroeder, professor emeritus and director of the University of Illinois at Springfield’s Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service. “It will make a huge difference to those of us who teach with these tools. We had been using workarounds such as dropbox.com to shift documents to other devices for printing. With so many schools and colleges providing iPads to students, these upgrades will have an immediate impact on teaching and learning.”

Schroeder said the top complaints he had heard before Apple’s announcement were the iPad’s lack of multitasking, lack of organizing folders, and inability to print documents.

Schroeder's comments were featured in a November 23, 2010, article by eSchool News.

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Area athletes sign with UIS softball and volleyball teams

Williamsville High School shortstop Lauren Hollinshead, Petersburg PORTA left-handed catcher/designated hitter Chelsea Minor and Taylorville outfielder Shannon Mitchell have all signed a letter of intent to play softball for the University of Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars.

Hollinshead carried a .343 batting average last season and had 22 runs batted in.

Minor hit a school-record nine home runs and tied the PORTA single-season mark for triples with nine. She had a .494 batting average and 23 RBIs. She had just two errors at catcher.

The left-handed Mitchell had a team-leading batting average of .426 and team-high 22 stolen bases.

Parkland College sophomore centerfielder Samantha Inman and Chicago Marist High catcher Alyssa Sierzega have also signed with the Stars.

Inman was named to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II All-American second team after hitting .386, 13 home runs, driving in 64 RBIs and stealing 23 bases.

Sierzega comes from a program that has won seven straight regional titles, including three consecutive Class 4A championships.

Volleyball: Jokisch headed to UIS

Taylor Jokisch, an outside hitter on the A-C Central/Virginia High School volleyball team, will play for the University of Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars next year.

Jokisch had 11 kills in her final match for A-C Central, which fell in two sets to Lutheran in the championship match of the Class 1A Jackonville Routt Sectional.

Lincoln Land Community College sophomores Beka Pruemer and middle hitter Megan Vladic have also signed with the Stars.

The signings were featured in a November 25, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Bloodsworth to join panel talk about project

Kirk Noble Bloodsworth, the first person exonerated from death row through post-conviction DNA testing, will be among a panel of people who will discuss the importance of the UIS Downstate Illinois Innocence Project Tuesday, Nov. 30, at Brookens Auditorium at the University of Illinois Springfield.

The panel will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Other speakers include: Randy Steidl, who was exonerated after 12 years on Illinois Death Row; Jerry Hobbs, the most recent Illinois person to be exonerated; and Keith Grant of the of the Lake County public defender’s office and several other people associated with the Hobbs exoneration.

The event is free and open to the public.

The appearance was featured in a November 23, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Academy guides Lanphier seniors toward teaching

Coady Petropolous is one of 10 Lanphier High School seniors enrolled in the school’s teaching academy course — a yearlong class that takes a handful of students who show interest in becoming teachers and provides hands-on, daily classroom experience.

The course, now in its fourth year, also facilitates a chance to enter a small-but-mighty program at the University of Illinois Springfield that all but ensures a full-time teaching position with a local school district.

Once the students graduate from high school, each has an opportunity to be recommended for Project Midstate Student Support — a program founded in 1990 at the UIS College of Education and Human Services.

Dr. Loretta Meeks, the founding director of Project MSS and a professor in UIS’ teacher education department, said the program aims to teach local students in the hopes of producing local teachers.

Once accepted, students are eligible for scholarships that may pay for their entire tuition and often lead to a permanent teaching position in the Springfield or Decatur school districts.

The program partners with area community colleges, UIS and the Springfield and Decatur school districts, with a total of 50 students enrolled in the UIS program, drawing from each entity.

The program was featured in a November 19, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Cheers & Jeers: Lanphier students get great introduction to teaching

CHEERS to the 10 Lanphier High School seniors taking part in the school’s Teaching Academy. By taking part in the academy, these students are getting a look at the teaching profession they plan to pursue as a career. Students who graduate from the program who are subsequently accepted into a special program at the University of Illinois Springfield are guaranteed a job in a local school district if they graduate from UIS.

CHEERS to the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project at the University of Illinois Springfield, which recently was awarded a grant of $687,448 to pay for DNA testing in the cases it pursues. “This gives us the opportunity to examine cases that haven’t received resources before,” said Bill Clutter, director of investigations for the project. “It gives us resources to investigate requests we previously had to just file away.”

The two "cheers" were featured in a November 22, 2010, opinions article in The State Journal-Register.

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Teachers and technology: The do's and don'ts of Facebook

Teachers and students often connect with one another online in college. Kara McElwrath teaches an online privacy class at UIS. She has an account for friends and another for students, which is solely for professional purposes.

McElwrath encourages all of her students to have two accounts once they begin their careers. One account for family and friends. The other for colleagues, and in teacher's cases, students. It should be used to share websites and educational videos. And she says, nothing else.

"As a teacher I wouldn't want my students to know whether I'm having a good or bad day," says McElwarth, "I wouldn't want to post on Facebook that I'm getting ready to go on vacation because then anybody can then see that, 'Hey I'm going to be out of town my house is going to be empty."

While students and teachers on college campuses are connecting, many K-12 school districts have strict policies prohibiting teachers from 'friending' a student online.

McElwrath was featured in a November 17, 2010, report by WCIA-TV.

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Watch the story on WCIA's website

UIS recognized for quality of classes, degrees available on the Web

With more than six out of every 10 students at the University of Illinois Springfield taking a class online instead of on campus, UIS has emerged as a leader in a field that’s changing the face of higher education.

For UIS, it’s the future. “I don’t think there’s a going back,” said UIS public administration professor Will Miller, who teaches half of his classes online and half on campus. “There’s going to be a mixture of both.”

The campus recently received two awards for online programs and leadership from the Sloan Consortium, a nonprofit organization that is a leader in promoting online learning. UIS, a member of the consortium along with dozens of other universities, including Harvard Business School, has received awards from Sloan before, as well as more than $3 million in grants over the years to establish its online offerings, which include graduate and undergraduate degrees.

The online awards were featured in a November 17, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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UIS Downstate Innocence Project gets $687K grant

The Downstate Illinois Innocence Project at the University of Illinois Springfield has been awarded a $687,448 grant — one of the largest in the school’s history — to help pay for DNA testing.

“This gives us the opportunity to examine cases that haven’t received resources before,” said Bill Clutter, director of investigations for the project. “It gives us resources to investigate requests we previously had to just file away.”

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., helped facilitate the grant, which was obtained with the support of the UIS Center for State Policy and Leadership.

The project initially will focus on 30 cases out of more than 400 requests received, said Larry Golden, director of the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project and a UIS professor. Those 30 or so cases — including two locally — will be further reviewed to determine if evidence can be tested or retested for DNA and if the likelihood is that the person convicted of the crime actually is innocent.

The grant was featured in a November 16, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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UIS Downstate Illinois Innocence Project earns grant

College students in downstate Illinois who work on behalf of those who are wrongly convicted are getting a boost from the U. S. Department of Justice. The University of Illinois at Springfield has announced a grant of $687,448 for the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project.

The Bloodsworth Grant is named for Kirk Bloodsworth, the first death penalty inmate in the U. S. exonerated through DNA testing.

The project collaborates with the law schools at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at Southern Illinois University.

Bill Clutter, the project’s director of investigations, says it looks as if prosecutors and police simply do not care who is guilty: “You have a person facing the death penalty still, despite these reforms, where prosecutors are fighting to keep that evidence from being tested. And we face this in many of our cases, and this is a syndrome of a mindset of prosecutors that I don’t know what reforms we can enact that can change.”

The grant was featured by WTAX-AM/Illinois Radio Network in a November 15, 2010, report.

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Kindergarten screening, the first step of college prep

Every child in Sangamon County could be a college graduate with the potential to bring more businesses, and more economic wealth, to the Springfield area. That’s the idea behind the Continuum of Learning, an education and workforce development initiative formed in March 2008 by three coordinating partners.

The Sangamon County Community Foundation, the United Way of Central Illinois and the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, last week hosted a community roundtable to celebrate the partnerships the initiative has built and the programs it’s helped bring about. The three coordinating partners have all pledged support and funding to programs that align with the Continuum’s mission – to strengthen the area’s education system and workforce, which in turn will bring more economic prosperity.

The goal is to increase the college-going rate in Springfield and Sangamon County, which in turn will provide a better economic outlook for the area, says Dr. Harry Berman, chair of the Continuum’s steering committee. But in order to significantly affect the number of residents who move on to higher education or greater vocational attainment, children must receive help early, Berman says.

Chancellor Berman's comments were featured in a November 11, 2010, article in the Illinois Times.

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Umeadi's free throw boosts Prairie Stars

Chigozie Umeadi hit a game-winning free throw with 2.3 seconds remaining as the University of Illinois Springfield men’s basketball team survived a second straight thriller to beat Northwood University 80-79 Saturday in the GLVC/GLIAC Challenge at The Recreation and Athletic Center.

On Friday, UIS’ Brandon Farmer drained a game-winning shot with 4.3 seconds left in a season-opening 67-66 win over Lake Superior State.

“I told the guys after last night I enjoy winning and let’s make it a little easier,” UIS first-year coach Ben Wierzba said.

That didn’t happen. The game featured 25 lead changes.

The Prairie Stars trailed Northwood 34-33 at halftime. Cameron Joyce’s 3-pointer put the Timberwolves ahead 77-75 with 1:30 to go in the second half and the back-and-forth battle continued. A pair of free throws by Northwood forward Darvin Ham tied the contest at 79 with 10 seconds remaining.

Ham fouled Umeadi, setting up the game-winning foul shot. Umeadi made the first of two free throws. Northwood guard Joe Powers rebounded Umeadi’s miss on the second shot, then called a timeout.

Umeadi stole the inbounds pass, keeping the Timberwolves (0-2) from getting off a last-second shot. He scored three of the Stars’ final five points. The sophomore forward finished with a career-high 21 points and eight rebounds, both team highs.

The win was featured in a November 14, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Farmer's buzzer-beater gives UIS victory in season opener

Point guard Brandon Farmer made the game-winning shot as time expired to give the University of Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars a 67-66 win over Lake Superior State in the season-opening men’s basketball game for both teams at the GLVC-GLIAC Challenge on Friday at The Recreation and Athletic Center.

With 4.3 seconds remaining in regulation and the Prairie Stars trailing 66-65, Farmer, a senior, drove the length of the court and swished a 16-footer for the win. It was Farmer’s second basket of the game as he finished 2 for 10 from the field, including 1 for 5 from 3-point range. He scored nine points, going 4 for 4 from the free throw line.

Sophomore forward Chigozie Umeadi led UIS with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds, and junior guard Lester Hart added 15 points and three 3-pointers for the Prairie Stars, who led 34-31 at halftime.

Micah Hudson made six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 26 points while pulling down 13 rebounds for Lake Superior State.

The win was featured in a November 13, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Citizen Police Academy gets people involved with Springfield police

New to the academy this year is a partnership with students from the University of Illinois Springfield. They make up 20 of the 32 current participants, according to Stephen Schnebly, a criminal justice professor at UIS. He and fellow professors Ryan Williams and Jay Gilliam talked with Police Chief Robert Williams about teaming up to provide student volunteers and a critique of the program.

“In the past, it had gone on without us knowing much about it,” Schnebly said. “Quite frankly, I didn’t expect a huge number of folks to volunteer. It was just an outpouring of interest.”

Schnebly said the academy helps build relationships and trust between police and citizens, who often only know “what goes on in the black box of policing.”

“Research has shown for decades that most crime doesn’t get reported,” he said. “In order for police to be productive in their jobs … they need to work with the citizens they serve.”

The three professors take turns observing the weekly sessions. They take notes and hope to provide critiques after the academy ends.

The research was featured in a November 12, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Challenging start awaits Prairie Stars men's basketball team

University of Illinois Springfield men’s basketball fans can catch their first glimpse of the 2010-11 Prairie Stars at 7:45 p.m. today in the regular-season opener against Lake Superior State at The Recreation and Athletic Center.

UIS first-year coach Ben Wierzba already has had the opportunity to see his team in action. The Stars lost 80-53 to Illinois-Chicago last week and fell 111-66 Sunday at Iowa.

“We had good and bad moments,” he said. “When we executed like we were supposed to, good things happened for us. There were some strong points defensively. We took a couple charges and dove on the floor for loose balls.”

The NCAA Division II Stars didn’t score an upset of a Division I team. However, other GLVC members pulled off victories over Division I opponents in exhibition games on the road.

The team was featured in a November 12, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Music Notes: UIS anniversary

The University of Illinois Springfield Concert Band on Friday will premiere a new work to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the school.

William Davis’ “Song and Spirit” will be presented at the UIS Showcase Concert, set for 7:30 p.m. Friday in Sangamon Auditorium, in conjunction with the annual Alumni Awards Dinner.

For more information, visit www.uis.edu/music or call 206-6240.

The concert was featured in a November 11, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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New school song

The University of Illinois at Springfield passes another milestone as a new school spirit song has been commissioned and will be presented for the first time by the UIS Concert Band with the composer, Dr. William Davis, in attendance. The Chamber Orchestra also performs, a slide show of the campus’ past will be shown, and the winning lyrics to the spirit song from a recent contest will be performed by the UIS Chorus. Community musicians are invited to join UIS musicians in UIS music ensembles. Rehearsals for the spring semester begin January 18, 2011. Those interested should phone 206-6240 or visit www.uis.edu/music.

UIS 40th Anniversary Showcase Concert
Friday, Nov. 12, 7:30pm
Sangamon Auditorium, UIS
206-6240

The event was featured on November 11, 2010, in an Illinois Times article.

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Montgomery signs with UIS

Sacred Heart-Griffin High School middle hitter Katie Montgomery will reunite with her former volleyball coach Angie Riggle next season at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Montgomery signed Wednesday with the NCAA Division II volleyball program coached by Riggle.

“Angie coached SHG before and I really liked her,” Montgomery said.

Benedictine University at Springfield recruited Montgomery along with schools in
Maryland, Maine and Tennessee.

Montgomery was featured in a November 11, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Five alumni to receive awards from UIS

The director of the national Marine Corps museum is among five University of Illinois Springfield graduates who will be honored by the school’s alumni association Friday.

Lin Ezell, a 1974 UIS graduate, director of the National Museum of the Marine Corps, will receive the Alumni Achievement Award. The award is the highest honor bestowed upon graduates of the University and is given to those who have attained distinction and success in their profession or life’s work.

“I was very surprised, but I think that’s a common theme among most recipients,” said Ezell, who is active on the Alumni Advisory Council. “I was very shocked when I got the call.

“I’ve had an embarrassment of riches in my career and I think we all look back to our roots in education for those successes,” said Ezell, who originally is from Lewistown.

Ezell, who graduated with a degree in English, worked at NASA in Houston for 10 years, and then went on to work for the Smithsonian for 21 years before becoming the director of the National Museum of the Marine Corps, which opened in 2006.

The awards were featured in a November 8, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Bernard Schoenburg: Familiar folks

The BILL MILLER Public Affairs Reporting Hall of Fame is inducting three new members on Nov. 15. The hall honors graduates of the PAR graduate program at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

The honorees are SUSAN CORNWELL, 55; BARBARA HIPSMAN, 59; and JOHN O’CONNOR, 47.

Cornwell, now a Capitol Hill correspondent for Reuters, was raised in Metropolis and Edwardsville, and long ago worked with me at The Daily Illini in Champaign-Urbana. Her first full-time reporting job — when her name was still Susan Jay Smith — was with The State Journal-Register in 1977-78. She went on to report from several countries. In 1996, she won the Merriman Smith Award for presidential reporting on deadline, given to one journalist a year by the White House Correspondents’ Association.

Hipsman has been an associate professor of journalism and mass communication at Kent State University in Ohio since 1987 and received the Distinguished Teaching Award there in 1994. She earlier taught at Bradley University in Peoria and for six years was Statehouse bureau chief for the Belleville News Democrat when that paper had a full-time Springfield presence. Her husband, BOB SPRINGER, is a former Associated Press reporter at the Statehouse.

O’Connor, an AP political writer stationed at the Statehouse since 1998, continues to give politicians fits. He’s the guy who wrote stories about the secret prison early-release program and the staff pay raises in the Quinn administration. O’Connor, who won the AP’s Oliver S. Gramling Journalism Achievement award this year, complete with $10,000, is also an amateur actor and was featured in recent local productions of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” and “Annie.”

The awards were featured in Bernard Schoenburg's November 7, 2010, column in The State Journal-Register.

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Brady concedes, Quinn claims mandate

Gov. Pat Quinn’s quest to become the elected leader of Illinois was fulfilled Friday when his Republican challenger conceded the state’s closest governor’s race in decades, leaving Quinn to argue he has a mandate to push a tax increase in the face of one of the nation’s worst state budget problems.

It will be up to Quinn to persuade lawmakers that his election provides him with more political leverage, considering the closeness of the race, said Chris Mooney, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Quinn disagrees.

“I’ve said all along we need revenue for education, in particular, in Illinois, and by winning the election I think that is support for us to do exactly that,” he has said.

Mooney's comments were featured in a November 6, 2010, article by the Associated Press.

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Fast growing companies rely on overseas growth

Ron McNeil, dean of the College of Business and Management at the University of Illinois Springfield was featured on American Public Media's Marketwatch on November 5, 2010.

The following is a portion of the transcript from the radio interview:

JEREMY HOBSON: Earnings season continues this morning with quarterly reports from Beazer Homes,and Dish Network. If there's been one pattern this earnings season, it's this: companies that are growing are relying on sales overseas for that growth.

We're going to dig into that now with Ron McNeil. He heads the College of Business and Management at the University of Illinois-Springfield. Ron, thanks for joining us.

RON MCNEIL: Thank you Jeremy.

HOBSON: Well, we've seen earnings in the last couple weeks. Merck says it now gets 18 percent of revenue from emerging markets. Dow Chemical, Proctor and Gamble, this is obviously a trend by why is there such growth in emerging countries and not here in the U.S.?

MCNEIL: Well, emerging markets are coming out of very little. So their consumer markets are great. Any growth is big growth but when you're talking about populations of a billion in India, 1.3 billion in China, even 300- or 400 million people in China buying more makes a huge impact.

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Listen to the interview online

Local business mood cautious, survey finds

The cautious mood of local companies is little changed from last spring, according to a fall update from the University of Illinois Springfield.

One-third of more than 170 sample firms and organizations surveyed said the Sangamon County economy will slow down in the coming year, while 18 percent expected growth and a little less than half expected no change.

UIS conducts the survey for the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce each spring and fall.

“The folks I’m talking too are cautiously optimistic that we have turned the corner on the recession. There is not a huge rush to add a bunch of employees, which is problematic for the nation as a whole,” Erich Bloxdorf, executive vice president of the chamber, said Thursday.

The survey was featured in a November 5, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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UIS guard Farmer on committee that chose new coach Wierzba

Brandon Farmer was given an inside look at an aspect of college athletics that most players don’t get to see, let alone be a part of.

The 5-foot-10 University of Illinois Springfield senior point guard was a part of the search committee whose job it was to help find a replacement for former UIS men’s basketball coach Kevin Gamble. Gamble resigned in June to become the director of player development at NCAA Division I Providence College.

“At first I thought, ‘Why would they want a player on the committee?’ Then it made sense,” said Farmer, a former Lincoln High School standout and two-time Central State Eight Conference Player of the Year. “I kind of thought I was just going to be there, but I actually felt they used my opinion a little bit.

“They wanted to hear what I thought as a player, and I think they listened to me a little. I enjoyed picking our new coach and having some kind of say in it from a player’s perspective.”

As part of the committee, Farmer spent three days studying more than 100 applications. He says from there, they narrowed the list to seven candidates, then three finalists. He was present for interviews and other aspects of the search.

Farmer was featured in a November 3, 2010, article by The State Journal-Register.

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Syrian official says resolving Arab-Israeli conflict key to peace

The Syrian ambassador to the United States visited Springfield last week, urging better relations between the two countries and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Speaking at the University of Illinois Springfield, Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha discussed Syrian-U.S. relations and answered questions from the audience of about 130 people. Syria is on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

Moustapha, a career academic with a doctorate in computer science, was appointed by the Syrian government to serve as an ambassador in 2004.

The Ambassador Series event was featured in a November 4, 2010, article in the Illinois Times.

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Exhibit explores codes of life, society

The intersection — where man meets machine — is the subject of “Object Code,” a new exhibit opening today in the Visual Arts Gallery at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Artist Mike Miller takes the title literally, turning ephemeral fragments of computer language into physical artifacts of paper, plastic and wood.

A reception marking the opening of “Object Code” is scheduled for 5:30 to 8 p.m. today in the Visual Arts Gallery, in Room 201 of the UIS Health and Sciences Building.

Miller will also deliver a lecture on his research at noon Wednesday in Rooms C/D of the UIS Public Affairs Center.

Regular gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. “Object Code” closes Dec. 1.

The exhibit was featured in a November 4, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Brady, Quinn remain stuck in limbo

Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican challenger Bill Brady were stuck in limbo Wednesday instead of launching a transition or tackling one of the nation’s worst budget problems, as the Illinois governor’s race dragged on along with a handful of other contests nationwide.

An unsettled election also could slow down Quinn’s progress on the politically risky income tax increase he campaigned on to help relieve the state’s finances. He wants to increase the tax rate from 3 percent to 4 percent to generate more money for education, although lawmakers wouldn’t get behind his previous push.

Lawmakers are unlikely to tackle such a thorny issue until the winner of the governor’s race is finalized, said Kent Redfield, a professor emeritus of politics at the University of Illinois-Springfield.

“They’d want to be very confident that this is part of a four-year strategy and not suddenly have to be dealing with a Gov. Brady,” Redfield said.

Redfield's comments were featured in a November 4, 2010, Associated Press article.

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Kirk ready for first vote against Obama

Mark Kirk has vowed to be in the vanguard of a Republican bulwark against President Barack Obama's spending and tax plans. At the same time, Illinois' newly elected senator says he will be a model of conciliation and compromise in an era of sharp partisan divide.

Chris Mooney, a political science professor at the Springfield campus of the University of Illinois, said the generally moderate politics of Illinois dictate that Kirk regain his pragmatic streak if he hopes to stick in the Senate.

"He will do whatever it takes to be elected from the state of Illinois. That's not an easy task for a Republican in this state," Mooney said. "I do not expect Mark Kirk to veer to the right."

Mooney predicted Kirk will not always be a sure party line vote for Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. "On average, Kirk will vote Republican because he is a Republican," Mooney said. "On the tough votes, however, I think he'll be up for grabs."

Mooney's comments were featured in a November 4, 2010, article in the Chicago Tribune.

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Kirk defeats Giannoulias to win Obama's Senate seat in Illinois

President Obama's former U.S. Senate seat moved into Republican hands Tuesday as U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk narrowly defeated Democratic Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, an Obama protégé and basketball buddy.

The campaign played out in negative TV ads focused on the candidates' credibility. Kirk, 51, acknowledged that he had exaggerated his military record. Giannoulias, 34, defended his management of a state college savings program and the collapse of a bank his family owned.

"The reason the race was very close is that neither candidate was able to take advantage of what should be strengths," says Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois-Springfield.

Giannoulias is "bright, engaging," and his job as treasurer should have highlighted his economic qualifications, he says. Kirk's win, Redfield says, followed the playbook for how a Republican can win in Illinois: "Don't scare swing voters in the suburbs." Kirk focused on his foreign policy and military credentials as a Navy reservist.

Redfield's comments were featured in a November 3, 2010, article in USA Today.

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While GOP gains nationally, Illinois remains split

Even in the face of a massive Republican national wave, the state of Illinois remains split between the major parties.

Republican Mark Kirk’s capture of President Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat is a feather in the GOP’s cap nationally, but Kirk’s victory also reflected the flaws in the Democratic candidate, state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.

Republicans made gains in the Illinois General Assembly, but both chambers remain in Democratic hands.

But Tuesday’s race for the office that has the most day-to-day impact on the lives of Illinoisans – the governor – remained neck-and-neck late Tuesday.

No matter who emerges victorious, says a political scientist from the University of Illinois Springfield, he won’t have an easy job.

“Whatever happens, there’s bad times ahead,” said Chris Mooney of the U of I’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

Mooney's comments were featured in a November 3, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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UIS students collect 8,294 pounds of canned food

Students at the University of Illinois Springfield collected 8,294 pounds of food during the annual Trick-or-Treat for Canned Goods competition Halloween night.

Seventeen teams of UIS student volunteers canvassed Springfield neighborhoods to collect non-perishable food items Sunday night. The teams visited the neighborhoods before Halloween, distributing door hangers that explained the project.

The drive is part of the UIS Holiday Stars Project, a campuswide service initiative. The effort shifts to the UIS campus, with a goal of collecting additional canned foods to reach an overall goal of 10,000 pounds by Dec. 2.

The drive was featured in a November 2, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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UIS women's basketball team returns brightest star

Following knee surgery in May, Paulina Pogorzelski took a been-there, done-that approach to her recovery.

“I did my rehab on my own because I’ve done rehab before and I pretty much know all the basics,” said Pogorzelski, a senior forward on the University of Illinois Springfield women’s basketball team.

The 6-foot-1 Pogorzelski played while injured for nearly the entire 2009-10 season. The Chicago native tore the meniscus in her left knee while going for a rebound in practice last December.

Pogorzelski, who also was bothered by a tear in hip joint cartilage, didn’t let the injuries stop her. She kept playing and ended the season as the Prairie Stars’ top scorer and rebounder at 14.1 points and 8.0 rebounds per game.

She underwent surgery in the spring on the same knee that she injured playing soccer in high school. That time she tore the anterior cruciate ligament.

Pogorzelski was featured in a November 2, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Lincoln Academy to honor 49 top college students

A half-dozen central Illinoisans is among 49 top college students to be honored Nov. 6 by the the Lincoln Academy of Illinois.

The Lincoln Academy gives Student Laureate Awards annually to seniors from each of the four-year, degree-granting colleges and universities in the state, plus one community college student.

The award ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, at the Old State Capitol State Historic Site.

The Lincoln Academy’s Student Laureate Awards are presented for excellence in classroom and extracurricular activities.

Student laureates for 2010 from area colleges or from the Springfield area:
University of Illinois Springfield, Kimberly Bartosiak, Bethalto

The award was featured in a November 1, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Illinois' unique campaign concludes

Illinois heads for the polls Tuesday to close one of the most unpredictable election seasons ever.

The only certainty is that neither of the top two offices — governor or U.S. Senate — will be won by anyone who has previously won either post. There is no elected incumbent on the ballot.

That unusual twist comes as the result of two national political stories in the last two years that had Illinois at their epicenters: the rise of Barack Obama, and the fall of Rod Blagojevich.

"It's a very unusual (governor's) race because you have two candidates who weren't supposed to be there," said Kent Redfield, political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Redfield's comments were featured in an October 31, 2010, article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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Control of Illinois House, Senate at stake

Democrat Michael Madigan on Tuesday will try to extend his long run as Illinois House speaker, hoping that the widespread expectation of Republican momentum in this year's election doesn't turn into a sequel to 1994.

That's the year the Southwest Side chieftain tumbled from power, the only blemish since he first seized control 28 years ago, an exile that lasted but two years.

Madigan and House Republican leader Tom Cross, joined by Democratic Senate President John Cullerton and Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno, are dumping scads of cash into the most competitive races, hoping to tip the scales their way.

It's also expected the record for spending on a single legislative seat will fall, with the tab for one downstate Senate race projected to surpass $2.4 million, said Kent Redfield, a longtime campaign finance expert based at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Redfield's comments were featured in an October 31, 2010, article in the Chicago Tribune.

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UIS campus housing to disconnect phone service

Almost everyone has a cell phone nowadays, especially college students. That's why the University of Illinois at Springfield is choosing to eliminate land line service in its student housing.

Housing Director John Ringle says starting over the Christmas break land line service will be disconnected.

"By cutting off that particular monthly expense for the 1,100 residents that are living on campus, that comes out to a pretty significant savings on the course of a fiscal year," Ringle said.

Ringle says the jack will remain, but if you plug a phone into it, you won't have service unless you request it.

"Students can plug a phone in, let us know they want to activate it as a line and then we will charge them accordingly next fiscal year. For those that still want it this fiscal year, we think because it's mid-year, we should work with them and give them the opportunity to keep it if they want to," Ringle said.

Ringle says it will be a savings of about $125,000 a year. Ringle says that savings will help pay for carpet replacement and new furniture.

The story was featured by WICS-TV 20 on October 28, 2010.

Download a PDF of the text article

Watch the story on News Channel 20's website

Out-of-state money fueling race for governor

State officials may need to review ways to “protect disclosure” in Illinois in the wake of largely untraceable campaign contributions flowing into state campaigns, a leading campaign finance reform group says.

An unprecedented amount of out-of-state money is financing the race for governor, one expert added.

“That’s pretty unprecedented for Illinois to have that huge amount of money coming in from out of state,’ said Kent Redfield, political science professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Redfield raised another point.

“The Democratic group discloses (contributors), the Republicans don’t,” he said.

Redfield's comments were featured in an October 27, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Illinois voters asked to choose twice for Senate seat

No, Illinois, you're not seeing double.

The Nov. 2 ballot asks for two votes for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama, another twist of the state's wacky politics.

A judge has determined the same candidates must run for two terms: one being the normal six years beginning in January, the other an interim stint beforehand that probably will last little more than a month.

In both cases, voters will choose from among Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, Republican Mark Kirk, Green LeAlan Jones and Libertarian Mike Labno. Polls show the race extremely close between Giannoulias and Kirk.

Chris Mooney, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said the chances the vote could be split between two candidates - so that one serves the short term and another the full six years - is slim.

But he wouldn't totally rule it out.

"The way it's polling, it's so close, I guess that's possible," Mooney said.

Mooney's comments were featured in an October 26, 2010, article by the Associated Press.

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Illinois senate race attracts parties' big guns

Candidates for the Illinois Senate seat will get help from prominent politicians in the closing days of the campaign. President Obama will campaign for Democrat Alexi Giannoulias, and Karl Rove will stump for Republican Mark Kirk.

University of Illinois Springfield professor Charlie Wheeler says the nastiness of the Illinois senate race stands out even in a year filled with negative ads and harsh political attacks.

"If you would listen to what each says about the other, neither is fit to be dog catcher, much less U.S. senator," said Wheeler.

Wheeler's comments were featured in an October 26, 2010, report by National Public Radio (NPR).

Listen to the report on NPR's website

Big names hit Ill. in campaign's waning days

In the final days before the Nov. 2 election, Democrats and Republicans are leaning on party heavyweights, energizing their bases and looking for swing voters in the high-profile races for President Barack Obama's old Senate seat and Illinois governor.

Democrats have more work to do than Republicans to energize their base, but both sides need to sway independent and swing voters, said Kent Redfield, a professor emeritus of politics at the University of Illinois-Springfield.

While Republicans are charged up ideologically, some Democrats aren't happy with Obama because they've been hurt by the slumping economy, are dissatisfied with his progress on gay rights or think he settled for too little change in health care reform, Redfield said.

Redfield's comments were featured in an October 26, 2010, article by the Associated Press.

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Illinois lieutenant governor: They're ready to lead

The next lieutenant governor of Illinois, a place that recently got a lesson in how quickly the "light gov" can be thrust into leadership, most likely will be a government novice who owes the job partly to family connections.

The Democratic nominee is a one-term city council member chiefly known as the daughter of a U.S. senator. The Republican is a 28-year-old who has never held office and won the nomination with the help of his family fortune.

Illinois' last lieutenant governor, Pat Quinn, found himself in charge after Rod Blagojevich was indicted for political corruption and booted from office. This year, voters will decide whether to change the state Constitution so they can recall undesirable governors before their terms are up.

Both Carbondale Democrat Sheila Simon and Edwardsville Republican Jason Plummer insist they're ready to step in and lead the state, including managing the biggest budget crisis in Illinois history.

The state constitution doesn't provide for filling a vacancy in the lieutenant governor's office, which is why no one has replaced Quinn. Some critics call for eliminating the post and letting another official, like the attorney general, take over if there's a vacancy in the governor's office.

"The governor is an exceptionally important position in the United States these days," said Chris Mooney, political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "Far less damage can be done by a senator or a congressman than by a governor."

Mooney's comments were featured in an October 25, 2010, article by the Associated Press.

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UIS administrator appointed interim vice chancellor

An administrator at the University of Illinois Springfield for more than 20 years has been appointed interim vice chancellor for academic affairs at the university, pending trustees’ approval.

Lynn Pardie, who has been associate vice chancellor for graduate education and research at UIS since 2006, will begin her new position Jan. 1. She replaces Acting Chancellor Harry Berman in his position as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, which he will continue to fill until the end of the year.

“Her administrative experience, her scholarship, and the respect she has earned as a UIS faculty member and administrator since 1989 make her a great choice to lead Academic Affairs through this important period of transition,” Berman said.

Pardie was featured in an October 23, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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'Heidi Chronicles' also a chronicle of the Baby Boom generation

Wendy Wasserstein's Tony Award-winning play "The Heidi Chronicles" is often described as a feminist drama about one woman's quest to "have it all".

But the play, which opened Friday at the UIS Studio Theatre, can also be seen as a chronicle of the Baby Boom generation.

Complete with a soundtrack of classic '60s, '70s and '80s hits and references to seminal events of the era, "The Heidi Chronicles" captures the idealism, angst, and self-absorption of Boomers who, even now, are still thinking about what they want to be when they "grow up" and redefining what "grown up" means.

Directed by Missy Thiboudeaux-Thompson, "The Heidi Chronicles" opens in 1989 (the year it was written) with art history professor Heidi Holland (Ashley Warren) lecturing her students about the history -- or more precisely, the lack of documented history -- of women in art prior to the 20th century.

The play was featured in an October 23, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.

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Author of 'Bloody Crimes' to discuss Lincoln, Jefferson Davis

As the Civil War wound to a close, three remarkable journeys took place simultaneously — the death pageant carrying Abraham Lincoln’s corpse; the hunt for Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth; and the pursuit of the fleeing Confederate president, Jefferson Davis.

Writer James Swanson’s 2006 best-selling book “Manhunt” chronicled the 12-day pursuit of Booth. His newest one, “Bloody Crimes,” which Swanson will discuss at 8 p.m. today at the University of Illinois Springfield’s Brookens Auditorium, picks up where “Manhunt” left off, tracing Lincoln’s final path and Davis’ desperate one.

As of this week, “Bloody Crimes” is 15th on The New York Times bestsellers list for hardcover nonfiction.

Swanson will discuss his new book with Michael Burlingame, Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Swanson's appearance at UIS was featured in an October 21, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.