Friday, July 29, 2011

Trauma victims connect to their bodies with specialized yoga

Kristal Perry-Gutierrez teaches "Healing Through Yoga" at Namaste Yoga Center in Springfield, Ill.

She received her master's degree in human development counseling from the University of Illinois Springfield. She was a yoga student at the time and decided to incorporate yoga into her master's project.

"I decided to do yoga with children who had been sexually abused. I did a yoga course for eight weeks, twice a week with girls between the ages of 7 and 11," she says. The girls gave her feedback with comments like, "Yoga helps you get the bad stuff out," and "Yoga helps you be less afraid."

"It was a qualitative study, and the results were pretty significant," she says.

Perry-Gutierrez was featured in an July 28, 2011, article in The State Journal-Register.

Read the article online

Thursday, July 28, 2011

New UIS athletic director is on the job

Tuesday was the first day on the job for recently-hired University of Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars athletic director Kim Pate.

She took over as acting athletics director. On Aug. 16, she’ll drop the word acting from her job title.

When UIS announced Pate as the school’s new athletic director earlier this month, she was eager to assess the athletic department. She has no choice but to hit the ground running since fall sports teams begin practicing in a little over two weeks.

Pate was featured in an July 28, 2011, blog post by The State Journal-Register.

Read the post online

UIS student travels to Kenya for summer

Amanda Cummins, 19, of Cedarville is forever humbled by the blessings in her life after taking a mission trip to help children at an orphanage in Kenya.

Cummins said the “life-changing” experience has left an imprint on both her heart and mind. She said she will never forget the look on the faces of the children she helped during her 18-day mission to the impoverished part of Kenya in June.

Cummins traveled with a mission team that she got involved with while attending her first year of college at the University of Illinois Springfield. This local Christian teen sought out students through Christian fellowship. It was here she first learned about an organization called “Jump for Joel.”

Cummins was featured in an July 28, 2011, article by the Freeport Journal-Standard.

Read the article online

Improving Springfield's future in the global economy

Ranjan Karri, an associate professor of management at the University of Illinois at Springfield, told the Citizens Club audience that Springfield should court Internet technology companies and similar businesses as a way to expand the city’s service sector and keep young workers from moving away to larger cities. He says small cities that are ranked as the best places to live generally have in common universities, strong service sectors and military bases, or a combination of the three.

“I also believe that there’s something else going on for these small cities,” Karri said. “There’s something called building an identity, building some kind of pride. It’s not enough for mayors or chambers of commerce to bring in jobs.... People have to feel that we have an identity.”

It’s not enough to be known as a city full of state workers or a city centered on Abraham Lincoln, Karri says, adding that building a broader identity requires cooperation.

Karri was featured in an July 28, 2011, article by the Illinois Times.

Read the story online

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

UIS Chancellor is all ears

The newest University of Illinois Chancellor has been on the job for nearly a month. Susan Koch is the Vice President and Chancellor for the University of Illinois Springfield.

She tells WUIS radio's Jenna Dooley that this first month has been one long listening tour.

The interview aired on July 26, 2011.

Listen to the interview online

Hot weather hits pocketbooks

The hot weather is straining already strapped wallets. The cost of keeping cool is cutting down on what people are able to spend on other expenses, including food.

Ron McNeil is the dean of UIS’ College of Business and Management. He says a sluggish economy is already forcing people to eat at restaurants less, buy fewer clothes, and cut back on travel.

McNeil was featured in an July 25, 2011, report by WICS-TV 20.

Watch the story online

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Women's basketball: Kueker becomes seventh UIS signee

Alicia Kueker, a 5-foot-5 guard from Southwestern Illinois College by way of Perryville, Mo., has signed a national letter of intent with the University of Illinois Springfield.

Kueker, who averaged nearly five points and five assists per game as a sophomore at SWIC, joins Ashley Coffey, Carly Goede, Carlinville’s Elizabeth Kelly, Rachel Stobaugh, Cassandra Wolfe and Gwen Zehner in coach Marne Fauser’s recruiting class.

Kueker was featured in an June 23, 2011, article in The State Journal-Register.

Read the story online

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Women's golfer Fox transfers from EIU to UIS

Jenna Fox, who played golf for Nichole Inkel at Chatham Glenwood High School, has transferred to the University of Illinois Springfield to play her final collegiate season for Inkel, now the Prairie Stars’ coach.

Fox comes to UIS from Eastern Illinois, where she played three seasons. Fox averaged 84 strokes per round in her three seasons with the Panthers and her best finish came as a redshirt freshman in 2007-08, when she played in 10 tournaments.

Fox was featured in an July 20, 2011, report in The State Journal-Register.

Read the story online

Online program at UIS is nationally recognized

The University of Illinois Springfield’s Online Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program has been ranked fourth on a national list of the Top 10 Online BBA Degree Programs of 2011.

The ranking was conducted by the website The Best Colleges, which evaluates programs according to reputation, accreditation, student satisfaction, and cost.

The online BBA degree completion program is administered by the UIS College of Business and Management, and is identical to the school’s on-campus BBA, except for the admissions process.

The ranking was featured by WSOY radio in an July 19, 2011 report.

Read the story online

Monday, July 18, 2011

State approval rule could hamstring online college classes

A federal regulation intended to restrict so-called “diploma mills” might have the unintended effect of potentially chilling distance-learning programs at traditional not-for-profit colleges and universities such as the University of Illinois Springfield.

The U.S. Department of Education in October enacted a rule requiring post-secondary institutions to get approval from any state in which they operate, including any state in which an online student enrolls. Failure to do so could result in the loss of financial aid.

Ray Schroeder, director of the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service at UIS, said the Department of Education didn’t include the state-authorization provision in public hearings it held on the regulations, but included it in the rules released in October.

“The Department of Education indicated they thought this was happening already among traditional universities,” he said. “But in essence, nobody was doing it."

Schroeder's comments were featured in an July 18, 2011, article in The State Journal-Register.

Read the article online

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Test of fingerprint found on bridge sought in Slover case

An attorney trying to gain a new trial for three members of the Slover family, all convicted of murdering 23-year-old Karyn Hearn Slover, presented oral arguments to the appellate court in an effort to test a fingerprint found on a bridge.

This issue was decided by Macon County Associate Judge Timothy Steadman on March 16 after a lengthy hearing held six weeks earlier.

At that time, Steadman ruled that the latent print, found on the Bruce-Findlay Bridge railing over Lake Shelbyville in 1996, shortly after parts of the victim's body were found downstream, was not suitable for identification. A prosecution witness testified that it lacked enough landmarks to be matched with an unknown print from a database.

Peter Wise argued before a panel of the Fourth District Appellate Court that the ruling was erroneous, because Steadman said the print had zero scientific potential to produce evidence relevant to the Slovers' actual innocence.

Wise, a private attorney working with the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project, said he successfully showed there is a potential exoneration of his clients to be found in the partial latent print.

The article featuring the Downstate Illinois Innocence Project at UIS was featured in an July 13, 2011, edition of the Decatur Herald & Review.

Read the full article online

UIS employees to get raises

Most employees at the University of Illinois Springfield will be getting raises of about 3 percent this fall — their first since 2008 — consistent with a universitywide salary program made possible by earlier cost-saving measures.

UIS Chancellor Susan Koch, who started in her new post July 1, said about $1 million will be spread among about 800 faculty members, academic professionals and civil service staff effective with the academic year beginning Aug. 16.

“I’m very appreciative that we’ll be able to provide these long-awaited salaries,” she said. “It is the employees who make the university what it is and make good on our promise to students every day.”

University of Illinois President Michael Hogan said last week that cost-cutting and resource reallocation has produced savings that can be used for merit raises for employees and administrators at all three campuses. The total pool of money authorized for salary increases is about 3 percent of each campus’ salary pool, which in the case of UIS is about $34 million.

The story was published in an July 13, 2011, edition of The State Journal-Register.

Read the story online

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

UIS names new athletic director

Kim Pate, who has led a North Carolina college's athletic programs for the past four years, has been named athletic director of the University of Illinois Springfield.

Her appointment by UIS Chancellor Susan Koch is pending approval of the U of I Board of Trustees.

Pate, athletic director of NCAA Division II Brevard College in North Carolina, was identified as one of three finalists for the job. She was selected over Tim Gotto, the associate director of athletics and director of compliance at Lewis University in Romeoville and Bill Macriss, deputy director of athletics at Sacramento (Calif.) State University.

Pate will become the acting athletic director on July 26 and the full-time permanent director on August 16, replacing Rodger Jehlicka, who has held the job since late 2005.

Pate was featured in an July 12, 2011 article by The State Journal-Register.

Read the story online

Brevard AD Pate takes job in Illinois

Brevard College's Kim Pate, who has served as the Tornados' athletic director since 2008, announced on Monday that she will be resigning to take the same position at the University of Illinois-Springfield in Springfield, Ill.

Pate's last day at Brevard will be July 25.

"Kim Pate has been outstanding as the athletic director at Brevard College for several years," said Brevard interim president Charles Teague. "She is professional, articulate, compassionate, committed to Division II athletics, and devoted to Brevard College. Although we celebrate with her the opportunity to move up in her career, we will miss her leadership and commitment to our coaches, staff and student-athletes."

Pate was instrumental in Brevard College's transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II. During her tenure, the men's basketball team won its first South Atlantic Conference championship, becoming the first BC program to participate in the NCAA Regional tournament. The cycling team also won back-to-back Fall Mountain Bike Team National Championships along with several individual national titles.

Pate was featured in an July 12, 2011 article by BlueRidgeNow.com.

Read the article online

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

New UIS soccer coach starts rebuilding job early

A soccer version of Midnight Madness will kick off the season for the University of Illinois Springfield men’s squad in six weeks.

UIS will call it a late night on Aug. 15, the first day of practice.

“We’re going at 12:01 a.m.,” UIS first-year coach Jesse Miech said. “It’s the first time we can train. The guys are getting out there, so we can get our first two practices right out of the starting block and have two training sessions done before most teams have even stepped on the field.”

UIS plays its first match Aug. 19 against NCAA Division I Evansville.

The Stars have struggled to win in recent seasons. The 29-year-old Miech is hoping to point the program in the right direction by blending 17 new players with 11 returning players from last season’s 1-14-1 squad.

Miech was featured in an July 6, 2011, article in The State Journal-Register.

Read the article online

Prairie Stars women's soccer sign nine

Pleasant Plains High School defender Falyn Lockenour is one of nine players who has signed with the University of Illinois Springfield women’s soccer program.

Lockenour was a four-year varsity starter for Plains, which finished fourth at the Class 1A state tournament in 2009.

The Stars also added defender Cara Doogan, a Downers Grove South High graduate who won a national championship with her club team.

The team was featured in an July 6, 2011, article in The State Journal-Register.

Read about the other players on the SJ-R website

Friday, July 1, 2011

UIS down to three candidates for athletic director

The University of Illinois Springfield has narrowed its search for a director of athletics to three candidates.

The finalists are Tim Gotto, the associate director of athletics and director of compliance at Lewis University in Romeoville; Bill Macriss, deputy director of athletics at Sacramento (Calif.) State University; and Kim Pate, athletic director of Brevard (N.C.) College.

Ninety-five individuals applied to replace Rodger Jehlicka, who in January submitted his resignation effective Aug. 15. Jehlicka, whose salary is $86,145, was hired as athletic director at UIS in December 2005. With the end of his stint only six weeks away, an announcement should come soon.

“Chancellor Susan Koch starts (today) and she was obviously a part of this process as well,” UIS spokesman Derek Schnapp said Thursday. “She will announce the decision when it becomes final.”

The finalists were featured in an July 1, 2011, article in The State Journal-Register.

Read the article online