WUIS, Illinois Issues join together in new media age

The transition in how people get their news in the age of the Internet is playing out in Springfield, as two longtime institutions — Illinois Issues magazine and radio station WUIS — have merged operations.

RANDY ECCLES, who came to WUIS as its development director in 2008 and became general manager in 2013, is overseeing the operation as interim general manager and publisher. He said the station and magazine actually merged as of July 1, and cross-training continues.

Staff of the magazine have now moved into the same building at the University of Illinois campus that houses the radio station, which is part of NPR. Reporters who have been heard on the radio are becoming regular writers for the magazine, and traditionally print reporters have been learning digital editing and are doing radio stories as well.

Strategic planning for the future began under now-retired Illinois Issues editor DANA HEUPEL, who left the job in early 2014, and Eccles said that process led to the merger.

The story was reported by The State Journal-Register on December 24, 2014.

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UIS Intensive English Program Graduation

In September WICS brought you the story of the Intensive English Program at the University of Illinois Springfield that's attracting students from all over the world.

The program's goal is to teach foreign students English, and then have them get degrees at UIS. 

Thursday, the students featured in our story graduated from the program and are ready to take classes at UIS.

The celebration afterwards was a mix of culture and honors.

"I will go to try some traditional classes and make some new friends and of course go back and see my old friends," Yawen Li, graduate, UIS Intensive English Program.

UIS administrators say the number of students attending the program has doubled over the years and they hope, it continues to grow.

This story appeared on WICS Newschannel 20 on Thursday, December 18, 2014.

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UIS web team help students with finals stress

It's finals week at UIS and students have a new way to hit a winner.

The school's web team created an interactive Pong game for its homepage. It's the old-fashioned video game. It's a stress buster for students and they say it's definitely doing the trick.

"It's definitely a welcomed break from finals and the stress," said Brittany Carls, UIS senior. "It's good to pull up the picture and see 'Oh there's a game' instead of a picture, so just take a little break and play some Pong."

The game is currently on the website, but not for long. It is scheduled to be taken down on Wednesday, but school officials say they may keep the pong up until finals end on Friday because of its popularity.

The game had more than 9,000 hits in less than 24 hours.

The story was reported by WICS-TV 20 on December 16, 2014.

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