The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has approved plans to create Global Campus, a proposed online institution that has drawn fire from some of the university’s faculty.
B. Joseph White, the university’s president, had initially stated that Global Campus was to function as its own corporation. But a group of professors, arguing that the online venture could damage the reputation of the bricks-and-mortar institution, persuaded Mr. White to recast Global Campus as an academic unit within the university (The Chronicle, January 18).
Although they authorized Mr. White to go ahead with the project, some trustees urged Mr. White to pay close attention to continuing faculty concerns, according to The News-Gazette of Champaign. Illinois has already spent more than $1-million on Global Campus, and university officials estimate that start-up expenses could run up to $20-million. —Brock Read
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