New 4-year state university in Peoria?

[FlyingSpaghettiMonster]

The current system is so underfunded that the best and brightest are leaving academia teaching all together.

Umm... Do you have a source for this statement? At least in my field the best are in the private sector.

[tornado]

The other biggest thing in this story beyond the lack of state money - is...
What is the incentive for the Peoria City Council to be involved in any way?

Obviously a new 4-year school whether private or state - wouldn't give a flying hoot what the Peoria City Council thinks nor would they ask for or demand the Council's blessing.
........and as already indicated - if a new school was placed anywhere within a 50 mile radius of Peoria, whattya wanna bet it would NOT be in the Peoria City limits -- it would more than likely be in East Peoria where ICC main campus is or Dunlap, Chilli, or somewhere friendlier than Peoria...

Recall how many businesses tried to find friendly help from Peoria and then in the end decided to go to East Peoria, Morton, or elsewhere...
and recall all the great help from the City Council and Ms. Van Auken the Bradley people get all the time....

[wizard1]

Four Year State University in Peoria

Except for the possibility of expanding ICC into a four year school, this is a totally off-the-wall DUMB idea, IMO.

The state and city have no money---Does this mean a totally new campus is built w/ classrooms, labs, dorms, etc.? Are we going to raise taxes to do this? Doing this kind of project based on "civic ego" (ie-"Peoria is the only large metro. area without a State 4 Year School") is not smart at all, IMO.

Will such a school be academically viable or will it simply become a parking place to get underachieving High School and JC students who don't really qualify for a four year school off the streets?

Why is such a school needed? Has anyone done any kind of in depth study on
such a project?

Mayor Ardis and the Council should have their heads examined if they really believe this is the kind of thing we should be spending $$$ on while we are trying at the same time to reduce the city budget by reducing police and fireman, letting our streets and sidewalks go to Hell, and providing fewer city services.

A dumb,Dumb, Dumb idea.

[tornado]

wiz - more people are going to college than ever before and the population is growing - so I can see that maybe a new university might be part of some very long range plans.

It is well known that city and county officials, Councilmen, zoning board members, etc...
all have a strange way of benefitting greatly and lucratively from large building projects in their districts or under their watch -- so don't count out that there just might be some yet to be mentioned motive behind this...

Let's put it this way -- I have no idea what's going on in the minds of any city councilman/woman but it wouldn't be the first time some major project was associated with some councilman getting rich in a hurry.
It happens in BIG CITIES a whole lot, and counties and even small cities.

[it's boogie time]

I assume a City Council would be interested in a four year state funded university because it brings a stable workforce that won't be shipped to Mexico or China and the students tend to bring plenty of disposable income into thier town. I heard they are somewhat recession-proof since many people go back to school when the economy is down. However, I don't think anything really is recession-proof.

[wizard1]

Four Year State College in Peoria

t---I agree w/ you that more people are going to college and the growth in population is driving much of this. However, my problem is that (1.)I have some doubts that all of these people are truly qualified to go to college and
(2.) Are they really getting a quality college education or are most of these 4 year colleges offering second rate academics and second rate college environments?

In the meantime, would we be better off building good trade schools for high school graduates who don't really qualify for a 4 year college? Where are our future plumbers, electricians, bricklayers, tile setters, auto mechanics, carpenters, etc. going to come from?

And finally, should we be focusing on high school drop outs and get them back in school for a GED or into trade schools? Drop outs are a major problem in our society IMO. They are mostly unemployed, have no marketable skills, and contribute to the crime rate. Perhaps this is an area we should be focusing max. attention and $$$ on.

[SFP]

Wizard on this we see eye to eye. The majority of our top Universities are filling up their capacity with qualified applicants from over seas.

[SFP]

Umm... Do you have a source for this statement? At least in my field the best are in the private sector.

In the past the brightest minds worked and wrote papers while employed in academic environments as you said they are now in the private sector. We agree here.

[AZ BU Fan]

Wizard on this we see eye to eye. The majority of our top Universities are filling up their capacity with qualified applicants from over seas.

Overseas students attending top Universities pay more than domestic students?

[tornado]

I .... Chicago State, a corrupt, poorly run university that nobody would ever choose to send their kid to unless they simply had no choice. Do we really want another Chicago State here in Peoria?

I am sure this will surprise everyone -- they just discovered even more corruption at Chicago State..

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-hundreds-who-got-aid-at-chicago-state-should-not-have-been-enrolled-20110810,0,4546245.story

"Chicago State has a policy that students with a grade-point average below 1.8 will be dismissed
???for poor scholarship,??? but records obtained by the Tribune show students were allowed to
continue registering for classes with GPAs as low as 0.0.

...Of those students, 106 had a grade point average of 0.0 and still received financial aid from
the taxpayer-funded Monetary Award Program, known as MAP."

....receiving up to............"$4,968 a year."

[tornado]

Here's an article that might be relevant....and hints that just maybe Illinois shouldn't enter into something unless they know they're gonna pay for it..

The State of California has obviously been using LOTS of taxpayer funds to develop, build, maintain, and squander money on their Cal-State University system for decades...

They've been horribly irresponsible, spending and wasting like the money was endless....until now...

Now - they are struck with the sudden realization of something that most every citizen and taxpayer has known for most of their lives...
that if you keep spending more than you have, sooner or later, you're going to go bust....and it's now happening...

To make things worse...the younger citizens are protesting
-- they want their handouts!

ahhh...the end result of government giveaways and handouts -- a dependent society who will riot if they don't keep getting their way...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2089593,00.html

[tornado]

OK - I know it's a stretch - a rumor at best - but I just bumped into an ISU fan who is a big supporter of his alma mater -
and he says that ISU has a long range plan to expand, which might ultimately include other campuses, maybe a Peoria Campus - I guess it'd be ISUP (ISU-Peoria)
Reportedly it has never been made public but influential people are discussing it in the context of getting a 4-year STATE school in or near Peoria...
Other state schools obviously are doing it (SIU-E, UI-S) so the whole thing seems plausible....

Has anyone else heard any such thing??

[amckillip]

OK - I know it's a stretch - a rumor at best - but I just bumped into an ISU fan who is a big supporter of his alma mater -
and he says that ISU has a long range plan to expand, which might ultimately include other campuses, maybe a Peoria Campus - I guess it'd be ISUP (ISU-Peoria)
Reportedly it has never been made public but influential people are discussing it in the context of getting a 4-year STATE school in or near Peoria...
Other state schools obviously are doing it (SIU-E, UI-S) so the whole thing seems plausible....

Has anyone else heard any such thing??

Really, the only comparable example is SIU-E, as U of I Springfield which is actually an evolution of Sangamon State, a Senior College. This move wouldn't surprise me, Peoria is a pretty large market to not have some presence of a public 4-yr university (the minor extension of U of I Springfield not withstanding). Overall though, I'd say this is a long shot, SIU-E was so desirable given it's proximity to St. Louis, obviously a much larger market than Peoria, and ILSU and Western are still fairly close.

[tornado]

But where there's smoke, there's fire...and it's being discussed that certain powerful players are working behind the scenes to land a 4-year STATE school campus in Peoria.
Reportedly these include people who are no friend to Bradley....

and here are some other examples -
ICC expanded from just an East Peoria campus to having downtown Peoria and a North Peoria campuses..
U of I had a "Chicago Circle Campus" but it grew so much it is now an independent university (UIC)...
Northwestern also has a CHICAGO campus - LINK....
Purdue placed a campus just outside the south Chicago suburbs - Purdue Calumet Campus
even private schools, Robert Morris University - which already had Chicago & Springfield campuses, is now very active promoting their Peoria campus...and Lewis Univ. has a Chicago Campus.

There has long been talk that it might happen with ICC affiliating with University of Illinois in Champaign - and developing an idea for a U of I campus in Peoria as a state school...
here's an article about that very idea from just last fall -

http://wglt.org/wireready/news/2012/10/07770_UofIPeoria_041838.shtml

[tornado]

I found more - but in some pretty obscure places ..

The Chillicothe, IL newspaper had this story on how UIS is looking to expand their curriculum as a 4-year school in Peoria

http://www.chillicothetimesbulletin.com/article/20121022/NEWS/121029962

University of Illinois President Robert Easter has confirmed in this audio interview -
that "talks ARE underway" to expand with a 4-year campus in Peoria - this was never reported in print that I can find..

http://wcbu.bradley.edu/content/10-18-12-thursday-morning-edition-newscast