After closing a national search for president earlier this year, Illinois State University is preparing to launch another national search for a permanent athletics director.
ISU's athletics department has been under the interim leadership of Jeri Beggs since May 2023; Beggs replaced outgoing athletic director Kyle Brennan, who resigned amid questions about department spending.
Beggs, a former marketing professor who had long worked with the NCAA and the Missouri Valley Conference before becoming interim AD, told WGLT earlier this year that if the university were to do a national search she would decline to be part of the process.
Beggs was not immediately available for comment Friday.
An ISU spokesperson said the plan is to announce a national search for a permanent AD in the coming weeks.
Tenure and tenure-track faculty still bargaining a first contract
Two ISU faculty members who spoke during the public comment session at a Board of Trustees meeting Friday said there remain sticking points between the union that represents them and administrators.
The United Faculty of Illinois State University, representing around 650 tenure and tenure-track faculty members, and ISU have been bargaining a contract for the newly established union since Feb. 28.
Nathan Kapoor, an assistant professor of history, told trustees and meeting attendees faculty that, as negotiations currently stand, a faculty demand for all classroom doors to have locks was not set to be met in full.
Kapoor said faculty members were not satisfied with an administration proposal to ensure locks were part of all new buildings but would only "try to add locks in existing buildings."
"Real progress is yet to be made. That's why we're demanding you direct your negotiations team to come to an agreement with us to keep faculty and students safe," he said. "These calls from the faculty represent an actionable issue that benefits everyone and makes people safer."
Mathematics professor Fusun Akman also spoke Friday, urging the administration to accelerate economic aspects of the negotiations, the details of which she said have not been spelled out despite negotiations entering their sixth month.
Another bargaining session between the two groups is set for Aug. 7.
Other BOT matters
In an update to trustees, ISU president Aondover Tarhule said overall student enrollment deposits are up 3% from this time last year, though he added that official numbers won't be known until the tenth day of the semester.
Tarhule also said the Illinois Board of Higher Education had approved ISU's new undergraduate degree programs in data science and sports communications, both of which will begin enrolling students in fall 2025.
Tarhule also told BOT members the university acquired more than $35 million in private donations, the third-highest total in ISU's history. The university's endowment, a collection of financial assets, is now up 10%, totaling nearly $255 million.
Trustees approved a series of naming agreements during Friday's meeting, including two on behalf of Peoria-based CORE Construction and OSF Healthcare.
CORE Construction will have a management laboratory named after it within the remodeled College of Applied Science and Technology Teaching Laboratories; an indoor practice facility will be renamed the OSF Healthcare Athletics Training Facility. Both naming agreements recognize the "generous financial commitment" of both groups, though specifics were not provided Friday.
Trustees also approved the submission of a so-called argument on behalf of the university to the Higher Learning Commission. The HLC is in the midst of re-accrediting ISU, which it has done for the past 110 years.
Also following a board vote Friday, Kathy Bohn will remain the board's chairperson. Bohn has sat on the board since her appointment in 2019. The BOT also seated a new student trustee, Ryan Russell, a junior marketing major from Metamora.
