U of I chancellor reflects before his retirement: 'I'm going to miss it with all my heart'
The Brief
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert Jones is settling down after nine years.
Jones is the first African American chancellor in the school's 158-year history.
His replacement has not been announced.
After nine years at the top, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign chancellor Robert Jones is leaving for a new job as president of the University of Washington.
He sat down for an exit interview with FOX 32 about the successes and challenges of his historic tenure.
Jones isn't your typical ivory tower academic. We walked with Jones as he encountered a group of students taking pictures in front of the university's famed alma mater statue.
"Hey guys! I heard you were hanging out at alma. I thought I'd come to join you," said Jones, as he posed for selfies with the soon-to-be-graduating students.
After nine years leading the state's flagship university, Jones said this year's graduation ceremony will be bittersweet.
"I'm going to miss it with all my heart. I really am," Jones said, becoming emotional. "Well, you can't help but be emotional about a place you've grown to love."
Robert Jones' legacy
Jones is the first African American chancellor in the school's 158-year history.
At 73, he said he felt it was time for a new challenge and would soon be taking over as president of the University of Washington.
"I fundamentally believe you can stay in these jobs too short of a time to be effective. But you can also stay in them too long."
Under Jones' stewardship, the University of Illinois has boosted enrollment by 26%. The student population is now nearing 60,000.
"We are very proud that we had the largest class in the history of the university this past fall," said Jones.
And while tuition remains stubbornly high, it's now more in line with peer universities. Jones said he's proud of his role in creating the Illinois Commitment program, which promises free tuition to any Illinois student whose family makes less than $75,000 a year.
"Illinois Commitment made it possible for us to take that notion of cost off the table and send a very strong message that if you prepare yourself, you too can have an Illinois education," Jones said.
Another positive under Jones' watch – Illinois' long-dormant sports programs, especially the Illini football team, have come back to life.
"A lot of people don't want to acknowledge this, but that drives applications, and it drives people wanting to identify with the university," Jones said.
In the 1960s, the University of Illinois gained fame as the birthplace of the fictional computer HAL 9000 from "2001: A Space Odyssey." Now the university is at the forefront of real-life research and development into artifical intelligence as part of the Chicago Quantum Exchange.
"As we talk about AI and the future of computing, especially as it relates to quantum computing, it runs squarely through this university," said Jones.
COVID-19 at the university
But there have also been challenges on Jones' watch – especially COVID-19.
"It was an absolute game-changer," he said.
Jones said the decision to shut down the university was hard, but they were able to go to online learning in just 10 days.
And the campus was able to fully reopen the following fall, thanks to a COVID-19 test developed by U of I scientists.
"And in less than six weeks, not only did they create one of the best, if not the best saliva-based COVID-19 tests in the world, it was the most sensitive and most cost-effective test," said Jones.
The next chapter
As he heads out the door, Jones is facing a new challenge out of Washington D.C., where the Trump administration is slashing funding to higher education for both student loan programs and universities themselves.
"The impact could potentially be devastating. Not only on the students, but particularly on the research front," said Jones. "To do that research and innovation that has really made this country the envy of the rest of the world is at great risk here. And unfortunately, the part that keeps me up at night, if we lose that stellar position it's going to be exponentially more difficult to get it back. It won't happen in my lifetime."
A committee is currently working to find Jones' replacement. The university said they hope to have that person in place by the beginning of the fall academic year.
The Source
Details for this story come from an interview with Chancellor Robert Jones.
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