University of Illinois at Chicago Office of Public Affairs (MC 288)
601 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL 60607-7113, (312) 996-3456, www.uic.edu/depts/paff

October 30, 2000

Contact: Bill Burton (312) 996-2269; burton@uic.edu

FORMER UI PRESIDENT IKENBERRY TO DELIVER HENRY LECTURE

Former UI President Stanley Ikenberry, president of the American Council on Education, the primary association for the nation's colleges and universities, will deliver the 21st David Dodds Henry Lecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago on Nov. 2.

His lecture, "Old Questions; New Answers: The University in the Conceptual Era," will begin at 2 p.m. in the Molecular Biology Research Building, 900 S. Ashland Ave. A reception will follow.

Ikenberry says the new "conceptual economy" has altered the relationship between the university and society. "My dream for the conceptual economy" he says, "is one in which the ties between the university and the society are closer and more intimate than ever before, but one in which the university and those within it make the choices and call the shots, not the market.

"Over the next several years, a number of key decisions are going to be made," Ikenberry says. The question is, will faculties, administrators and trustees make them, or will the marketplace rule?"

Ikenberry announced last month that he will step down next year as ACE president and return to the University of Illinois' Urbana campus to teach, write and consult. He has expressed interest in teaching for the UIUC College of Education and in analyzing educational policy.

Ikenberry was president of the UI from 1979 to 1995. Among his accomplishments as UI president was the transformation of the Chicago campus by consolidating the university's medical center and the UI at Chicago Circle into the largest, most comprehensive research university campus in the Chicago area. On the Urbana campus he instituted such major academic initiatives as the $50 million Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

As ACE president, Ikenberry led the higher education community through the development and passage of the Clinton administration's Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning tax credits, a major policy change in the use of the federal tax code in financing higher education. He also helped ACE lead a national grassroots campaign to better inform the public on cost and access issues.

Before joining the UI, Ikenberry was senior vice president for administration at Penn State University, where he held an appointment as professor of higher education. He earlier served as senior vice president for university development and relations and as associate director of the Penn State Center for the Study of Higher Education.

Ikenberry held administrative and research positions at West Virginia University and at Michigan State University, where he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in 1957 and 1960. He received his B.A. from Shepherd College (W.Va.) in 1956.

Ikenberry has chaired the boards of directors of ACE, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, as well as the executive committee of the Association of American Universities. He currently serves on the boards of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, Pfizer Inc. and UtiliCorp United of Kansas City.

The David Dodds Henry Lecture was established in honor of Henry, university president from 1955 to 1971.

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