<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail-article_head0" style="margin:0.4em 0px 0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px"><p class="gmail-uptitle" style="margin:0px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1.2em;line-height:1.1em"><span class="gmail-Fid_3" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">CHANCELLOR’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL</span></p><p class="gmail-maintitle" style="margin:0px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1.6em;color:rgb(154,61,61);line-height:1.1em"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal;font-weight:bold">Group proposes strategies for growth in C-U</span></p></div><div class="gmail-article_body0" style="margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px"><div class="gmail-first gmail-column" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;width:404.489px;float:left"><div class="gmail-div_padding0" style="margin:0px;padding:3px"><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_0" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">By JULIE WURTH</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_1" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"><a target="_blank" href="mailto:jwurth@news-gazette.com" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(0,0,255)">jwurth@news-gazette.com</a></span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">CHAMPAIGN— A community that keeps startup companies in town, boasts national expertise in agricultural technology and “med tech,” and offers living costs and amenities to attract suburban Chicago retirees to</span><span class="gmail-Fid_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"> Champaign-Urbana.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Those are some of the strategies</span><span class="gmail-Fid_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"> envisioned by an economic</span><span class="gmail-Fid_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"> development group advising Chancellor Robert Jones on how to promote development in one of the state’s fastest-growing communities.</span></p></div></div><div class="gmail-last gmail-column" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;width:404.489px;float:left"><div class="gmail-div_padding0 gmail-split" style="margin:0px;padding:3px"><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">“We’re all in this together. We need to be very thoughtful about how that growth takes place,” Jones told a campus Academic</span><span class="gmail-Fid_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"> Senate group Monday.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_2" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Jones convened the Chancellor’s Economic Development Council in spring 2018 and said it meets regularly, most recently last week. It’s led by Susan Martinis, vice chancellor for</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_0" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Please see GROWTH, A-6</span></p><br style="margin:0px;padding:0px"></div></div><br style="margin:0px;padding:0px;clear:both"></div><hr class="gmail-hr0" style="margin:0.8em 0px;padding:0px;width:808.991px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px"><div class="gmail-article_head1" style="margin:0.4em 0px 0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px"></div><div class="gmail-article_body1" style="margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif,Georgia;font-size:16px"><div class="gmail-first gmail-column" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;width:404.489px;float:left"><div class="gmail-div_padding1" style="margin:0px;padding:3px"><p class="gmail-maintitle" style="margin:0px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1.6em;color:rgb(154,61,61);line-height:1.1em"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal;font-weight:bold">GROWTH</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_6" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Continued from A-<a style="margin:0px;padding:0px;color:blue"><b style="margin:0px;padding:0px">1</b></a></span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">research, who oversees the UI Research Park, along with park Director Laura Frerichs and Pradeep Khanna, associate vice chancellor for corporate relations and economic development.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Community regulars include executives from both Carle Health System and OSF Health Care, Parkland College, local economic development agencies, and representatives from the business and minority communities, he said. They in turn have created subcommittees to work with broader groups on specific issues.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Jones said the council will continue working through this academic year but is already developing plans to make Champaign- Urbana “the epicenter of ag tech.”</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">That effort will focus on leveraging the assets of the UI Research Park, with tenants such as San Francisco-based Granular, an agricultural software firm, and Cargill, which opened an innovation lab there last week to move digital ideas to “test mode.” Jones, a crop scientist in his earlier life, personally visited Cargill to help seal that deal.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">The Chancellor’s Economic Development Council is also looking at how to support new startups so they stay in the community; develop a “transformative” medical technology sector, building on the new UI medical school and cancer center; and leverage the UI’s data analytics expertise, he said.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">It will also involve “thinking about what is the built environment that we’d need to support all of that big-idea growth,” he said, from housing to school systems.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_21" style="margin:0px;padding:0px 10px;line-height:normal">The C-U pitch</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Jones said the council will be coming out with a “pretty aggressive plan that addresses everything from working with community development agencies, working on issues of K-12 education, and trying to create more opportunities to get our young people interested in STEM careers, and ways to really talk about and brand this community in a different way.”</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">It’s working with the UI’s new chief marketing officer, Eric Minor, about how to make Champaign- Urbana attractive not only to students but also retirees, and overcome outdated notions that “there’s nothing to do here.”</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">“How do we turn that around to talk about the positives, in terms of a safe place to raise a family, you can get anywhere within 15 minutes, the assets of the</span><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal"> university providing seamless</span></p></div></div><div class="gmail-last gmail-column" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;width:404.489px;float:left"><div class="gmail-div_padding1 gmail-split" style="margin:0px;padding:3px"><p class="gmail-abody gmail-split" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19 gmail-split" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">entertainment, and engagement opportunities with the university,” Jones said.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">“People that may be tired of the traffic in one of the outlying suburbs of Chicago can come here and have a quality of life that they haven’t even imagined,” he said.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Jones sees the effort as part of the UI’s land-grant mission, which also extends to Chicago and statewide, especially in “this urban age,” he said. He cited the campus’ role in the new Discovery Partners Institute in Chicago and a strategic plan to revamp UI Extension.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">He told members of the Senate Executive Committee they will be hearing more this year about how the campus can be more visible in Chicago and how Extension can be used “to think differently about how to deliver health care,” though he offered no details.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_21" style="margin:0px;padding:0px 10px;line-height:normal">Chicago hope</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">The largest concentration of Illinois alumni — more than 200,000 strong — is in the Chicago area, he said. And the campus has always had a presence there, led mostly by individual faculty members or colleges. But Jones said he’d like to coordinate existing connections through the College of Law, School of Social Work, College of Education and others and strengthen partnerships with “key leaders” in the city.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">The campus already partners with the University of Chicago on several research efforts, “everything from quantum to community,” Jones said, and they will be working together to address issues identified by residents of Chicago’s south side.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">The UI also rolled out a new event this year to boost its presence in the Windy City — the firstever “Illini Fest” on July 18. The outdoor festival at Millennium Park, featuring representatives from 40 academic units as well as top UI athletes and head coaches, drew at least 5,000 people on a stormy Chicago day, he said.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">“We saw a different type of alum showing up at this event that doesn’t show up at some of our other long-standing alumni events,” Jones said, adding that it likely will become an annual event.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">Despite the interest in Chicago, he told the senate group, “I don’t want you to think for one moment that we have forgotten about our long-standing and core commitment to serve every part of this state. We’re a land-grant university. That’s our mission. We’re not giving that up to anybody else.</span></p><p class="gmail-abody" style="margin:10px 15px 0px 0px;padding:0px 10px;font-size:1em;line-height:normal"><span class="gmail-Fid_19" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;line-height:normal">“I can assure you that this institution is anchored here in this great community,” he said.</span></p></div></div></div></div>