UIS at 40: Lynne Price

Campus Health Services Director Lynne Price has been part of the SSU/UIS campus since its beginning. She’s the longest serving employee, who is still working for the university today.

When Price interviewed for the position of staff nurse, campus leaders wanted her to agree to stay at SSU for at least 2 years. Price soon discovered she had found her “niche job” and 2 years turned into 40. She says every time she thinks about retirement a new challenge comes along, which keeps her on campus.

Price remembers students questioning why they even needed a nurse back in the early days of SSU. The need became obvious as the campus grew adding more undergraduate and graduate students, international students and athletic programs.

While they’re many reasons Price loves UIS, she says it’s the students she enjoys the most.

Looking back at the past decade: Chancellor Richard. D. Ringeisen

When University of Illinois Springfield Chancellor Richard D. Ringeisen arrived on campus in 2001 it was a much different landscape.

“We didn’t have University Hall, we didn’t have the quad and we didn’t have the colonnade. Lincoln Hall was under construction,” said Ringeisen.

The campus would grow with the later additions of Founders Residence Hall and The Recreation and Athletic Center (TRAC). While Ringeisen is proud of the physical growth of campus it’s another plan he considers the most important.

“If you ask me flat out what do you think is the greatest thing to happen during your decade I would say the strategic plan. The strategic plan has set goals and said what we were. We have to keep our eye on that plan,” he said.

Under Ringeisen’s leadership the campus grew to over 5,000 students for the first time in its 40-year history. UIS has been the recipient of numerous national awards of excellence in education. Ringeisen says he’s excited about the future of the university he has lead for the past decade.

“I see UIS being one of the first places students think about when they get ready to go to college, not just local people,” he said. “I want to come back when I’m really old, instead of just kind of old, and say wow look at it go. That’s my hope.”

Ringeisen’s retirement is effective October 31, 2010. UIS Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Harry Berman will take over as Interim Chancellor starting November 1, 2010.

UIS at 40: Cullom Davis

As a founding faculty member of Sangamon State University, Cullom Davis has seen the campus grow over the last 40 years. He helped recruit the original faculty and even played a role in designing the buildings on campus.

Davis is known for his work as a historian, having founded an oral history project at the University of Illinois Springfield. He also served as an administrator and dean of Brookens Library during its early days.

Davis is an Emeritus Professor of History at UIS spending time working on the oral history project and traveling.