The article, “Universities pay big bucks to get `star’ professors” (Page 1, July 20), charges that the University of Illinois at Chicago is “betting a lot of its academic chips (and taxpayers’ money)” that new Dean Stanley Fish will help UIC “escape its role as the poor stepsister” to the Urbana-Champaign campus.
UIC is a sister campus to the University of Illinois’ two other campuses in Urbana-Champaign and Springfield. UIC is in no way, however, a poor stepsister.
UIC is one of the country’s top 88 research universities. In the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, where Dr. Fish will be dean and which has more than 9,000 students, most freshmen courses are taught by faculty members who are tenured and tenure-track professors.
Yes UIC will pay Dean Fish $230,000; that is a function of competition for top talent in the academic marketplace. Competitive salaries are required to attract high-quality CEOs and other leaders in almost every industry and occupation.
Nonetheless few faculty members change jobs for money alone. Academic environment counts heavily. UIC’s commitment to diversity and to providing its students with valuable academic experiences enables it to attract faculty leaders, such as Dean Fish. He is, by the way, an internationally renowned scholar in legal and literary disciplines, whose vision and leadership talents can help UIC achieve even higher levels of excellence.
UIC provides top-quality education and research while remaining committed to affordable tuition and diversity. It is obvious to me why Stanley Fish chose to leave Duke University to come here. UIC is many things, but most of all it is a great campus in a great city, serving its students and the citizens of Illinois well.
