UIS College of Business and Management hosts author Benjamin Powell to speak on the economic benefits of immigration

The University of Illinois Springfield College of Business and Management will host a presentation by author Benjamin Powell as part of the Christine & Lou Friedrich Speaker Series. Powell will present “Business, Ethics and Immigration – Why we should welcome the ‘Wretched Refuse,’” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 20 via Zoom.

Powell, author of “Wretched Refuse: The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions,” will speak on the economic benefits of immigration. Drawing on examples from the United States, Israel and Jordan, Powell makes the case that open labor markets benefit countries, businesses and individuals. In turn, this economic flourishing lays the foundation of an ethical argument for why we should welcome immigrants. 

Powell is also the executive director of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University and a professor of economics in the Rawls College of Business. He is the author of “Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy,” co-author of “Wretched Refuse: The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions” and of the Amazon best- selling book “Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World.” He is editor or co-editor of five other books including, “The Economics of Immigration: Market-Based Approaches, Social Science and Public Policy.” He has appeared on numerous radio and television shows including, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, Showtime, CNBC and was a regular guest commentator on Fox Business's Freedom Watch and Stossel.

This speaker series is made possible thanks to a gift from Christine and Lou Friedrich to help jump-start the Business and Society project which includes initiatives in finance, economics, and the future of business education. Lou Friedrich is a life director of the University of Illinois Foundation Board of Directors, and an alumnus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in general engineering. 

The Zoom can be accessed by visiting uis.edu/cbm/ and clicking on the Zoom link provided. 

The UIS College of Business and Management is AACSB accredited and offers nine undergraduate and three graduate degrees, in addition to seven graduate certificates.

For more information, contact William Kline at 217-206-8138 or wklin2@uis.edu.

Lunch and Learn Series focuses on "Our Financial Institutions and the Public Trust"

Join us for another thought-provoking educational luncheon on University of Illinois Springfield campus on Wednesday, November 17. These lunch-time programs, 40th Anniversary Timely Talk About Timeless Topics, held in the lobby of Sangamon Auditorium from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. will build upon our SSU heritage of open dialogue and intelligent debate. Designed to inform as well as stimulate creative thinking, a panel of faculty emeriti, current faculty and other experts will make brief presentations and engage in discussion among themselves and with the audience.

November 17 the topic is "Our Financial Institutions and the Public Trust". Dr. Ron McNeil, dean of the College of Business and Management will moderate a panel who include: Dennis Shaul, senior professional staff, Financial Services Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.; Dr. Roy Wehrle, UIS faculty emeritus of Economics, Bill Wheelhouse MA '99 PAA, general manager of public radio station WUIS and Amy Hagen MBA '02 CBM, market president, U.S. Bank Taylorville. They will engage in discussion as they discuss our financial institutions from an international, national, state and local perspective.

Reservations are available for a delicious hot buffet lunch that begins at 11:30 a.m. The cost for lunch is $20 per session. The presentations that begin at noon and end at 1:30 p.m. are free and open to the public. Pre-paid luncheon reservations are required by Friday, November 12. Pre-registration is requested from those not purchasing the lunch, but who wish to attend the presentations to assure seating. . For more information and to register, visit www.uiaa.org/uis/ or contact the Office of UIS Alumni Relations at 217/206-7395 or alumni@uis.edu. This program is part of the Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speakers series at UIS. Sponsors are the UIS Alumni SAGE Society, the Illinois State Historical Society and the Office of UIS Chancellor.

Area leaders provide feedback to UIS Business College

The Executive Advisory Committee for UIS’ College of Business and Management met with Dean Ron McNeil at the University of Illinois Springfield on Friday, May 14.

Discussion points included: the competencies UIS business graduates need to be successful, how the college could assist with the committee members’ own plans for employee development, and the interactions they would like in the future with the faculty, staff, and students of the college.

Results of the discussion will form the basis of actionable outcomes for the College of Business and Management in the coming year.

Attending the meeting with Dean McNeil and the department chairs of the college were Dr. Michael O. Ayers, Executive Vice President and COO of Illinois Chamber of Commerce; Mr. Micah Bartlett, Chairman President & CEO; Town and Country Bank; Mr. Erich Bloxdorf, Executive Vice-President, Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce; Ms. Linda L. Brookhart, Executive Director, State Universities Annuitants Association; Ms. Debbie Cimarossa, Assistant Vice President, Horace Mann Insurance Company; Mr. Robert O. Clary, Manager of Systems Department, State Farm Insurance Companies, Bloomington, IL; Mr. Bill Engel, Brandt Consolidated Incorporated; Mr. John B. Farrell, Chief Executive Officer, Illinois Ventures for Community Action; Mr. Donald Johnson, Jr., retired executive, Peoria, IL; Mr. James Lue, Owner and President, Novanis, Incorporated; Ms. Pamela McClelland, Kerber, Eck & Braeckel, LLP: Mr. Eric Oschwald, Market President, PNC Bank; and Mr. Franklin Wade, Archer Daniels Midland Company Office of College Relations of Decatur.

For more information contact Joe Hughes, director of development for the UIS College of Business & Management at jhugh3@uis.edu.

UIS Peoria Center to hold open house at new location

The University of Illinois Springfield is celebrating its new downtown Peoria location by hosting an open house. The Peoria Center is located inside the Illinois Central College Perley Building, Room 120, 115 Southwest Adams Street in Peoria. The open house will take place on Thursday, October 29, 2009 from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. and is open to UIS alumni and friends. The new space will provide a central location and more room to allow the center to continue providing place-bound working adults with affordable, convenient way to pursue their dreams.

The UIS Peoria Center had long been located on the ICC campus before the move and will mark 34 years in the city this year. Since its establishment in 1975, more than 2,426 area students have graduated from the degree programs at the Center. The programs offered have changed over the years, but the focus has remained on providing Peoria area working adults the opportunity to earn a degree and enhance their career options.

“The programs we offer in Peoria are business related in direct response to demand,” said Jana Wise, director of the UIS Peoria Center. “Our students, most of whom are not only working full-time but raising families, tell us it’s a tremendous opportunity to earn a U of I degree from an accredited College of Business and not have to leave Peoria.”

The programs currently offered at the UIS Peoria Center are a bachelor of arts degree in Accountancy; a bachelor of arts degree in Management; a bachelor of arts in Criminal Justice; a master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA), and a minor in Management Information Systems. In addition, three business degree completion programs are offered entirely online, a bachelor’s degree in Economics, bachelor’s in Business Administration (BBA), and the Master of Science degree in Management Information Systems.

Most classes at the UIS Peoria Center are offered evenings and weekends, which accommodates working students and also the faculty. The same faculty who teach on the main campus in Springfield drive to Peoria to teach in the evenings. The business courses offered in their programs are relevant to issues impacting the economy, such as Technology, Management, Forensic Accounting, and Global Leadership.

For more information contact Jana Wise, director of the UIS Peoria Center at 309/999-4250 or wise.jana@uis.edu.

UIS hosts regional contest in 34th annual International "Battle of the Brains"

Local Information Technology Code Warriors Compete on Campus to Showcase Problem-Solving Skills at Regional Competition of IBM-sponsored Contest

WHAT: The powerhouse computer programming team from the University of Illinois Springfield and top collegiate programmers from surrounding areas will compete in an all-out “battle of the brains.”

WHO: Teams from the University of Illinois Springfield, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Augustana College, Illinois College, Illinois State University, Knox College, and Trinity Christian College.

WHEN: Saturday, October 24, 2009 from 9:30 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: University Hall Building (UHB) on UIS Campus in 2nd floor Cisco labs

DETAILS: Imagine completing a semester’s worth of computer programming in one afternoon. The IBM-sponsored ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, the most prestigious computer programming competition of its kind, will gather tens of thousands of students from universities in approximately 90 countries on six continents during its preliminary rounds through December. One hundred teams from around the globe will earn coveted spots at the Contest’s World Finals February 1-6, 2010 hosted by Harbin Engineering University in Harbin, China.

The 34th annual Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest challenges teams of three university students to use their programming skills and rely on their mental endurance to solve complex, real world problems under a grueling five-hour deadline. One hundred successful teams will advance to the World Finals in Harbin, China. IBM’s sponsorship has fueled the growth of the contest to include tens of thousands of students. Since the IBM sponsorship began in 1997, the number of teams participating has grown from 1,100 to more than 7,100 teams. For more information on previous contests, problem sets and last year’s final standings, please visit http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/. Also visit IBM’s contest page at www.ibm.com/university/acmcontest/ or the contest podcast series at battleofthebrains.podcast.com.

For more information about the event at UIS please contact Lucinda Caughey, Computer Science Instructor at 217/206-8336 or lcaug2@uis.edu.

Campus invited to investiture ceremony

Dr. Karl McDermott will be invested as UIS Ameren Distinguished Professor of Business and Government

5 p.m. Thursday, September 25, in Brookens Auditorium

The campus community is invited to attend the ceremony, which will celebrate both Dr. McDermott and Ameren.

UIS to host workshop on cybersecurity for small businesses

The Computer Science department at the University of Illinois at Springfield will host a half-day workshop designed to help small businesses recognize and address potential threats to their information systems on Tuesday, September 9, in conference room C/D in the Public Affairs Center on the UIS campus.

The program is free, however space is limited and advance registration is required.

Co-sponsors along with UIS are the FBI's InfraGard program, the Small Business Administration, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The NSF Regional Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance is also assisting with the conference.

Since more than 95 percent of all businesses in this country are small or medium-sized, with 500 or fewer employees, problems that small businesses commonly face are potential threats to the national economic base.

To address this issue, the NIST, SBA, and FBI have established a series of regional seminars on IT security for small businesses that cover the basics of setting up and operating an information security program. Participants will learn how to define information security, common threats and how to address them, current best practices and procedures for operating more securely, what technologies are currently used to reduce IS vulnerabilities, and what resources are readily available to small businesses.

The UIS workshop will be facilitated by Richard Kissel, senior information security analyst for the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. At NIST, Kissel's primary responsibilities are to review federal agency information security programs and to plan for and conduct information security workshops for managers and staff of small organizations.

The program will conclude with a short briefing by an FBI cyber security special agent on local and national issues of note.

UIS' Computer Science department offers undergraduate and graduate degrees designed to provide students with experience in mastering problem-solving skills relevant to business, scientific, and public issues. The department is a Cisco Regional Networking Academy and the curriculum is certified by the Committee of National Security Systems and the National Security Agency.

InfraGard is a partnership between the FBI and leaders in business, education, and government. The NIST, a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, works to advance measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve the quality of life. The Small Business Administration is an independent federal agency designed to aid, counsel, assist, and protect the interests of small business concerns. CSSIA addresses the needs of professionals in information technology security by increasing faculty expertise and higher education training programs in IT security and data assurance.

To register for the workshop, contact Stephanie Schatz at stephanie.schatz@sba.gov, or phone 217/793-5020, ext. 114.

For additional information, visit http://csrc.nist.gov/securebiz/, or contact UIS Computer Science Instructor Janis Rose at rose.janis@uis.edu or 217/206-8246.