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CHICAGO (AP) — The University of Illinois system has hired a new president with an extensive scientific background and familiarity with the deep pockets required to run a university.
State University of New York Vice Chancellor for Research Timothy L. Killeen will oversee the three University of Illinois campuses and their multibillion-dollar operating budget when President Robert Easter retires in June.
Killeen, 62, said he is "in awe of the University of Illinois" when he was introduced Wednesday at the UIC-Chicago campus. Elton John's "Rocket Man" played before he spoke, a nod to his background in space sciences.
"We now have a more complex, global knowledge economy and public higher education institutions must turbocharge their efforts in support of the public good," Killeen, who will be the university's 20th president, said. "I believe that University of Illinois can define and exemplify what public higher education must become in this century. No less. It can be the best."
Christopher Kennedy, the chairman of the university's board of trustees, said Killeen's experience on the financial side of academia was important, Kennedy said.
"We wanted a researcher who would have the credibility with the national funders who could help attract additional academic resources to our state," Kennedy said.
Before moving to SUNY in 2012, Killeen worked as assistant director for geosciences at the National Science Foundation, a federal agency that provides hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research money to the University of Illinois every year.
The widely respected Easter is credited by many with overseeing a relatively calm period for the three university campuses after two successive predecessors resigned during scandals. Still, Killeen faces financial uncertainties — the possibility that already diminished state support could drop further, and concerns over the cost of college.
The university has also started to see smaller percentages of accepted applicants enroll as tuition increases. Four years at the flagship Urbana-Champaign campus, including room and board, now costs more than $100,000.
There are other issues, too. Some faculty at the Urbana-Champaign campus were angered by this summer's decision to rescind a job offer to a Native American Studies professor, Steven Salaita, over profane, anti-Israel tweets that some university donors complained were anti-Semitic.
One faculty member said Wednesday he hoped Killeen brings stability; Killeen will be the fifth president since 2009, including an interim leader.
"What's important to me is that we have a president whose focus is making the people around him better, whose focus is giving us what we need to work," said John Martin, chairman of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois-Springfield.
The university's campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield, along with smaller regional campuses in Rockford and Peoria, have more than 78,000 students and about 23,500 employees.
Killeen is a native of Wales and a U.S. citizen, according to a news release, and holds a Ph.D. from University College London in atomic and molecular physics.
He will be paid a base salary of $600,000 a year, plus up to $100,000 in incentives, university spokesman Tom Hardy said, making Killeen the seventh highest-paid Big Ten president. His appointment still requires the approval of the university's board of trustees, expected in January.
Easter, 67, is paid $478,558. A longtime faculty member and administrator in Urbana-Champaign, Easter became president following the resignation of Michael Hogan, who is now a history professor at the Springfield campus. Hogan resigned under pressure from faculty over his leadership style.
Easter also is expected to remain on the university's faculty.
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Mercer reported from Champaign.
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