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Great
Lakes Centers Home
The Crucial Need for Private Support
The
primary mission of the University of Illinois is education
and research. State dollars allocated for occupational and
environmental health are used to support teaching of graduate
courses and research. Moreover, the overall percentage of
the University of Illinois’ budget provided by state
assistance has been cut back continually since the late 1980s.
Formerly “state supported,” the University is
now “state assisted.” That assistance totals
under 35 percent of the operating budget—down from
72 percent in 1954 and 42 percent only a few years ago. State
dollars do not support service, outreach, or the building
of community and global partnerships. To create and maintain
programs that extend beyond the classroom or laboratory requires
other resources.
For the past 25 years, the Great Lakes Centers have been
funded primarily through competitive federal grants. The
types and amounts of these grants vary from year to year.
There is no assurance that the agencies which fund our Centers
will have funds in the next fiscal year or even that the
agencies themselves will continue to exist from one administration
to another. GLC does not have a dedicated faculty position
for its Director or for any of its faculty. GLC does not
have a state operating budget to support administrative personnel
or pay for supplies and utilities. GLC does not have any
fiscal support to carry out its role as a World Health Organization
Collaborating Centre. If we were to stop writing grants today,
the Centers would soon disappear.
We are seeking philanthropic support to secure the existence
of the Centers into the future. Donations will be put into
a permanent endowment. Interest from this endowment will
support a dedicated leadership position and will provide
the Centers with basic operating expenses to assure the continuity
of their work despite the variations in funding available
through grant cycles. These funds will also be used to support
Visiting Scholars who can enrich our academic community with
their scholarship and broaden our school of thought beyond
the walls of our university. These funds will also be used
to support our global mission as a World Health Organization
Collaborating Centre.
An
Invitation to Partnership
You
can create a living legacy for yourself, a family member,
a respected mentor, or colleague, through a gift that can
support one of several areas. All categories below offer
naming opportunities.
Endowed
Directorship
$3.75
million
Support
of the Directorship of the Great Lakes Centers.
The
person selected for this position would be a professor
at the UIC School of Public Health dedicated to directing
the Centers and to conducting teaching and research on global
environmental and occupational health issues.
Center
Endowment
$5
million
These
funds would be used to provide ongoing support for the
operating expenses of the Centers, including the role
as a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre.
Visiting
Scholars Endowment
$750,000
These
funds would be used to support the travel and living expenses
of up to six national and international scholars per year who
would conduct teaching, research, or service at the Great Lakes
Centers or at one of their partner institutions around the
world.
Global
Centers of Excellence Program Endowment
$750,000
per center
$750,000
is required for the establishment of each international
center of excellence in occupational and environmental health
at our partner institutes around the globe. Current centers
include the Louise Hamilton Center for Children’s Environmental
Health at the Institute of Pediatrics, Obstetrics, and Gynecology
and the Chornobyl Data Management Center at the Institute
of Endocrinology in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Endowed
Health in the Arts Program
$1.5
million
These
funds would be used to provide for a coordinator and
general operating expenses for our Health in the Arts
Program. This program provides training, research, and service
on the special occupational health and safety needs of visual
and performing artists.
The name of each donor will appear in perpetuity on all
publications, educational, and public relations materials
emanating from each category. Please consider helping the
Great Lakes Centers continue their success and service in
improving, promoting, and maintaining the health and safety
of workers, families, and communities across Illinois and
around the world.
How
to Give to the Great Lakes Centers
For
more information on providing support to the Centers, please
contact Susan Mennenga at the Office of Development at
the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public
Health, 312-355-4501 or smenneng@uic.edu.
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