- The board was reportedly not involved in the decision to close WoodView Commons, which houses 249 students.
- Trustees questioned the rationale behind the closure, citing a need for documentation supporting claims of disrepair.
- Concerns were raised about the impact on students without vehicles and the potential negative effect on enrollment.
Correction: The name of Gale Thetford, a member of the Illinois Central College Board of Trustees, was misspelled in previous editions of this story.
Several members of the Illinois Central College Board of Trustees on Thursday expressed frustration with a perceived lack of communication about the upcoming closure of the school's on-campus housing complex.
The board discussed the closure of WoodView Commons during a special meeting. Trustees said the lines of communication were lacking between itself, school administrators and ICC’s Educational Foundation. The Educational Foundation Student Residence LLC manages the property.
ICC president Sheila Quirk-Bailey announced in March that WoodView Commons would shut down because the facility needed significant upgrades. This included replacing stairs throughout the complex, which would have exhausted financial reserve for the student housing project, according to the email. Currently, 249 ICC students live on campus with nearly 100 of them expected to graduate in May.
“This … is not an effort to make the college administration or the Educational Foundation look bad,” said Cindy Byrd, the board vice-chair. “We are aware of and highly appreciative of all the foundation has done over the years in support of our ICC students and the mission of this college.
"However, this board did not have a role in the decision to close student housing this fall.”
The board did not sanction the closing and did not vote on whether to close on-campus housing, Byrd said. The Educational Foundation and Educational Foundation Student Residences LLC members made the decision to close during a January closed session, she said.
“We were told the Educational Foundation Student Residence LLC would be making a decision in early March,” Byrd said. “We're now told it was actually made in January.”
Trustee Carl Cannon criticized the Educational Foundation for what he saw as a failure to keep the board apprised of developments about ICC’s on-campus housing situation. He said he had gotten “fragmented updates” expressing concerns about conditions in the complex, particularly the stairways.
But until Cannon received the email last month, he said the board had not gotten any indication the facility was permanently closing.
“We have claims that student housing is being shuttered because it's dilapidated,” Cannon said. “If that is truly the case, then where is the independent engineering report that verifies this assessment? Where's the documentation?”
Trustee Gale Thetford said that after ICC announced the closure of student housing, friends and acquaintances approached her with concerns about students who did not have vehicles, or about how the lack of on-campus housing could potentially hurt enrollment. She also called for better teamwork.
“I really want to believe that it is indeed the goal of the administration to for us to have student housing,” Thetford said. “I think it's important. It sets us apart and after having some conversations with parents and students … even if there were some issues with the condition of the housing, they really appreciated the housing. So, I'm still very concerned about what happens in that arena.”
The next ICC Board of Trustees meeting is scheduled for April 24.
