Sponsored the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Every August, the UIC Provost hosts a Leadership Retreat bringing together UIC’s leaders to address an important issue. Topics and keynote speakers from recent years have included the following:

• In 2020, attendees came together virtually to discuss strategies for Building Excellence and Community Online during amidst the COVID-19 public health crisis.
• In 2019, attendees celebrated and discussed the future of the new UIC John Marshall Law School: A Framework for Interdisciplinary Research and Studies at UIC.
• In 2018, faculty and students shared their expertise and perspectives on how UIC could build a comprehensive campus-wide Center for Teaching Excellence. Feedback, ideas, and comments shared from attendees during the breakout sessions were utilized during the process of creating the new UIC Center for Teaching Excellence.
• In 2017, the retreat explored the question “who is responsible for student success?”. Spencer Foundation President Na’ilah Suad Nasir spoke on diversity, inclusion, and climate in the classroom. Attendees discussed ways in which all UIC employees – from faculty to teaching assistants, maintenance workers to cashiers, deans to administrative support – can share the responsibility for the success of our students.
• In 2016, the topic was “Building a Culture of Excellence and the Risk of Risk Aversion” and featured keynote speaker Dr. Arin Reeves, President of Nextions and a leading researcher, author and advisor in the fields of leadership and inclusion. At her first Leadership Retreat since joining UIC, Provost Susan Poser led a discussion on the real and/or perceived barriers to taking risks and being innovative at UIC and what university leaders, faculty, and staff can do to eliminate these barriers.
• In 2013, distinguished economist David Audretsch (University of Indiana) spoke on the role of the modern university in economic development and innovation, to support our theme “UIC: Scholarship in Action.”
• The 2012 retreat, titled “What Counts?,” featured keynote speaker Nancy Cantor, President/Chancellor at Syracuse University, addressing the question of how UIC’s mission can be most effectively expressed in national, state, and other ranking systems.
• In 2011, James Duderstadt, President Emeritus of the University of Michigan, spoke on the entrepreneurial behavior that public universities are exhibiting after years of diminishing state support.
• In 2003, the goal of the first UIC Leadership Retreat was to bring together campus leaders to consider questions critical to the short- and long-term future of UIC.