Congratulations, Class of 2014!
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Wednesday, May 21, 2014 Next print issue June 18! Read UIC News online uicnews.uic.edu VOLUME 33 / NUMBER 32 www.uicnews.uic.edu facebook.com/uicnews twitter.com/uicnews NEWS UIC youtube.com/uicmedia For the community of the University of Illinois at Chicago Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin College of Liberal Arts and Sciences grad Angelique Bodine celebrates her degrees cum laude in psychology and sociology at commencement May 11. See page 6 and watch the video at youtube.com/uicmedia. Congratulations, Class of 2014! INSIDE: Profile / Quotable 2 | Campus News 4 | Police 10 | People 11 | Sports 12 Steve Schlickman: driving force for Research to prevent hearing loss Inventor, Innovator of the Year Flames baseball hopes for victory transportation center after chemo honored for their bright ideas in the Horizon Profile, page 2 News, page 3 News, page 11 Sports, page 12 2 UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu I MAY 21, 2014 profile Send profile ideas to Gary Wisby, [email protected] Steve Schlickman is driving force behind transportation center By Gary Wisby Steve Schlickman’s first job in public transportation was driving a Georgetown University bus. He later became the head of the RTA. Now he runs UIC’s Urban Transportation Center in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs. The center is “the biggest it’s been in history,” said Schlick- man, its director. “There are 33 projects we’re funding. It’s a big upswing now because we’re included in three national centers designated two years ago for an infusion of $1 million-plus a year in addi- tion to IDOT funding.” Besides administering the center, Schlickman is engaged in some research of his own. “I’m not a trained researcher,” he said. “When I joined the university in 2010, my expertise was in the funding of trans- portation projects — I had a history of chasing money.” That includes the national passenger facility charge, tack- ing $4.50 onto airline tickets, that financed the O’Hare Airport expansion and Midway Airport redevelopment. Schlickman is active in civic activities related to trans- portation. He’s on the board of the Center for Neighborhood Technology and its nonprofit subsidiary, Alternative Trans- portation for Chicagoland, as well as the Active Transpor- tation Alliance and the Neighborhood Capital Institute, a startup that raises funds for disadvantaged communities. He enjoys mentoring and advising students. “I could do that for free.” Schlickman was executive director of the RTA for five Photo: Jenny Fontaine years before he came to UIC. Steve Schlickman, director of UIC’s Urban Transportation Center, enjoys mentoring students. “I could do that for free,” he says. The agency oversees the CTA, the Metra commuter rail system and the Pace suburban bus program. said. Los Angeles and San Francisco are the only other major governmental relations and public affairs for a year and a half. His major frustration was that the RTA lacks the authority cities without a unified system. He spent nearly three years working on the city’s behalf in — ironically, that’s what the “A” in RTA stands for — to coor- “I left because it was a very challenging job and quite Washington, D.C., then the following four years overseeing the dinate the three agencies effectively. frankly, I got tired of it.” ill-fated plan to build a light-rail system in downtown Chicago. “It takes persuasion, effort and time to get the three opera- He contrasted that experience with what he’s doing now. He worked in the private sector for nearly 10 years before tors to follow your lead,” Schlickman said. “The nice thing about working at the university is that going to the RTA. “Your authority is compromised by the politics of the RTA we’re all pulling in one direction, supporting each other,” he Schlickman, who grew up in Arlington Heights, lives in the board and the ability of the agencies to influence the RTA said. South Loop with his wife, Alison. She retired from the Federal board. Any important decision can be stopped by any five His summer driving a bus at Georgetown in 1975, where Reserve Bank two years ago. directors of the 16-member board.” he had just received a bachelor’s degree in government, led They have a son, Pat, 31, a lawyer in New York City, and As a result, “the RTA board and the three operating agen- to a year as dispatcher and safety director and a four-month a daughter, Christy, 27, a special education teacher at Park cies cannot really operate to create the best integrated transit internship with the U.S. Department of Transportation in School in Evanston. system,” he said. Washington, D.C. The couple has a second home in Colorado. “We love the “If you were to form a private company to run a transpor- He earned a law degree from DePaul University, but “I mountains, skiing and horseback riding,” he said. tation system to achieve a profit, you would never set it up this didn’t want to practice, or advocate in a litigious way.” In the city, Schlickman walks and takes public transit. w ay.” From 1980 to 1988 he held a variety of posts with the CTA. “We own a car but rarely use it,” he said. The solution is to roll everything into a single agency, he Recruited by RTA chairman Sam Skinner, he worked in inter- [email protected] quotable “It is not about good and bad people. Violence should “The ways that racial discrimination and racism still “The skill development system has broken down in be seen as a disease: It is interruptible and treatable.” show up in the daily lives of people who still have to some important ways for production workers.” send their kids to public school, for example, makes Gary Slutkin, professor of epidemiology, on his approach it easy to look longingly back into the past.” Howard Wial, executive director of the Center for to treating violence like a disease, May 18 Slate.com Urban Economic Development, on reasons for the Michelle Boyd, associate professor of African American “skills gap” in manufacturing, including companies’ studies and political science, on life 60 years after refusal to offer the training and pay raises available in the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, May 17 NPR previous decades, May 19 Crain’s Chicago Business Weekend Edition MAY 21, 2014 I UIC NEWS I www.uicnews.uic.edu 3 Judge’s ruling halts pension law By Christy Levy University employees now have more time to weigh their retirement options after a judge last week halted implementation of the state’s new pension law. Sangamon County Judge John Belz on May 14 postponed the scheduled June 1 effective date for the pension law until courts can hear constitutional challenges. Employees who filed retirement paperwork because of the pension law may have the option to rescind their retirement. “The ruling preserves the current pension system as we know it, and provides some assurance for employees who were considering retirement before June 30, 2014, to avoid losing benefits they had already earned,” University President Robert Easter wrote in a campus email. “I hope that faculty and staff who were weighing retirement will now decide to stay on and share their talents to benefit the university, Photo: Joshua Clark our students and our state.” Some commonly used drugs in chemotherapy treatments can damage parts of the inner ear involved in hearing, says researcher David Klodd. Employees who signed retirement paperwork but have changed their mind Research goal: prevent hearing loss after chemo should first talk to their supervisor. If the department approves the change in plans, the By Sharon Parmet only realizes something is wrong when employee should contact the State Universities damage affects the part of the inner ear that Watch the video Retirement System, said Maureen Parks, Researchers at UIC and Northwestern detects lower frequency sound. associate vice president for human resources. University are collaborating to develop a Unlike tests that rely on patients to signal “Preventing hearing loss Employees who have retired or are retiring device to prevent hearing loss in patients when they hear a tone, the device — devel- from chemotherapy” this month must submit a signed letter to undergoing chemotherapy. oped by Northwestern researchers Sumit Dhar SURS stating their intent to rescind their Chemotherapy patients are often caught and Jonathan Siegel — can detect changes in youtube.com/uicmedia retirement by July 1. June retirees must submit unaware when they find themselves dealing inner-ear function even before the patient is a letter by Aug. 1. with hearing loss after treatment, says David aware of any change in ability to hear at the “Some people were probably retiring Klodd, professor of audiology. highest frequencies. cause hearing loss. because they were concerned about the “Some commonly used chemotherapy “We were interested in evaluating inner ear Gayla Poling, a clinical audiologist and pension changes and how it was going to affect drugs are ototoxic — that is, they can dam- function out to the limits of human hearing,” postdoctoral fellow at UI Hospital, will as- them personally,” Parks said. “And if they want age structures in the inner ear involved in said Dhar, professor of communication sci- sess participants’ hearing before and during to unretire, they will want to follow the SURS hearing,” Klodd said. ences and disorders. chemotherapy. Twenty patients who are not steps.” Klodd is directing the trial of a new The device delivers two tones to the ear, receiving cisplatin will serve as controls. If employees have already received device to detect hearing loss early in chemo- then measures the echo as the interact- “Our primary goal is to prevent progres- annuities, they must either repay the amount therapy, so doctors can change medications ing waves return from the inner ear.