After working for UIS since 1995, UIS Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education Karen Moranski resigned effective Aug. 15 in order to accept a position as associate vice president of academic programs at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California.

“I’ve been here for 21 years and at this point, you know, both personally and professionally it was time for a change,” Moranski said.

Moranski had been in her position as associate vice chancellor for 11 years.

“It’s been my honor and privilege to work at UIS. I would never have gotten to do at another university what I have gotten to do at UIS. So it gave me tremendous opportunities and we made tremendous change,” she reflected.

Interim Provost Jim Ermatinger described Moranski as a tremendous leader at UIS.

“We were fortunate to be the recipient of her expertise in so many areas. She was in multiple roles during her career and was a very integral part of our growth at UIS,” Ermatinger said.

“Karen was someone that deeply cared about the students’ experiences and will be missed,” Ermatinger added.

According to Moranski, her duties at Sonoma State will be similar in nature to her former role at UIS

“I’ll still be focused on retention and still be focused on student support programs. But I’ll be doing that at the graduate level as well as the undergraduate level.”

Moranski said she will also be focusing on efforts to improve diversity at Sonoma State.

“[Sonoma State tends] to draw more heavily from the Hispanic population in California, and so the president is interested in working on diversity, which is something I have been working on a lot in the last couple years, creating an inclusive learning environment for students,” Moranski explained.

“I’m really happy to continue that work,” she added.

Coming to UIS

Moranski was drawn to UIS in 1995 after seeing an advertisement for openings at the university. At the time, she was finishing her Ph.D. in medieval literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I saw an ad from one of the English faculty members for a position in English as I was finishing up my doctorate and applied and got the position as a faculty member,” she said.

Moranski interviewed for a position while the university was still Sangamon State University, but she began working after the switch to the University of Illinois system occurred.

The Change of UIS

During her 21 years at the university, Moranski saw the institution develop significantly.

“I think UIS has come of age. You know it was a somewhat sleepy university. […] Becoming a part of the University of Illinois supercharged [the university] not just in terms of processes but also in terms of possibilities.”

Much of the development Moranski witnessed occurred due to the emergence of underclassmen at UIS.

“We would not have been able to have freshman had we not become part of the University of Illinois. […] It was really only becoming a part of the University of Illinois that allowed us to become a full four-year institution,” Moranski said.

Moranski not only noticed the university change with the entrance of freshman students, but also due to the development of online programs.

“The shift towards online degree completion programs has been a huge change for the institution,” Moranski said.

“Both the freshmen and the online have enabled us to grow enrollment.”

Development of CAP

The entrance of freshmen at the university occurred due to the emergence of the Capital Scholars Honors Program, which Moranski played a major role in.

“I helped first develop the curriculum for CAP scholars,” she said.

Additionally, Moranski served as the associate director of CAP from 2001 to 2004 and the director from 2004 to 2005.

“I loved that job. I still think Marc Klingshirn has the best job on campus. […] Those five years in the honors program were fabulous.”

Besides directing the program and developing the curriculum, Moranski also taught several of the Capital Scholars courses.

“I loved teaching the question courses,” Moranski said.

Capital Scholars question courses include Who Am I?, How Do You Know?, What is Good?, and What is Power?, and Moranski played a major role in creating them.

“For good or ill it was a committee that I led that created those question courses,” Moranski said.

She and her fellow committee members created the question courses after studying different models of interdisciplinary courses.

“The questions I think are still central to students,” Moranski said. “[They] are still central questions that students in a liberal arts tradition […] ought to be asking themselves.”

Diversity

In addition to the development of the CAP program, Moranski also witnessed a diversification of the overall student body.

“We have managed to become very diversified in terms of our student population,” said Moranski, “not only in race [and] ethnicity but rural [and] urban, online [and] on-ground, residential [and] commuter.”

Moranski said the university is continuing to work to effectively increase the diversity on campus while improving the experience for students.

“We’ve been doing some institutional research that actually is based on surveys of students and what their experiences are and […] we’ve got a good basis now,” she said.

Moranski believes it is important to increase the dialogue on the campus, even if it is a difficult dialogue.

“It’s really important that we have difficult dialogues and that we work with students and with faculty and with staff to make sure that everyone knows what an inclusive learning environment looks like.”

According to Moranski, Chancellor Susan Koch and her leadership team are focused on improving the inclusive nature of UIS.

“We’ve been working a little bit with the chancellor and her leadership team to try and take the next step forward for building that very inclusive learning environment where everyone feels at home,” Moranski said.

“I hope that the university continues that work and continues to have those conversation and can really find out what students need to be successful,” she added.

The Future of UIS

“I think UIS has a very bright future,” Moranski said.

Moranski believes the uniqueness of UIS will lead to continued success in the future.

“[UIS] has that public mission to engage on public issues,” she said. “But it also has that smallness and intimacy and focus on student success. I just don’t think you’ll find people that are more dedicated to student success than people at UIS.”

Moranski hopes that UIS will grow, but not too much. “I think we’ll see maybe another residence hall or two,” she said

According to Moranski, UIS is in a position to become an even better institution.

“We’ve been building piece, piece, piece, piece, and now we have many of the pieces and it’s going to be able to take off. It’s poised to really take off. I think the future is really bright.”