He helped guide the University of Illinois through the pandemic and two years without a state budget.
President Tim Killeen is looking back at his 11 years leading the U of I System before leaving the post in June of next year.
He proudly points to the record enrollment of 102,000 students across Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield as an example of how the university has grown in many ways.
A study commissioned by the system last year found that it generates almost $25 billion a year for the state.
Killeen has made some tough choices, like deciding to stop construction after a month and a half on the Discovery Partners Institute in the South Loop area known as The 78.
An audit released last month found he did that after the state spent about $38 million to build the tech hub headquarters.
Killeen told WBBM that was due to shifting expenses during the pandemic that dramatically raised the cost of new construction while leaving plenty of downtown office space vacant.
The university instead bought existing office space in the Loop and pivoted the DPI’s focus to quantum computing and the responsible use of AI, he says.
