Lawmakers are summoning University of Illinois officials to Springfield to discuss a new public-private innovation center near downtown Chicago.
The News-Gazette reports U of I President Tim Killeen and other university officials have been asked to attend a Senate Higher Education Committee hearing about the Discovery Partners Institute on August 28th. The hearing comes after Killeen was urged in June by Republican state Sen. Chapin Rose of Mahomet to inform the community about the project.
The university has also scheduled forums to brief faculty on the initiative at its three campuses August 28th through the 30th.
The institute will partner the Urbana-Champaign campus with Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. It's slated for $500 million in state funding this year.
University officials say an implementation plan will be ready later this year.
