Champaign, IL – Steven Rock and Collin Van Meter have been elected to serve on the State Universities Retirement System (SURS) Board of Trustees by the System’s active members. John Engstrom was elected to serve as an annuitant trustee. Their six-year terms begin July 15.
Steven Rock is an economics professor at Western Illinois University (WIU). He has been in that position since 1990 and served seven years as the chair of the Faculty Senate. Prior to joining WIU, he was at Northern Illinois University (1986-1990), the Illinois Institute of Technology (1978-1986), and University of Illinois at Chicago (1975-1978). Rock has a doctorate from Northwestern University. He is a current member of the SURS Board of Trustees.
Collin Van Meter is a member of the Information Technology Services Unit at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He assists faculty, staff and students with the implementation and utilization of educational technology across the university. Van Meter has worked in the IT field for the last 13 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Illinois College and a master’s degree in computer management and information systems from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
There was one elected annuitant seat open on the board. John Engstrom was the only candidate to return petitions with the necessary 100 signatures to qualify for the seat. For that reason, it was not necessary to hold an annuitant-trustee election. Engstrom, who is retired from Northern Illinois University, will begin serving a new six-year term on July 15, 2018.
SURS conducted the election from April 2 – May 1, 2018, with three candidates vying to fill two active board member terms. Voting was handled by Election-America, an impartial election service company. The vote totals were: Steven Rock – 2,925; Collin Van Meter – 1,797; and Tim Spila – 1,775. There were 72,453 members eligible to vote.
The SURS Board of Trustees consists of 11 trustees: five appointed by the governor including the chairperson who also serves as the chair of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, four active members elected by SURS active members and two annuitants elected by the annuitants of the System.
Other members of the SURS Board of Trustees include: Chairperson Tom Cross, Aaron Ammons, Mark Cozzi, Dennis Cullen, J. Fred Giertz, Paul R.T. Johnson Jr, Craig McCrohon and Antonio Vasquez.
The State Universities Retirement System of Illinois had over 230,000 members and assets of $20.7 billion as of June 30, 2017. The System provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to state university and community college faculty and staff.