SIUC will give some of its property to Carbondale and SIU Chancellor Ted Sanders will become the University’s president now that the SIU Board of Trustees approved these proposals at Thursday’s meeting.

The board approved SIU’s entering into a construction-maintenance agreement that will result in SIUC some of its giving land on the south side of Mill Street to Carbondale.

James Tweedy, SIUC vice president of administration, said the land will pay the University’s .25 percent share of the Mill Street underpass cost.

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SIU will enter the agreement with Carbondale, the Illinois Central Railroad Co. and the Illinois Department of Transportation for the Mill Street underpass.

The agreement reports that the underpass is a way of solving traffic problems caused by railroad tracks in the middle of the city and campus. The agreement states that the underpass is expected to improve traffic at the Grand Avenue crossing at the intersection of Mill Street and the University and Illinois Avenues.

Carbondale City Manager Jeffrey Doherty said in a press release that construction of the underpass will cost $5.9 million. He said he expects construction to begin in the summer or next fall and to last 18 to 24 months.

Revisions to board bylaws, statutes and policies were also approved by the board. The board approved changing the chancellor’s title to president and the SIUC and SIUE presidents’ titles to chancellors.

Sanders said in a press release the title changes will make SIU more like Universities across the state and nation.

We’ll start using the new titles Jan. 1, minimizing costs by phasing the changes in slowly in printed material, Sanders said.