Dr. Elnora D. Daniel was appointed president of Chicago State University (CSU) on August 1, 1998. She assumed this presidential post after more than three decades of higher education administrative, consultative and grantsmanship experience in the United States and abroad. Prior to her appointment at CSU, she served as executive vice president and provost at Hampton University. Since assuming the presidency of CSU, Dr. Daniel has facilitated institutional transformation including five areas of critical importance to the University, namely, fiscal operating improvements, federal, state and private funding, capital improvements, strategic planning and technological enhancements. Specifically, under President Daniel's administration, the University has enjoyed: three consecutive years of balanced budgets following four prior years of deficits; increased federal funding from $17 million in 1998 to $23 million in 2001; and the securing of funds for five new buildings and a major building renovation. The new buildings are a $35 million state-of-the-art library, a $32 million 7,000-seat convocation center, a new $5 million conference center, a $5 million childcare center and a $5 million financial outreach center. These five facilities are the first state-funded buildings constructed since the university's 1972 relocation to its current site. Ten [10] million dollars was secured for the renovation of a community service facility and $2.5 million dollars was secured for enhanced technology including campus-wide high-speed computer access for all faculty members and students. Further, upon her arrival, President Daniel initiated a university-wide self-examination process that has resulted in a comprehensive strategic plan that engaged all university constituents and serves as the road map for the university's transformation.
As a result of President Daniel's initiatives, business and community relationships with the University have substantially increased. She has reconstituted the Chicago State University Foundation and contributions to the Foundation have also increased significantly. Additionally, her fundraising efforts have more than doubled the size of the CSU endowment. Under her administration, the Foundation sponsored the first faculty and staff capital campaign and exceeded its goal by forty percent. President Daniel has also constituted a President's Advisory Council that is composed of leading Chief Executive Officer's in the greater Chicago region.
Dr. Daniel's international reputation is reflected in her appointment by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to serve as a consultant in the area of regulatory health care reform to Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. Additionally, she served as a consultant for Operation Smile International in Liberia, Kenya and Ghana. Her grantsmanship efforts in service to the Tidewater Region in Virginia culminated in the purchase of a Mobile Health Unit providing access to under-served urban and rural populations. In May 2000, President Daniel was invited by Governor George Ryan (IL) to represent the higher education community as a member of the trade mission that inaugurated the Illinois Trade Commission in South Africa.
President Daniel sits on myriad local and national boards and advisory panels addressing diverse constituencies. These appointments include the National Advisory Board for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities' Millennium Leadership Initiative, the Commission on Adult Education for the American Council on Education, the Board of Directors for the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education [NAFEO], Chicago Consortium for Higher Education, Junior Achievement, the Board of Directors of The Little Company of Mary and the La Rabida Children's Hospital, the Advisory Board for the Family and Community Violence Prevention Program. She is a Principal Member of Chicago United, the Women's Board of the Field Museum, the Economic Club of Chicago, the Women's Network of Chicago, the League of Women Voters of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry's External Relations Ad Hoc Committee, a member of the Education Alliance of Chicago, University Club of Chicago, and the Commercial Club of Chicago. President Daniel is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, a Charter Member of the Teachers College/Columbia University Distinguished Leaders Nursing Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame of Today's Chicago Woman and has published extensively and holds numerous academic and civic awards.
Dr. Daniel earned the M.Ed. and the Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University and holds the rank of Colonel [retired] in the United States Army Reserve.
Her commitment to fostering respect and tolerance among all cultural and ethnic groups represented on campus through sharing of ritual occasions and other celebrations of customs are some of those reason that we have nominated her with this award.
We congratulate Ms. Elnora Daniel on receiving this prestigious “Tolerance Awards” this evening “for her lifelong devotion and dedication to peace, dialogue, and the betterment of mankind and for her leadership and humanitarian efforts for the residents of Illinois and all.
