Supporters of the Institute of Aviation gathered Tuesday to speak in support of the program that University officials have proposed to shut down.

The public hearing, held by the Urbana-Champaign Senate’s Committee on Education Policy, featured the remarks of pilots, traffic controllers, union members, parents, faculty and students both in and out of the institute’s Human Factors program. Interim Vice Chancellor Richard Wheeler and Interim Chancellor Robert Easter, both of whom submitted the proposal to close the institute, also provided comments.

Tom Emanuel, interim director of the institute, said he was “astounded” by the turnout of supporters, who rallied on the Quad before the meeting began. Emanuel said the problems facing the institute were “manufactured” by campus administration over the years.

“We believe that what has happened to the Institute of Aviation could be considered to be a systematic dismantling of the program,” Emanuel said.

Among the actions Emanuel mentioned was the barring of students to transfer into Aviation in 2009, a change that the institute only learned of when a student told Aviation directors that he was unable to find the school on the list of colleges on a web-based transfer application.

“That was highly embarrassing, to say the least,” Emanuel said. “This is how we found out that Aviation was closed to transfer students for Fall 2009.”

One speaker, Matthew Hintze, a pilot alumnus who had not been to the University since his graduation in 2003, flew in from Norfolk, Va., at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning to speak at the hearing. Hintze, a transfer student into the Human Factors program, said the demand for pilots is reason enough to keep the institute open.

“We are on the cusp of the largest pilot shortage in the history of the world, and now we choose to close down the Institute of Aviation,” Hintze said.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires all pilots to retire at age 65, which from 2012 to 2017 will result in half of the population of current pilots leaving the workforce.

“Now we have an opportunity to provide a cost-effective education and provide a valuable service to the citizens of the world, and have a good-paying job for our graduates,” Hintze said.

Wheeler said he has an obligation to the whole University rather than to specific programs such as Aviation.

“It really is not right to think that we’re sticking on this group to save a little bit of money. This effort to save money is going on campus-wide,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler and Easter have estimated the savings of the institute’s closure to be in the range of $500,000 to $700,000 per year.

“I am hopeful that future students interested in achieving flight training certification will find other private or public venues to pursue such licensing,” Wheeler said. “But at this time, the chancellor and I do not believe that Illinois can be that place.”

Cole Goldenberg, student senator from Aviation, said when he was first elected as a senator two years ago, then-University President B. Joseph White told him to “never to give up, and never stop fighting for your constituents.”

“Please, look for some compromise,” Goldenberg said, saying that he believed in the senate and its processes.

Public comments can still be submitted by e-mail until noon Thursday to Abbas Aminmansour, director of the Education Policy Committee, at [email protected]. Aminmansour said public comments will be considered by the committee, which will meet next Monday from 1:10 to 3:00 p.m. in the Senate Conference Room (232 English Building), to deliberate on the proposal. If this committee also recommends the institute be closed, the proposal will be presented to the full campus senate on its March 28 meeting.