The Southwestern Illinois College Board of Trustees on Wednesday moved to hire an project director for a weatherization program, contingent on grant approval from the state.

The board unanimously approved the hiring of:

* William Reany as full-time project director for the school's Urban Weatherization Initiative. The hiring is contingent on the school getting a grant to pay for the Urban Weatherization Initiative from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. If the grant comes through, the job would pay $58,000.

The Urban Weatherization Initiative is a program designed to create jobs by training people in the emerging field of improving energy efficiency and reducing energy costs.

* Three full-time public safety officers at a salary of $37,149 each. They are Cody Wiley, Michael Flake and Gina Deno-Thomas, and will fill existing positions at the school.

* Jeff Blue, who as been SWIC theater manager since 1997, as a full-time administrator in the newly created position of Coordinator of College Activities and Theater Operations. The position would have an annual salary of $41,000.

"Hiring has been flat since 2010," SWIC spokesman Mike Fleming said. "When we have hired since then, it was only to fill vacated positions. And then often at lesser salaries than the people the new people replaced."

A motion to hire an interim counseling co-ordinator was pulled from the meeting agenda and was not filled Wednesday.

In other business Wednesday, SWIC President Georgia Costello said that the school has been featured in a pair of publications, Community College Times and Inside Higher Ed for its advertising campaign "SWIC-onomics" which began three years ago and focused on the cost comparison between the community college and four-year universities.

According to the advertising campaign two years of SWIC costs $6,656 compared to the public university average of $16,448 and the private university average of $59,960.

SWIC also this week opened its new Liberal Arts Complex which includes classrooms, a success center and a Starbuck's coffee shop.

Contact reporter Scott Wuerz at swuerz@bnd.com or call 239-2626.