Mother Tribune picks a horse
Thursday, Sep 24, 2009 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Chicago Tribune editorial board has nominated its own candidate to run the University of Illinois…
We can think of a strong candidate: Boise State University President Bob Kustra, who is a former Illinois lieutenant governor and state senator. Kustra is a successful college president and he navigated Illinois politics with extremely high integrity. Illinois’ premier [sic] public university will need a president who can handle the politics without succumbing to this state’s breathtakingly corrupt political culture.
Boise State University, home of the Broncos. Yep. That’s really high on the list of the nation’s colleges. Isn’t that in Idaho? From President Kustra’s Web page…
People throughout the nation and world are looking at Boise State in a new light. The success of the football program has provided a window to the university, and we have so much to be proud of at Boise State
Before he was hired by Boise State, Kustra ran Eastern Kentucky University - known locally as the Harvard of Richmond. He’s been out of Illinois for years, so I’m not sure that he knows how to operate here any longer.
Actually, I always kinda liked Kustra. And I have to admit it would be funny to see U of I professor Jim Edgar working for his old second banana. But the Tribune reaching back into the glory days of the Illinois Grand Old Party for its preferred candidate is oh so typical, and, typically, more than a little presumptuous.
That newspaper already has far too much influence on Illinois’ political life. It shouldn’t be allowed to dictate the hiring of university presidents as well.
* And speaking of blasts from the past…
One of the University of Illinois’ longest-serving presidents, Stanley Ikenberry, said Wednesday that two trustees have approached him about returning on an interim basis to the post he left more than a decade ago.
* Related…
* IRS challenge to Cubs sale might add to Tribune Co. liability: But a fight with the IRS could expose Tribune, which is trying to emerge from bankruptcy, to a liability of $300 million. The Cubs sale was structured to save about $300 million in capital gains taxes. It is set up as a partnership with Tribune keeping a 5 percent stake.
* A Bully in the Pulpit: The Tribune Hammers the University of Illinois to Submission: Take a look at some numbers. Out of 120,000 student applications, 800 (.6%) were set aside for additional consideration, CLOUTED, per the breathless newspaper. Fifty percent of the clouted applicants were accepted, vs. 40% of all waitlisted applicants being eventually accepted. An average of 12 students (out of 42,000, or .02%) per year over the last 5 years were accepted who would not otherwise gain admittance to the U of I.
* U of Illinois president B. Joseph White to resign
* University of Illinois President B. Joseph White resigns
* U of I president’s resignation helps school move on
* U of I Trustees Meet Today
- I'm just saying - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 9:37 am:
I will accept Bob Kustra only if he can make the Field at Memorial Orange and Blue
- wordslinger - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 9:41 am:
Ikenberry makes sense as an interim. Nothing against Kustra, but Boise State (with their obnoxious blue field) and Eastern Kentucky don’t cut it for U of I.
Quinn and Kennedy should shoot for the stars among the most prestigious land grant and research universities. U of I is that good.
- Wumpus - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 9:41 am:
If Kustra is hired, maybe the football team will be respectable. TO be fair, it depends what BSU started with. Is there a track record of improvement? Kustra is a politician, yes, he is above it all (Snark)
- babs - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 9:45 am:
Why is the Trib trying so hard to become it’s own political party when it can’t even handle being a successful newspaper? For people who think Obama is doing too much - how about the Tribbies? Be a newspaper and report - don’t make - the news.
- GA Watcher - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 9:46 am:
If it’s Kustra, I hope he doesn’t decide to paint the football field orange.
- Fire Ron Guenther - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 9:48 am:
Ikenberry would be a solid interim hire. I am against Kustra for the sole reason that as a state senator, he voted against making Casmir Pulaski’s birthday a day off.
I have also heard rumors about Edgar having a role. Please keep him away; his move to appoint the trustees instead of electing them created this mess.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 9:49 am:
So a handful of students were accepted under this “clout” system. And that makes it OK. A little corruption is OK? I don’t get the logic here other than there were bigger fish to fry.
But then, if the Trib hadn’t exposed this, it would have continued and probably grown for years to come.
True reform would mean zero tolerance for corruption of any kind.
That is, if we are all serious about it.
- Plutocrat03 - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 9:52 am:
I applaud the IRS for calling into question Zell’s treatment of the capital gains earned form the sale of the Cubs.
It is time that the big players hitch up their pants and pay their taxes like everyone else does.
- indupage - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:01 am:
It’s too bad that Al Bowman is already President at IL STATE, he’d be a great leader at the U of I. That said, I would never want to see him leave ISU because he it doing too good of a job there. We need another educational leader with Al’s C-V, dignity, and vision in Champaign.
- montrose - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:03 am:
I know nothing about Kustra, but I think it is unfair/premature to say a reason he would not be fit for U of I is because Boise State is not high profile enough. As Wumpus said, what has he done there? That is the question.
- Scooby - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:06 am:
Paint the Morrow plots blue.
- Speaking at Will - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:06 am:
My default answer on filling job posts is Rod Blagojevich.
- What about Bob - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:14 am:
Bob Kustra is a person of integrity.
Education reform was a focus during his time in Illinois.
He’s done a great job at both universities.
He’s kept Illinois ties.
How about blue and orange stripes for the field?
That would really perk the team up (at least it couldn’t hurt)!
- CircularFiringSquad - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:16 am:
I believe I predicted the chain of events pieced together here….Ikenberry ousts B.Joe…BlinkyJim gets innterim and BlueFieldBob Kustra comes dancing back into IL….meanwhile the bid rigging probe goes on.
Yikes who thought ignoring the Trib editors’ kids and creating the Global Campus would have pulled the Big U down to this level
- D.P. Gumby - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:32 am:
1. The Trib ed. bd is smoking the same stuff as Tom Cross in his new official pix. They keep getting wackier and wackier.
2. The clout admissions were trivial and the Mikva Cmmn missed the boat in blaming the entire Board of Trustee rather than more surgically pointing to the few Trustees who had been involved and directly pointing responsibility at White and Herman.
3. Clout issue is only a piece of White’s poor leadership and mismanagement. Global Campus fiasco far bigger FUBAR and lack of use or understanding of shared governance created hostile relations between faculty and administration. Attempted to run University as a business, only he was no good at running a business and didn’t pay enough attention to running a university.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:35 am:
Bob Kustra would be a good choice. There is no harm in recommending him. Considering what we have now, and what we have been through, let’s not throw stones at competent suggested candidates.
- Bring Back Boone's - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:35 am:
Why would anyone who cares about the future of the U of I listen to a paper that bashes the institution at every step of the way? Forget Mother Tribune.
- Captain Flume - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:38 am:
U of I has not been pulled down. It is way too big for that and way too influential in its own right. It builds on promoting its reputation as a great research university, and our legislators bite down and spit back the funds to justify that. No matter that the U of I uses TAs and GAs far more than any other state university, and yet somehow maintains the allure of academic excellence with kids and their parents clamoring for admittance to this publicly-funded institution. That’s clout.
And I agree about Al Bowman. His demeanor and his drive at ISU are exemplary. I hope his term in Normal is a long one.
- zatoichi - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:43 am:
I just heard our local alderman talked to our local community college about helping a high school student get into a math class for college credit after the class had started. Also have a farmer friend, who gets a federal subsidy, hired several people to detassle based on recommendations from his church. This controversy is everywhere. The Trib has room to really make a massive social difference with this investigation if they just keep going.
- Niles Township - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:50 am:
Bob Kustra is a nice guy, but honestly the U of I is a top 50 school; it’s no Eastern Kentucky or Boise State. U of I should hire a leading academic adminsitrator, either a sitting university president in the top 50 or a provost/dean type at a top 20.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 10:51 am:
NT is right.
- You Go Boy - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 11:45 am:
True story: I only saw Bob Kustra one time. He was judging a bubble gum blowing contest at the Ill. State Fair. About 12 people were there, but he was acting quite enthused and into his job. I don’t know if thats a good thing or bad.
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 11:48 am:
Ikenberry would be an excellent interim President. Ideally, he would be given the authority to complete the necessary personnel actions both related to the admissions matter as well as to remove some White/Herman boneheads.
CFS, your self-proclaimed ability to predict the future is amazing. Would you like to try and predict the next scandal that will take up plenty of Tribune ink? I have my pick, but will let you go first.
- HappyToster - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 11:53 am:
Sylvia Manning did a bang up job with UIC and would be a far more relevant choice.
But noodling about filling the vacancy avoids the core issues. The system is still run by structure and mindset like it’s Champaign and some long distance learning centers. Not a massive multi-campus state university system.
The pols asking for favors won’t go away as long UIUC is the only “prestige” public campus in a state that is a net exporter of students. Given the number of Illinois kids at Big 10 schools there is clearly demand in this market space, why not fill it at home?
They really need someone with experience at the top levels of a big, multi-campus state system.
Which means they’ll probally get Jim Thompson.
- Quinn T. Sential - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 12:20 pm:
While I have been less and less enamored with the Tribune over the years, I am not sure that this:
{But the Tribune reaching back into the glory days of the Illinois Grand Old Party for its preferred candidate is oh so typical, and, typically, more than a little presumptuous}
is actually the fairest shot at them; as it pertains to Kustra.
I am not sure how his past experience could qualify him for the poster child of “the glory days of the Illinois Grand Old Party”.
Considering the pinacle of his elective office was only Lt. Gov, it’s not as though he was in a primary position of leadership. The fact that a career pol gave up that prime spot to go on the radio instead ascribes some relative value to the office; even while serving under a guy with a bad ticker.
Actually; his Senate primary defeat was his manifest destiny and probably one of the most demonstrative examples of the great schism that did; and continues to engulf the GOP, and has rendered them ineffective and unsuccessful in many prior and subsequent general election contests for numerous offices as a result.
While the Trib has an affinity for Republicans over the years; characterizing Bob Kustra’s reign as effective an also ran, even when elected, doesn’t appear representative of the “glory days” moniker.
The University Professionals of Illinois; the largest organization of University faculty in Illinois, the Illinois State Police union,
- trafficmatt - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 12:43 pm:
“Boise State University, home of the Broncos. Yep. That’s really high on the list of the nation’s colleges. ”
Well, they have a better football program than U of I, but that’s not saying much.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 3:21 pm:
–Well, they have a better football program than U of I, but that’s not saying much.==
No, they really don’t. Big Ten and Midwestern college football, overall, is not the weak sister some would have you believe. The kids, however, do have to go to class.
We don’t have football factories in our region, no USC, OKL, any school in Forida. But we have good teams in a number of top conferences — Big Ten, MAC, MVC, et. al. You can get a great education, too.
As we come out of this economic fog, the universities are our greatest asset and need more support, less politics.
Let’s bring in the smartest people from all over the world to help us work out our issues.
- CircularFiringSquad - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 3:42 pm:
Wonder if the IKE gets more salary, pensions crab dip, etc.
Was he in charge when Mike White used the U staff to do his gardening?
Peter Fox will be in heaven
- trafficmatt - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 3:44 pm:
wordslinger,
I was just having some fun, but since you questioned my comment’s veracity, I present the people’s evidence #1. Check out #5 and #72. The prosecution rests.
http://www.mratings.com/cf/compare.htm
Added bonus - scroll to the bottom of the page. You will see the Big Eleven (oh, I mean Big Ten) in #6 place.
- Frank Booth - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 4:24 pm:
First thing Kustra would have to do at Clout-Urbana is learn how to budget without bowl game money.
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 4:41 pm:
After hearing Kustra’s in the running, Al Salvi decided to throw in his name so he could beat establishment Bob again.
- Jake from Elwood - Thursday, Sep 24, 09 @ 4:52 pm:
If Kustra is in charge, the Illini games would be exclusively heard on WLS.
- Idaho Nick - Friday, Sep 25, 09 @ 5:17 pm:
Please…don’t take Bob. We love him.