A recent meeting between Metro East legislators and Gov. Pat Quinn’s staff turned heated at times, and as a result nothing was accomplished in the standoff over Quinn’s appointments to the Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees.
The governor’s three appointments to SIU’s board were unanimously rejected by the Senate in late February — the first time anybody I’ve talked to can ever remember that happening. But the governor has doubled down instead of compromising.
Quinn replaced three members with close ties to the university’s Edwardsville campus, which is near St. Louis. For years, governors have followed a “gentleman’s agreement” regarding the university board, giving the Edwardsville campus three of its seven members. The governor appoints all seven with the Senate’s approval.
That agreement has coincided with explosive growth at the formerly backwater campus, so locals are loathe to go back to the old days of being treated as the redheaded stepchild of SIU’s Carbondale campus. Just one of Quinn’s appointments had connections to Metro East, a complete unknown who applied for the trustee post on the Internet.
The Metro East legislators want Quinn to back off his choices, and they want to make sure that Roger Herrin is not reinstated as board chairman.
Quinn engineered Herrin’s election as chairman a couple years back, but he was later ousted in a coup orchestrated by SIU President Glenn Poshard and replaced with famed Metro East trial lawyer John Simmons. Simmons was, in turn, ousted by Quinn last month.
The area’s legislators want to make Edwardsville School Supt. Ed Hightower the new SIU board chairman. Hightower, who is black, was also removed from the board by Quinn, a move that has been sharply attacked by the local NAACP and area black ministers.
But the governor is flatly refusing to back down, which led to some heated moments in that recent meeting, with at least two Democratic legislators raising their voices and denouncing the governor’s tactics.
And Quinn told reporters last week that he appointed “three good people, excellent people” and believes the Senate “needs to take another look at these excellent appointees.”
“I don’t think they treated the taxpayers of Illinois and the people who believe in education very well,” Quinn said of the Senate’s action. “The governor appoints people, and I appointed three people who I thought were good, so I’ll keep working on that.”
The Illinois Constitution prohibits Quinn from reappointing the three rejected trustees. A resolution from the Senate “requesting” that Quinn renominate them would be required before they could be appointed to the university board. That appears unlikely at best.
The SIU controversy has spawned payback legislation and spread to other universities as well.
Sen. Bill Haine (D-Alton) has introduced legislation requiring that at least three members of the SIU board be from the Metro East, with another three from the Carbondale area and the seventh from Sangamon County. SIU has a medical school in Springfield. The bill appears to be picking up steam.
University of Illinois boosters have grumbled for the past few years that Quinn has gone way outside the university’s environs for his trustee picks.
So Sen. Michael Frerichs (D-Urbana) moved a bill out of committee last week that would allow the U of I Alumni Association to pick five of the university’s nine trustees. State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) is supporting the bill, as is the powerful alumni association.
And senators are awaiting word on what Quinn plans to do about the growing controversy at Chicago State University. Some Quinn-appointed trustees have pushed to oust CSU President Wayne Watson, and some of those are up for reappointment. They are surely facing a tough confirmation fight as well.
Watson has irked many at the university with an aggressive management style that, while showing some significant results for the school, has ruffled some powerful local feathers. But he has backing in the Senate, so another fight is almost guaranteed unless Quinn heeds the warning signs.
Yes, the governor “appoints people,” as Quinn says. But he does so in these cases only with the advice and consent of the Senate.
You’d think in an era where Quinn needs as much help as possible solving the pension funding crisis and the state’s busted budget, he would try to avoid openly antagonizing legislators and wasting valuable energy and time over stupid stuff like university board appointments.
Instead, he’s angering and alienating the very people he needs to help resolve Illinois’ serious financial crisis.
SIU President Glenn Poshard told state lawmakers Thursday he supports legislation designed to block Gov. Pat Quinn from stacking the university’s board of trustees.
In the Capitol for the first time since Quinn tried to remake the board in late February, Poshard said a proposal requiring an equal number of trustees to have ties to the Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses would relieve some of the problems facing the institution.
“It is our hope the situation will be corrected in a way that’s equitable to both universities,” Poshard told members of a House budget committee. […]
Despite testifying in a committee hearing room across the Rotunda from the governor’s office in the Capitol, Poshard said he has had no contact with the chief executive or his top aides since the latest controversy began.
“I’d love to have a meeting,” Poshard said. “We’re still in limbo.”
- NW IL Democrat - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 10:14 am:
It’s mind boggling to me that Governor Quinn would waste precious political and legislative capital on a petty higher education feud. Higher education is full of politics for sure, but why in the hell waste political capital on this type of issue?
Would someone please answer my question this morning. I just don’t get it.
- Susiejones - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 10:18 am:
I don’t get it either. seems like another case of incompetence and a true lack of understanding of how to govern. sorry, not a Pat Quinn fan at all. he thinks he “knows” what “the people” want, but as far as I am concerned he is clueless and a terrible governor.
- Ray del Camino - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 10:31 am:
Let’s see, Quinn won how many downstate counties in 2010? St. Clair, Jackson, Alexander.
Close Tamms in Alexander County… Check. Antagonize St. Clair County legislators by insulting Metro East board members… Check. Freeze business at SIU in Jackson County… Check.
OK, there goes whatever minuscule downstate support he had in the first place.
- keycat02 - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 10:36 am:
Well, one reason for Quinn’s intervention is the disaster that is SIU Carbondale. Enrollment is plummeting, academic programs and research are declining, while immense sums are spent on non-essential frills. The trustees that were removed from the board were in Poshard’s pocket and prevented any serious oversight.
- NW IL Democrat - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 10:41 am:
Thanks, keycato2, for some insight. I really didn’t know what were the issues pulling the Governor so deeply into this. So, what you’re saying is that while SIU-C has a bloated budget that evades proper oversight, along with declining enrollment, and Trustees Simmons, etc., were along for the ride with Poshard?
- Ray del Camino - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 10:46 am:
keycat02–
Wrong. Enrollment turning around. Academic programs are strong. Research is strong and outside dollars growing (at least until the sequester hit). Can we have an example of “immense sums are spent on non-essential frills”?
- walkinfool - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 10:54 am:
I think it’s somewhat personal. Poshard has been going out of his way to embarass PQ, and to express his own genius, for a few years now. Quinn should deal directly with the problem, not come down on his allies.
And, yes it’s not worth his time right now.
- keycat02 - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 10:57 am:
Enrollment fell by over 1000 in Fall 2012. As usual the administration has said things are just about to turn around, but they say that every time. I’m personally aware of many researchers that are looking for jobs elsewhere, including myself. Immense sums are being spent on a new administration building and a goofy, ungrammatical marketing campaign. Plus a campus crime wave!
- Ray del Camino - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 11:07 am:
Ah. Disgruntled employee. Nevermind.
- Deep South - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 11:07 am:
Don’t buy into keycat02’s bloviations.
His “administration” building is a Student Services Building. The “goofy, ungrammatical marketing campaign” is proving to be quite effective, and his “campus crime wave” is one armed robbery in which all parties knew each other. And as someone else pointed out, the number of research dollars is up. No, the real issue here politics….a campaign donor who is used to getting his way vs. a former congressman who is used to getting his way with a governor in between who doesn’t seems to be clueless about politics.
- keycat02 - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 11:25 am:
The enrollment decline is public record. You can generate your own report on SIUC spending through the Delta Cost Project. The amounts spent on administrative support and maintenance are amazingly high relative to our competitors. See this link:
http://www.tcs-online.org/Reports/Report.aspx
- keycat02 - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 11:57 am:
Yes, it is the student services building, but why do we need a new one when enrollment is declining? Is that a better use of state dollars than instruction? I’ve also seen two different college rankings that give SIUC a low rating for safety. I’m not alone in being disgruntled: a recent faculty survey found that 64% are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 11:58 am:
===a recent faculty survey found===
LOL.
C’mon. Faculty is always complaining about something.
- Leave a Light on George - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 12:04 pm:
=Ah. Disgruntled employee. Nevermind.=
Well then I’ll tell you as a disgruntled alum.
My daughter recently had an interview for grad school program at Carbondale. I went along for the ride. What a wasted day. According to her many of the people doing the interviewing obviously wanted to be somewhere else and were rude. The biggest point they tried to make all day was that the program would survive in spite of state financial woes.
I took a walk around campus and at every entrance to Thompson Woods was a yellow sign waring students not to walk in there past dark as campus security could not guarantee their well being.Sound like more than a one crime crime wave to me.
She said she wouldn’t go to school there if they paid her.
- Vote Quimby! - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 12:24 pm:
The whole episode is an embarrassment for this SIUE alumni and former employee (staff, not faculty). I played the YouTube video of Poshard and Herrin arguing for some people at the university I work for currently. They were speechless that a Univeristy and board president would behave in public that way. I said, “Only in Illinois.”
- RNUG Fan - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 12:29 pm:
http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php?release_id=10598
The Administration was warned last year of the 5% cut but had hoped for less. Hope is not a plan. Hopefully attrition and a hiring freeze will take care of most of it.
Declining enrollment is a problem
- park - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 12:33 pm:
“…a complete unknown who applied for the trustee post on the Internet.”
Is the governor ill? Does he have any understanding of the executive power of appointment? Does he have some sort of personality disorder?
Johnathon Monken at ISP, then to IEMA. No qualifications for either post.
Kelly Kraft to Sports Authority. Absolutely no qualifications, and some serious issues.
If these positions are so unimportant that background and experience are not required, eliminate them and save the money. If they are important, get someone who is qualified.
Again, is the Governor ill?
- anon sequitor - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 12:59 pm:
Why is anyone amazed when these university fights boil over?
Wallace Sayre, Columbia University:
“Sayre’s Law,” “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the stakes at issue—that is why academic politics are so bitter.”
- Arthur Andersen - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:03 pm:
They may have to budget some dough on remodeling the Board Room to accommodate those huge egos if and when they ever get this settled. Ah, the joys of one-party government.
I’ve found lately as the kids are looking at colleges that SIU has little to no outreach and that the school counselors don’t even bring it up in discussions with students and parents. Much different than when my older kids and friends’ kids were college searching 8-10 years ago.
- sal-says - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:06 pm:
Just one more quinnster case where I again conclude that he is just ‘undersized’ for the job he currently has.
- Deep South - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:22 pm:
===Is that a better use of state dollars than instruction?===
keycat….Please do your homework. State dollars are not being used to build the Student Services Building.
- keycat02 - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:28 pm:
Deep South - Well, what is paying for the building? Could it also be student fees???
- titan - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:36 pm:
Carbondale ain’t exactly Rome.
It is sorta close to Cairo though.
- Deep South - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:46 pm:
Keycat:
Do your homework and report back.
- PrairieFire - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:55 pm:
Rich, your cynicism is noted, but 64% is much greater than the typical faculty crankiness.
Also, regarding Watson, you’re going to have to spell out those “significant results.” Audit findings tripled compared to Daniel, and enrollment is under 6,000. Plus, complaints of cronyism have never been louder.
- keycat02 - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:57 pm:
Deep South - Okay, here is a direct quote from a Southern Illinoisan story: “The building, which is paid for through Student Services fees, costs about $36 million.” So, our students are saddled with the costs. Woohoo!
- PrairieFire - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:57 pm:
My bigger concern is what in the world is Quinn thinking allowing the terms to expire on so many university trustees? With the Senate taking the unprecedented step of rejecting his nominees for SIU, how in the world does he expect to get approval for his appointees at CSU, Illinois State University, Northeastern Illinois University and Eastern Illinois University?
- PrairieFire - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 1:58 pm:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-chicago-state-board-0325-20130325,0,6402877.story
- Julia - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 2:20 pm:
Enrollment goes down each year. The Campus is indeed not safe after dark.Drive by the Towers after sunset.The “marketing attempt” has done little to attract quality students and most importantly,these issues are not honestly addressed.Mostly the administration just defends the status quo.Need some real change-real quick.
- Earnest - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 2:23 pm:
I read this column and said an empathetic “ow” for Governor Quinn. Then it just sank in further and resonated with so many other columns Rich has devoted to Quinn’s decision-making, prioritization and (lack of) focus: what brutal, devastating and fair criticism it is. When Quinn inherited a mess he also inherited an opportunity to do great things. It was/is a time of crisis when there has been less resistance to change than usual. Yet, things like this take his focus and energy and also drain it from the Senate.
I did my year abroad in London and had a course in drama reviewing. Our teacher, a respected critic, criticized us for statements like “hated it,” “don’t go to this,” saying a thing was just plain bad. He didn’t want a mindless “loved it” either. He never did this in his own reviews. He said that he was a drama critic because he loved the theatre. He would not give false praise or overlook flaws, but he wanted people to go the shows.
I read this and think the same of Rich: he’s not interested in the partisan “loved it” or “hated it.” He wants people to, so to speak, go to the show and participate in their government. How I wish the MSM or political opposition would spend 80% of their time on this type of discourse and 20% or less on overblown, partisan, tone-deaf reactions. Or possibly I’m just naive.
- Arthur Andersen - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 2:34 pm:
Back to Rich’s (excellent) column wherein he describes the past “gentlemen’s agreement.” Part of the problem here, and elsewhere, is that Pat Quinn is no gentleman. He has problems with the truth, keeping his word, and following through on commitments.
- Deep South - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 2:41 pm:
Very good keycat. Now perhaps you should do some research into the rest of your bloviating and let us know what the rest of the facts actually are. I wouldn’t waste too much time….your credibility is just about nil at this point.
I’m sure you would expect no less of your students.
- keycat02 - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 3:02 pm:
Deep South, I invite you to check the Delta Cost Project link yourself, and report back. As several other posters have noted, the crime wave is real.
- anon - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 3:48 pm:
let’s see..southern Illnois has lost three congressional districts in the last three re-maps, SIU created a competitor 50 years ago in its second most populous recruiting area (SIUe) and enrollment is also down at EIU, WIU and other rural areas of the state. If I were Quinn I would be reaching out to Glenn Poshard to help him, not trying to install a campain contributor with limited abilities to the chairmanship when Poshard advises against it. Try listening for a change Governor.
- HGW XX/7 - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 5:52 pm:
– Can we have an example of “immense sums are spent on non-essential frills”? –
Well let’s see, the university administration over that last decade has spent ridiculous amounts of money for the non-essentials of building a new football stadium and major renovation of their basketball Arena for their mid-major at best sports programs. Apparently the administrations at SIUC over the years have had the ‘if you build it they will come’ delusional attitude.
All the while over $60M plus spent on what can be considered a ‘botched renovation’ of their library. Certainly a decent library building is something actually central, essential, and appropriate to a university’s real purpose. However in this case ‘botched’ is the appropriate term with all the massive project cost overruns due to lack of planning and outright incompetence on the university administration’s part. Because of this incompetence, coupled with the apparent lack of the administrative priority for proper completion of this project, floors 6 & 7 of this building STILL remain unfinished eight years and counting.
- Just The Way It Is One - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 7:22 pm:
He really is going to need to shore up that far Southern Illinois Democratic support, especially now that Sheila Simon will be off the ticket so these particular University appointments need to be given greater thought this time around…
- thechampaignlife - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 8:09 pm:
If SIUC doesn’t want SIUE, maybe the U of I will take them.
- Makandadawg - Monday, Mar 25, 13 @ 9:56 pm:
SIU has really only one problem. It is the complainers who bring it down when ever they can. You all have gotten really good at this. Come down and get to know the University and Southern Illinois and then tell me what you think.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Mar 26, 13 @ 9:10 am:
If it’s any consolation to the folks in Carbondale and Edwardsville, at least you don’t have the federales and staties crawling all over campus like they are at NIU.
More than one investigation going on there, and don’t be surprised if there’s more to come.
Might be tough to get top talent for the open president’s job when you have FBI agents carting out hard drives and boxes of documents from the university police department.