Bitter infighting continues at troubled SIU
Friday, May 18, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Background is here. From the Southern…
Southern Illinois University President Randy Dunn is pushing back against claims that he colluded with SIU Edwardsville officials in developing a proposal to shift $5.1 million in state appropriations from Carbondale to Edwardsville.
In a guest opinion column published in The Southern Illinoisan on Thursday, former SIUC Faculty Senate President Kathleen Chwalisz claimed that budget-related documents and correspondences obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests reveal how Dunn kept SIUC Chancellor Carlo Montemagno in the dark about the proposal, which ultimately failed to pass the SIU Board of Trustees on April 12.
In one internal email, Dunn said he was using certain funding distribution figures “simply to shut up the b*tchers from Carbondale” who opposed the reallocation.
* Dunn issued a long and involved response that began…
I want to take this opportunity to respond to the Guest View written by Dr. Kathleen Chwalisz recently published in The Southern Illinoisan which I find to be both misleading and frankly intentionally and grossly misrepresenting the situation.
First, I want to take an opportunity to address what was a mistake on my part in referring to individuals in the Carbondale area who have questioned, as it is their right to do, this process regarding campus budget reallocations with a less than complementary [sic] term. I was wrong to characterize them in that way. Many are friends and colleagues and to them, I apologize for how I characterized those who reflexively refused to discuss the issue or engage in a dialogue about it.
* Tribune…
The university president received harsh rebukes on the Illinois House floor. Republican state Rep. Terri Bryant of Murphysboro said the newspaper piece makes it “quite clear that (Dunn) is not working for the Carbondale campus and he’s in fact colluding with officials” at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. She called on him to resign “immediately.”
“President Dunn, calling the people of my district, the constituents that I serve, ‘bitches’ is not acceptable,” Bryant said. “Those are fellow southern Illinoisans, and they’re fellow Illinoisans. Those are hardworking people that are fighting to protect what they have built.”
Bryant referred to herself as “a loud, proud b*tcher” in solidarity.
Republican state Rep. Chad Hays of Catlin also called for Dunn’s resignation, noting he graduated from the Downstate campus and sends his two sons there. He brought up the school’s iconic mascot in his dismissal of Dunn.
“On behalf of all Salukis, you go to hell, sir,” Hays said.
* SIUC Chancellor Carlo Montemagno…
I will let the statements that have been shared speak for themselves. I am, of course, dismayed and disappointed by what appears to be an active, deliberate effort to undermine the Carbondale campus and, by extension, the entire SIU system. The process and lack of transparency did not serve us or our colleagues at Edwardsville. I must add that the disrespect to Carbondale’s faculty, staff and community is especially disturbing. However, these concerns are best addressed by the Board of Trustees and system leadership.
* Let’s go back to President Dunn’s response letter…
To the other matter at hand, Dr. Chwalisz weaves an interesting story in her attempt to discredit my reputation in our community and I want to respond to her allegations:
Chwalisz Claim: Budget-related documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act show that SIU President Randy Dunn actively concealed from SIUC Chancellor Carlo Montemagno his plan to transfer $5.125 million from the Carbondale to Edwardsville campus.
Chwalisz Claim: Montemagno was never briefed on the reallocation proposal, becoming aware of it with the general public when the April Board of Trustees agenda was posted online on March 30.
Chwalisz Claim: FOIA documents provide evidence that Dunn purposefully kept Montemagno in the dark about the reallocation proposal.
Dunn Response: There was never any concealment from anyone on the Carbondale campus regarding this item for the Board agenda. In fact, there cannot be any concealment because of our Board agenda process. The facts are, campus Chancellors, including Chancellor Montemagno, and senior staff have a conference call that occurs at least three weeks before every Board of Trustees meeting. In this case, for the April 11-12 Board of Trustees meeting, we gathered on March 21 for our usual conference call where we discuss items to be included for discussion at the upcoming Board meeting. Regardless if a Chancellor is present or not on this call (as Chancellor Montemagno was not), his staff was present in my office and on the call and following procedure had background on the items discussed for the upcoming meeting, including the FY 2019 campus budget reallocations.
Additionally, there was another opportunity for the Chancellor to discuss this with me at what has been coined the “Good Friday Ambush.” However the Chancellor cancelled that meeting and never rescheduled – even up until the time of the board meeting twelve days later. During this time period this matter was publically posted with all other Board agenda items, the Chancellor did not reach out to me to discuss the reallocation issue or any other posted Board agenda items. However, he saw fit to do a blog post on April 4 protesting the proposed board action.
Yikes.
Maybe while Gov. Rauner is down in southern Illinois touring areas hit hard by this week’s water shortage today he could convene an emergency private meeting of SIU honchos and try to work things out.
- Wendy Wondering - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 10:57 am:
Love Rep. Bryant…………she fights for all her constituents!
- SIU Prof - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 11:00 am:
Randy Dunn needs to go. I wouldn’t be surprised in the next few days that more emails come out from the FOIA request.
This is the Avenatti approach to Trump. Generate a story. Allow Trump to manufacture a response and then shed more light that contradicts the manufactured response.
Regardless, SIU needs either Montemagno or Dunn to go. Dunn tried to play politics and got burned. Time to go.
- Higher Ed reformer - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 11:03 am:
Isn’t this the same chancellor that hired his daughter and son-in-law on the family and friends plan and got in trouble?
Looks like a little manufactured payback.
- PJ - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 11:03 am:
The swear in that email was less offensive than his grammar and diction. Dude is a college president who sends business emails like a teenager on AOL messenger. He used an emogi, for the love of god.
- Steve Rogers - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 11:09 am:
As a proud Saluki, this is so disheartening. Both Dunn and Montemagno need to go. It’s time to get a new Delyte Morris who actually cares for this university and wants to see it be the cultural center of Southern Illinois as it once was.
- DuPage Saint - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 11:13 am:
Has that no golden parachute law been signed yet? Might be tested sooner rather than later
- PublicServant - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 11:16 am:
===Maybe while Gov. Rauner is down in southern Illinois touring areas hit hard by this week’s water shortage today he could convene an emergency private meeting of SIU honchos and try to work things out.===
JB probably has a meeting scheduled already, so no worries gov.
- 47th Ward - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 11:17 am:
Henry Kissinger, of all people, had a great quip about higher ed.
“Why are the fights in Academia so vicious?
Because the stakes are so small.”
I think $5 million is worth fighting for, and my guess is that this will cost Dunn his job. On most campuses, you can always count on 15-20% of faculty who’d vote “no confidence” at the drop of a hat. Clearly Dunn has lost the faculty. Now it’s only a matter of time and a big fat severance package before he’s out.
- Dutch3001 - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 11:25 am:
SIUC has a nice ranch home type facility on campus called the Stone Center that is used for receptions, meetings, etc. Usually the Stone Center is completely empty after 4:30 and on weekends, but last night its parking lot was full, which is very unusual. I wonder who was at that late night meeting and what they were talking about?
- DownStater - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 11:28 am:
It’s scary to think that SIUC is not remotely receptive to reallocating $5mil. This is only 1.3% of their total operating budget… it will take much more than that to bring them back to the glory days.
- Arthur Andersen - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 12:36 pm:
Dunn was the same way as State Superintendent. Apparently no one at SIU talked to anyone at ISBE before they hired him. Time to pack up the carpetbag, Randy.
- wordslinger - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 1:47 pm:
Looking at his wiki bio, Dunn is quite the rambling man. He doesn’t stay anywhere long. My guess is he’ll be moving on down the line again shortly.
And for an academic bigwig, he’s a real lousy writer.
- Nearly Normal - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 2:34 pm:
Dunn was president at Youngstown State and Murray State before becoming president of SIU. Both tenures ended in controversy. Man must interview well.
- Saluki 1987 2002 - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 3:20 pm:
Wendy Wondering, she fought for her CRONIES when she cut deals with Madigan on that income tax increase, last summer, didn’t she?
- Saluki 1987 2002 - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 3:32 pm:
It is only fair, logical, and inevitable that SIUE–soon to be the largest campus in the SIU System–receive a larger allocation of SIU funding. It is constituencies on the SIUC campus, and around the SIUC campus, that are hastening the split of the System with their unreasonable and “knee jerk” protectionism of SIUC. Bryant is, once again, grandstanding and fomenting distrust and division among the SIU campuses. Her role should be to nurture negotiation and harmony among the campuses, as well as the people of each respective campus region. I was saying to a colleague at SIUC, just the other day: “For a university that prides itself on its progressive and all-inclusive environment, SIUC certainly is aggressively capitalistic and exclusive when it comes to its own fat purse strings.”
- Doc Anonymous - Friday, May 18, 18 @ 3:46 pm:
== Saluki 1987 2002 = = has a real point, both about Bryant and about SIUC.
The opposition to reallocation on the SIUC campus is driven by supporters of Montemagno, who led the charge against a proposal backed by the system president–in part precisely because it was backed by the system president (Dunn). It was easy for Montemagno to mobilize opposition to a plan to cut the SIUC budget–but he’s had trouble mobilizing anything other than resistance to his plans (and his nepotism) otherwise.
You’ve got to hand it to the person who drove this story against Montemagno, SIU prof Chwalisz. She had to resign as faculty senate president because she was too close to Montemagno and too nasty to the faculty who questioned him. But she’s still fighting for him, and she may have knocked out Dunn.
No one is looking good in all of this, that’s for sure. But one problem is who would want either of these jobs if either guy gets fired?