Dunn is done
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Brian Munoz at the Daily Egyptian…
Former SIU President Randy J. Dunn improperly hired late Chancellor Carlo Montemagno’s daughter and son-in-law as well as SIU’s vice president for academic affairs, according to an Illinois Office of the Executive Inspector General report, the findings of which were obtained by the Daily Egyptian.
Dunn entered a separation agreement with the Board of Trustees last July after it was discovered he coordinated with SIU Edwardsville administrators and legislators in an attempt to dissolve the university system.
The agreement stated Dunn would be entitled to a visiting professor position at SIUE for at least 18 months unless an external agency made a finding of his wrongdoing.
The agreement also stated Dunn’s employment would cease immediately and automatically upon the issuance of any findings showing he violated SIU System or Illinois policy.
The Office of the Executive Inspector General recommended Dunn not be rehired within the SIU system due to the violation of his contract.
Go read the whole thing. Dunn and Montemagno did a whole lot of damage to the SIUC campus, IMHO.
- Player Hater of the Year - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 12:46 pm:
President Dunn is nominated for circumventing public hiring rules as acting Chancellor and then trying to blame the whole thing on the successor because he did not get to pick.
D**N THAT’S HATEFUL!
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 12:49 pm:
SIU, NIU, ISU, UIUC — we’ve really picked some winners to run the show in recent years.
Makes it that much harder to rebuild.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 12:54 pm:
Wordslinger, don’t forget the OMA violations at WIU. They should be on the list too.
- Perrid - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 12:58 pm:
I really think SIUC was/is being unreasonable in their refusal to accept reality. You don’t like not being treated as the top dog in the system? Be the top dog in the system, don’t make everyone pretend the emperor has clothes.
Not defending Dunn on the whole, but casting SIUC as the innocent victim and Dunn the unrepentant abuser (which is how many of the folks in Carbondale would have it) is laughable.
Montemagno’s kids being hired stunk from the word go. It’s just so weird that they followed him around from job to job.
- Pick a Name - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 12:59 pm:
The management and marketing efforts at many of these universities have been the culprit the last 10-15 years, causing dramatic enrollment drops.
- Blue Dog Dem - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 1:02 pm:
Chancellor C. A good man from my limited time knowing him can’t defend himself here. But these things are wrong. For years, both on this blog, and in personal meetings with him, we talk about wasteful spending. Folks it’s out there ya just gotta look. Speak your peace. It just may help.
- SIU Prof - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 1:04 pm:
I have to push back on the blame attributed to Montemagno. He inherited a really terrible situation from Dunn and tried to make things better.
This report also completely contradicts earlier reporting that Montemagno hired his daughter and son-in-law by himself (https://www.chronicle.com/article/Southern-Illinois-Chancellor/242398).
When this news initially came out, Randy Dunn said there would be seriously investigations into this misconduct. This report actually shows that Dunn made these unethical hires as part of Montemagno’s recruitment to SIUC.
- Perrid - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 1:09 pm:
SIU Prof, you think this is somehow exculpatory for Montemagno because Dunn was in on it? Having multiple people in on an unethical practice doesn’t make you less culpable.
Unless you’re saying that the problem is the i’s weren’t dotted and the t’s weren’t crossed, when the actual unethical practice was Montemagno asking for his kids to be hired at all, and then them being hired.
- Michelle Flaherty - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 1:24 pm:
Hopefully the takeaway lesson for SIU is to stop trying to play politics, because they are very, very bad at it, and to start paying attention to students/prospective students needs.
While all this was going on, thousands of students left SIU.
Someone should care about them at least as much as they do about their personal fiefdoms in the system.
- Sonny - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 1:28 pm:
Make SIU party again.
- Annonin' - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 1:31 pm:
Guessin’ the section of the OEIG report on who conceived this brainstorm will be part II of the saga and perhaps the reason most of the existing board of trustees are not retained…tic toc. Carlo “inherited” the ability to scam a couple of jobs and a few other gizmos. They all had to deal with GovJunk’s decision to strangle higher ed.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 1:37 pm:
Read up about Montemagno’s venture before coming to SIUC (or shuttered venture I should say). I don’t mean to be disrespectful to the dead but his continued presence at SIUC would likely have not led to positive outcomes. He employed family there too, not just his daughter and son-in-law.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 1:40 pm:
He was also a terrible Illinois State Supt. I remember his short tenure well.
- Just Me 2 - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 1:45 pm:
Uh, so this morning findings by the OEIG are baseless, but this afternoon findings by the OEIG are newsworthy?
- Glengarry - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 2:01 pm:
Sonny, that would be a blast from the ole past, but those days are gone. But real ethical leadership could make Carbondale a different kind of productive fun again.
- Blue Dog Dem - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 2:21 pm:
The Shawnee Wine Trail has provided of-age Salukis a great diversion over your typical college night life. Carbondale’s curb appeal on a scale of 1 to 10 is a one. The city, as well as Murphy, and Marion(carterville not so much) can help themselves by working to put their best foot forward.
- Just Sayin' - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 2:28 pm:
If Dunn didn’t want Montemagno hired (and we know that’s true), why the H*LL would he agree to hire his kids to get him to SIUC? Read the tea leaves folks. Take a few minutes to put the pieces together. It’s so obvious–Dunn was DIRECTED to do it by the trustees who wanted Montemagno to take the job. The same board member(s) who didn’t want equity for Edwardsville. The same board member(s) who undoubtedly leaked the contents of a CONFIDENTIAL report to the DE.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 2:39 pm:
===Uh, so this morning findings by the OEIG are baseless===
Huh?
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 2:41 pm:
–The Shawnee Wine Trail has provided of-age Salukis a great diversion over your typical college night life. Carbondale’s curb appeal on a scale of 1 to 10 is a one.–
Dude, if you’re claiming any insight into how college kids want to party, you’re two-tree naps low.
- Just Me 2 - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 2:56 pm:
This morning I commented on the State Senator that had the CTA hire her housemate and you said that was a baseless claim, even though the claim was made by the OEIG, the same office that made this claim against Dunn.
I’m mostly just giving you a hard time but it does stick in my craw.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 2:58 pm:
===even though the claim was made by the OEIG===
There was no claim that I recall reading that she had the guy hired.
- Blue Dog Dem - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 2:59 pm:
Dude?
- My New Handle - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 2:59 pm:
Perhaps SIU always played politics, but Glenn Poshard’s presidency seemed to have made politics the only game SIU wanted to play.
- illini - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 3:13 pm:
@Wordslinger - I have made that Wine Trail several times and I have had some good, but not great, wine. This is a good day trip for someone my age, but, I agree, this is not a normal for most SIUC students and certainly not a reason for them to attend.
But this is all off the topic. Sorry BDD.
- Blue Dog Dem - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 3:45 pm:
Illini. Are you insinuating that night life and recreational opportunities dont factor into kids college selections? I know i am old, but these used to be important in my day. Heck. I remember 5 cent beer downtown on ladies night.
- Our Joe - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 3:58 pm:
If JS at 2:28 is correct (and maybe since the DE didn’t link to it), a confidential OEIG finding would have gone only to SIU board members, SIU’s president, Dunn, and the attorneys. Assume Dunn and the lawyers didn’t leak it to the student newspaper, so I’m guessing a board member (or the 2 from Carbondale JB pulled off a couple of weeks ago) who wants to keep beating this dead horse, and that serves to just keep it all in the news. Its that same short sighted thinking from these folk that keeps the bad press flowing and tanking SIUC’s enrollment even more. Maybe time for the Carbondale crew to move on to a better story. Too bad the basketball season didn’t help ‘em there either.
- Dirty Red - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 4:10 pm:
= Unless you’re saying that the problem is the i’s weren’t dotted and the t’s weren’t crossed, when the actual unethical practice was Montemagno asking for his kids to be hired at all, and then them being hired. =
Montemagno wasn’t on the job when the kids were hired. Dunn acted on his own and violated hiring laws in the process.
I don’t think we will ever truly know what kind of leader Montemagno would have been. Dunn was President for all but two months of his short stint as Chancellor. Trying to on-board in a new place in dire need of strong leadership while unsuccessfully battling cancer and dealing with a boss set on sabotaging your plans, manipulating your staff, and framing you for state ethics violations so he can install the person he really wants in your job is not exactly an ideal situation.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 4:20 pm:
The place where Montemagno worked prior to SIU agreed to hire his kids as a condition of his employment there, seems to have been his M.O. Also, remember he collected “moving expenses” money for his kids to move too.
- Just Sayin' - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 4:46 pm:
Dirty Red - You’re very wrong about numerous things in your post. Particularly, you are wrong about the fact that Montemagno wasn’t on the job when the kids were hired. At the very least, he had been hired and just hadn’t started yet. Montemagno’s track record shows he was a really bad choice from the get-go and made no progress for SIUC during his tenure.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Mar 19, 19 @ 8:34 pm:
–Dude?–
BDD, sorry, I’ve always assumed you were a dude.
However you choose to identify is AOK/AOC/ACDC with me.
Thoughts and prayers.
- Harvest76 - Wednesday, Mar 20, 19 @ 9:04 am:
This problem goes way back. I was a campus student leader back before and during Wendler. It was a sinking ship then and leadership kept rearranging deck chairs while the band played. Sad to see that continue.
- Nepotism is a NoNo - Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 1:01 pm:
I find it very curious that people can’t see that Dunn and Montemagno proved themselves to be unethical in this hiring fiasco. Who other than Donald Trump would demand that their kids get jobs? It all stinks to high heaven … Be grateful they are both gone.