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Clueless in Normal

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Illinois

Looks like this one is gone.

A campus environmental group is kicking off a petition drive Friday aimed at forcing a Joliet businessman off the Illinois State University board of trustees.

The Student Environmental Action Coalition will begin collecting signatures at 3:30 p.m. in the Spotlight Room at Bone Student Center. The group wants Gov. Rod Blagojevich not to reappoint trustee Jay Bergman because of his oil company’s environmental problems.

Bergman, a 1970 ISU graduate and a trustee since 2003, dismissed the group’s efforts.

“From what I understand, they are so far to the left they make Jane Fonda look like Ronald Reagan,” Bergman said Wednesday. “Their concern is to promote a radical, leftist agenda. I just happen to be their target this semester.”

The group’s push comes in the wake of a Pantagraph report in January detailing how Bergman’s company, Petco Petroleum Corp., is fighting an environmental lawsuit filed by the state attorney general.

Blagojevich’s office put Bergman’s reappointment on hold pending the outcome of that case, which stems from oil drilling-related spills of salt water last year in Fayette County.

Read the whole thing. This guy is truly clueless about public relations.

UPDATE: The college president rebukes his boss:

Illinois State University President Al Bowman issued a rare public rebuke of one of his bosses Friday.

Responding to a report in The Pantagraph, Bowman said ISU Trustee Jay Bergman’s criticism of a campus environmental group goes against his belief in “student civic engagement.”

“Although I have not spoken today with Trustee Bergman, I disagree with some remarks attributed to him in today’s edition of The Pantagraph,” Bowman said in a statement released Friday afternoon.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Apr 8, 05 @ 3:02 am

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