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U of I Board of Trustees debate: slow down and get it right…

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[posted by Mike Murray]

As an U of I alumni and current student I want to see positive, well thought out reform as much as anybody. But lets make sure we get it right while minimizing the harm caused to the university. So far this attitude has been lacking.

There have been numerous calls from editorial boards for the complete dismal of the U of I Board of trustees. If there is evidence of unethical or inappropriate behavior I say give them the boot. It seems, in my humble opinion anyway, that such an action would be based upon at least a healthy douse of guilt by association.

* Thankfully, there is an editorial board out there acting as a voice of reason regarding how to deal with the U of I Trustees post ‘clout’ fallout…

Kicking out the entire nine-member board may feel good. It may have symbolic value.

But it could hurt the university.

The university’s trustees oversee a $4.2 billion annual budget, covering 70,000 students and almost 25,000 employees. One trustee has served 10 years on the board, five others have served between six and eight years. Their expertise covers auditing, medicine, athletics, K-12 education, agriculture and law.

Should we really throw that away, denying the university the benefit of their institutional knowledge, contacts and expertise, particularly if they did very little wrong?

The key issue should be whether they did something that merits there dismissal. The impact of losing those individuals should be a secondary concern.

* The SJ-R ran an AP story that avoids the issue of whether the entire board deserves to be fired and instead claims that the removal of the board would not cause ‘turmoil’ at U of I.

While the board oversees the campuses in Champaign-Urbana, Chicago and Springfield, it doesn’t have a major role in their operational nuts and bolts. Trustees vote on measures that university staff members have researched and choose university leaders such as the president and campus chancellors.

“Having nine new trustees at one time would be a disaster for that university that would harm it for a long, long time,” Dorris, a graduate of the university’s law school and a trustee since 2005, said in an interview last week. “For at least six months but probably a year, you would have people that would probably not be able to make sound decisions for that university.”[…]

That’s true to some degree, said Richard Novak, senior vice president of the Center for Public Trusteeship at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges in Washington.

“There’s going to be some lag time until they get up to speed,” Novak said. “Institutional memory’s gonna be lost.”

Um…so, AP, are we playing semantics here or what? Lag time and loss of institutional memory does not equal turmoil? What does?

To be fair, Novak continued…

But if Quinn chooses to sweep most or all of the board away, Novak said he probably won’t have trouble finding qualified people with either higher education experience, public governance experience or both.

He added that Quinn shouldn’t have trouble finding trustees who are likely to do the right thing, given the memory of the current scandal and the scrutiny they would likely face.

As long as Quinn acts quickly -and when has he ever been slow to act on something- he will ‘probably’ be able to find competent people that could ensure the purging of the board only results in ’some lag time’ and ‘loss of institutional memory’ instead of turmoil. So it does not matter if the entire board deserves to be purged or not, because the transition will be smooth sailing. Now I understand! Silly me.

* Related…

* Our Opinion: Sign FOIA bill, governor

* Open up

* Little-Noticed ‘Fair Campaign’ Code Twenty Years Old

posted by Mike Murray
Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 11:28 am

Comments

Easy on the SJ-R there. It’s an AP story.

Comment by Just Sayin' Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 11:36 am
my bad, will change it to AP

Comment by Mike Murray Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 11:41 am
It’s a bit ironic to talk about a “go slow” approach with the trustees when we’re salivating at the prospect of dumping over 1600 so-called “Blagojevich” appointees. Go slow with the trustees but hurry up dump anyone and everyone making over 70K and appointed during the Blago years?

Institutional knowledge is institutional knowledge. The brain drain from Ryan’s early retirement offer was significant. And I agree — we *should* go slow and not merely for go for the symbolic bang.

But come on. At least be consistent about the symbolic bangs you (or “we”) choose to implement.

Geez.

Comment by Macbeth Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 11:43 am
There is no “we” for journalists. Rich has his opinions and states them from time to time, but you aren’t covering this blog to root for the University of Illinois.

Comment by Shore Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 11:47 am
“Brain drain” ?? You gotta be kidding.

Comment by Bill Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 12:02 pm
Macbeth, the two are not related. Someone has to be let go if the sate has no $.

The issue was that he chose to lay off the rank and file members who tend to provide most of the services.

And I did not say lay off all the Blago hires, that was Hynes.

U of I is not a budgetary issue, it’s an ethics issue that has been over hyped and should not lead to the firing of people who (if) do not deserve it.

One is about fiscal necessity, and the other is about appeasing a temporary, drummed up public opinion.

Take time to at least read the post.

GEEZ

Comment by Mike Murray Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 12:17 pm
Mike and Rich,

Thanks for the good discussion about the fate of the Trustees. I tend to believe it is time for a clean sweep, if for no other reason than to restore public trust. The public needs to see strong and, as Mike says, quick action.

There are ways to deal with the knowledge and stability concern. For example, there are former U of I Trustees who served the University well and who did not abuse their positions. The Governor could ask some of the respected past board members to serve again. Presidents Ikenberry and Stukel could offer thoughtful and informed advice about those good past members.

Another approach Gov. Quinn could use is to seek quality names from the Alumni Association. The U of I Alumni Assoc. knows very smart people who have stayed involved with the university, have skills to offer and would serve if asked.

One of the huge problems during the past decade is that the governors did not talk to university leaders and ignored the Alumni Association about these appointments. Instead the appointments became about political favors and connections.

This sorry story underscores why gubernatorial appointments matter. And yet, there has very little scrutiny either in the legislature or in the media about the quality of appointments. In the case of the U of I, several years ago the Champaign News Gazette began criticizing the lack of quality in the governors’ appointments, but they were lone wolves. My one criticism of the Chi. Tribune is that they did not focus on the poor quality of the appointments when they were being made. To their credit, the Trib has certainly shined a spotlight (a big one) on the resulting problems but focusing on the appointments years ago would have been beneficial.

Comment by Al Grosboll Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 12:24 pm
Pet peeve…you’re an alumnus, not an alumni

Comment by Budget Watcher Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 12:28 pm
As a parent of a current student, I hope they start over with a newly constituted Board. If Quinn thinks any are deserving of reappointment, thats fine but at least someone other then Blagojevich will be making that assessment. The whoe situation stinks and the sooner a new Board is in place to evaluate the aministrators who tolerated this scandal, the better off the School will be

Comment by Sue Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 12:36 pm
It would be a classic Freudian slip to call for the “the complete dismal of the U of I Board of trustees.”

Comment by Rod Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 12:45 pm
Lot of typos all over the place today. Spellcheck/grammar check is your friend.

Comment by Stickler Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 12:50 pm
The UIUC situation is a horrible mess, because there are no really good options when there is so much corruption at the very top of a large organization. Cleaning house and also keeping the organization on track at the same time is very difficult. A least bad process re the university might be something like the following:

1. The trustees should formally resign to the Governor, giving him the option to replace them. The Governor should request this. If he does not get this power now, the legislature will almost certainly give it to him during the veto session.
2. The Governor should immediately accept the resignations of the worst offenders. Perhaps this has already been done, with Eppley and Shah. They seem to have been in a class by themselves, in terms of being aggessive in seeking favors, but others may be worthy of being removed immediately.
3. The Governor should (must) appoint a new Chair of the Board, since Eppley will be gone.
4. The Governor should appoint another panel to review the evidence with respect to the individual Trustees, to make recommendations to the Governor with respect to the following issues:
a. Which Trustees’ resignations to accept.
b. Candidates to replace the departing Trustees.
c. Which current U of I administrators should be requested to resign.
5. The new panel should consist of individuals with unimpeached ethical history and deep knowledge of public research universities, preferably the U of I. Examples could be: former President Ikenberry, former Chancellor Cantor, former Chancellor Berdahl. The UIUC Faculty Senate should be represented on this panel. The panel should report to the Governor very rapidly, by mid-October. This should be possible, because so much evidence has already been accumulated.
6. The newly constituted Board, and new acting administrators at the UIUC, should be in place at the beginning of 2010, in time to represent UIUC during the spring legislative session.

Comment by Jake Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 1:25 pm
Alumnus or alumni, perhaps because you are a graduate of the UofI you and it seems the rest of the media pack are missing something, this issue is spread throughout the state school system. If you stop the focus on the UofI and look around, you’ll see that admissions at ALL the state schools have been corrupted.

Can I prove this? NO. Will it prove to be true? Absolutely.

Comment by Lou Grant Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 1:31 pm
===
Someone has to be let go if the sate has no $
====

No one has to be let go if the state has no money. That’s a myth. Layoffs don’t save the state money. I thought we covered this?

===
U of I is not a budgetary issue, it’s an ethics issue that has been over hyped and should not lead to the firing of people who (if) do not deserve it.
===

My point exactly. So, wait — let me … let me see if I understand this. People were salivating over the layoffs of 3000 Ryan/Blago appointees. Um, this was a budgetary issue? Or, wait — no. This was an *ethical* issue?

The point is that a “clean sweep” makes people feel good (as TFA points out) but it has the potential to do significant damage.

===
One is about fiscal necessity, and the other is about appeasing a temporary, drummed up public opinion.
===

Heh.

Comment by Macbeth Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 1:32 pm
A practical issue is that a partial board left behind would be able to ratify decisions of the President. A President without a Board to formally or informally pass-off on matters could be a problem — such as when significant contracts or time-sensitive federal grants need to be transacted. As I assume it will take some time for the appointments to be made and confirmed, the Governor might be encouraged to leave a few reliable people for a time (even if it is his intent to make a clean sweep).

Comment by Chad Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 1:49 pm
How hard can it be to find 10 people in the State that want free Football and Basketball tickets and free educations for their kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews etc?

Comment by BIG R.PH. Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 2:19 pm
What happened to the NIU investigation?

Comment by Just Asking... Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 2:43 pm
Not ‘investigation’, ‘inquiry’.

Comment by Just Asking... Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 2:46 pm
===My point exactly. So, wait — let me … let me see if I understand this. People were salivating over the layoffs of 3000 Ryan/Blago appointees. Um, this was a budgetary issue? Or, wait — no. This was an *ethical* issue?===

Macbeth, you are still wrong. You are confusing the layoffs that Quinn announced Monday (which was part of the $1 billion cut from budget) with the bill Speaker Madigan introduced that wanted to clean house of all executive appointees under Ryan/Blago. (You are right that the bill you referred to was ethics based and would not save any money, just like the U of I board)

However, I never mentioned MJM’s bill, nor did you until your last post.

The current cuts are not based on ethics, quinn had to cut a billion and part of that money came from furloughs, layoffs and the rest came from cuts to funding of state agencies (mostly 10% cuts)

The U of I board, if purged, will have nothing to do with $.

The two are not related and can not be compared in the manor you are attempting.

They are apples and oranges, not apples and apples.

Heh

Comment by Mike Murray Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 2:57 pm
Stickler, I was running the blog by myself and was on a very tight deadline because I had to get to work.

I do this job for free and have another jobs to pay the bills.

So if possible, cut me some slack

Comment by Mike Murray Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 2:58 pm
Wow. Bloggin’ ain’t easy, is it, Mike? Hang in. and…

“Should we really throw that away, denying the university the benefit of their institutional knowledge, contacts and expertise, particularly if they did very little wrong?”

Yup. If these ‘administrators’ don’t have an ethical foundation, how bad is changing ‘em going to be? And dump ALL the Board. The U of IL WILL get by and WILL get through this.

Comment by sal-says Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 3:00 pm
U of I Trustee Bob Vickery got his job by way of a recomendation to George Ryan and Blago from his predecessor Jerry Shea. He should have been the first to go. Shea has kept his finger in the pie and Vickery has helped his pals as well along the way. Just removing the two already resigned trustees be the fall guys is not enough.
The “institutional knowledge” lost is a red herring. The staff maintains the same knowledge as the removed trustees. And why are five trustees needed to keep the same “knowledge” alive?
If this knowledge is so important, I am sure some prior trustees can be appointed to the board.

Comment by Mr. Chips Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 4:35 pm
I suppose it would be rude to bring up Peter Fox amid all this discussion about U of I corruption?

Comment by envelop Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 5:01 pm
Why did I think U of I trustees were elected on a state-wide ballot? Has that changed? Did I miss this in an earlier discussion?

Comment by 3 beers to springfield Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 5:07 pm
Let’s dump the board and make the whole mess SIU-Northeast Campus.
Now that is real reform!

Comment by CircularFiringSquad Wednesday, Aug 5, 09 @ 6:10 pm
To quote my favorite fictional leader of yester-year, Col. Sherman T. Potter…..”Horse Hockey!” the biggest problem with political insiders of every stripe in Illinois is this boiling frog induced numbness to so called ’small potatoes’ corruption. Your half measures, naked half truths, and tolerance for mediocrity is what has landed us in the morass we find ourselves in at the moment. Whether other trustees had constructive knowledge of their colleagues wrong doing is wholely irrelevant. They should have, and that is ample reason for their and top administrators’ dismissals. To paraphrase a leader of today, and fellow U of I Alumnus Jack Welch, we simply must adhere to a system of acknowledging and rewarding Merit in this society. Anything less is unacceptable.

Comment by Fed up Thursday, Aug 6, 09 @ 6:58 am
The trustees (except Ed McMillan) need to go. Does anyone really believe these political hacks used their clout to impact only admissions? They either were active or silent watchers to injecting politics into personnel and budget issues throughout the U. White inherited it and Chancellor Herman created an administrative structure to accommodate it. The people of Illinois need new trustees to give them a new chance to “trust” the U of I.

Comment by Illini71 Thursday, Aug 6, 09 @ 8:55 am