Daily Egyptian
March 21 - 24, 2013 Volume 98 Issue 112
A year of trustee controversy
Glenn Poshard KARSTEN BURGSTAHLER The Weekender
One trustee’s request that the university’s president put his big boy pants on and get to work was just one of the many public battles that have plagued SIU Board of Trustees during the last year. The board was dealt a crisis Feb. 25 when Gov. Pat Quinn released trustees Mark Hinrichs, Ed Hightower and John Simmons from the board. He appointed three trustees from across the state in their place, but the swap halted the board’s Feb. 28 scheduled meeting that was replaced with a 40-minute debate between Board Chairman Pro Tempore Roger Herrin and university President Glenn Poshard as a year of issues intensified. When Herrin joined the board in 2011, rumors swirled that claimed Quinn appointed him because of campaign contributions —more than $15,000, according to the State Board of Elections — but Herrin said he was appointed because of his merits. Herrin said he felt he and Poshard had a good relationship until he was appointed to the BOT in 2011. During the late ’90s, Herrin donated more than $6,000 to Poshard for Governor campaigns, according to the elections board. So how did the two come to blows? The Election Almost one year ago, Roger Herrin was voted out as board chairman 4-2. Trustees Donna Mannering and Don Lowery voted to retain Herrin, while trustees Hightower, Simmons, Hinrichs and Marquita Wiley voted Simmons chairman. Herrin abstained from the vote. However, Herrin was not surprised by the results, which he said had been some time in the making. “The change was, without question, wellplanned, well-orchestrated through the administration,” Herrin said. “And it became known to those of us close to the situation exactly what was coming down.” Ed Hightower, who was elected vice-
Roger Herrin
chairman alongside Simmons, said the trustees voted to change leadership because of fears that trustees were becoming too involved in everyday university operations, which Hightower said should be restricted to university-official approval. “We hire quality individuals to run the dayto-day,” Hightower said. “When trustees begin to get involved with the day-to-day, it causes problems that we should not have to encounter. And with that, we felt that we were there and we needed to ... get behind all of our administrators and allow them to run the day-to-day and that’s probably the biggest issue that we would change in the leadership.” Herrin said he wouldn’t give up. “I did the best I could do, but they’re not going to run me off,” he said. “You can still lose a battle and win a war.”
denied that claim. “I never, ever, directly or indirectly, interfered in any of that, nor would I have ever,” he said. Randy Hughes, then-Faculty Association president, said Herrin had not been involved in the negotiation. “We didn’t speak with Herrin,” Hughes said in an April 2 article. “Herrin wasn’t acting on our behalf. We didn’t communicate inside or outside of bargaining with Herrin,” Poshard also said Gov. Quinn’s administration had contacted him, as well as the trustees, and threatened to wipe the board clean if Herrin was not re-elected Chairman. “I said to that person that called me from the governor’s staff, ‘Fine. You will not intimidate me. I will not run away from you in fear, I’ve never done that in my whole life, and I’m not starting it right now’,” he said.
The Press Conference
The Search Committee
Several days later, Poshard held a press conference to refute accusations Herrin and Lowery made after the election. However, Herrin said he would not be upset if the press conference were for other reasons, according to a March 27 WPSD Local 6 article. “It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if this press conference he’s holding today is to announce his resignation,” he said in the article. “I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it tonight.” During the conference, Poshard said Herrin and Lowery were attempting to control the board. Herrin used threats to advance his agenda, Poshard said. “They’ve tried to change search procedures so people with political connections can get qualified for certain jobs,” he said in the article. Poshard also said Herrin had been in contact with the university’s Faculty Association outside the bargaining table before the November 2011 teacher strike, which would go against the union bargaining process. Poshard said Herrin had come to him with a list of what the union wanted, and Poshard took the note before the full BOT as evidence. Poshard also said Herrin admitted the communication to him, but Herrin
During a Nov. 8 board meeting, Herrin and Poshard clashed over newly mandated state legislation requiring universities to establish a search firm procurement policy for university chancellors and presidents. However, Herrin said Poshard changed language in the university’s new policy that would allow Poshard to consult a search firm without reaching out to trustees first. “I cannot support (search firm selection) without it coming back to the Board of Trustees,” Herrin said. However, university general counsel Jeffrey McLellan said the policy did not violate the legislation, and SIU-Edwardsville student trustee David Hamilton suggested Poshard be required to contact the board first. Hightower argued policy issues should have been brought up during the board’s executive session. “There’s an appropriate way to (ask for modifications),” Hightower said. “That’s what we as trustees should strive to do. This is not the forum to (discuss changes). We’re not going to do so. We will follow the protocol.”
Ed Hightower
Mark Hinrichs
TRUSTEE 6
John Simmons