MONDAY
DAILY EGYPTIAN MARCH 4, 2013
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
Rejections split board KARTSTEN BURGSTAHLER Daily Egyptian Thursday’s SIU Board of Trustees meeting did not adhere closely to schedule. Roger Herrin, the board’s chair pro tempore, adjourned the meeting less than five minutes in because too few trustees were present for the board to vote on agenda items. During the press conference that followed, Herrin and University President Glenn Poshard heavily debated Gov. Pat Quinn’s recent dismissal of three trustees whose terms expired last month, as well as three replacements’ subsequent appointments without the state Senate’s advisement or approval. The Illinois Senate on Wednesday unanimously rejected the three appointees: Lee Milner, of Springfield; Melvin Terrell, of Chicago; and Sandra Cook, of Collinsville. Herrin said he was disappointed with the Senate’s rejection despite the appointees’ qualifications and thinks the voters should shape up. “You need to put your big-boy pants on and go to work, and do the right thing,” he said. “We’re here to do the right thing. We were here to unify this board and to work for this university, nothing more than that.” However, the discussion soon turned to reasons behind Quinn’s appointments. Poshard said Terrell told him upon a congratulatory phone call that the governor’s office said Herrin would be the board’s chairman and Terrell would be vice-chair. “We all know what happened here,” Poshard said. “There’s no sense in trying to spin the truth.” Poshard said the three former members — John Simmons, Ed Hightower and Mark
Hinrichs — were unceremoniously let go. He said Herrin informed the three former members last year the governor would kick them off the board. “Once again, the governor gave people their walking orders to do something that they needed to be independent of and he had assured everybody they would be independent of,” he said. Herrin said he did not personally know the names of the new trustees before this week, but any collusion for the chairman position would have come from somewhere else. Terrell turned down several requests to consider running for the chairman position, he said. Trustee Don Lowery said he and SIUEdwardsville student-trustee David Hamilton are the only board Republicans, so they are not involved in the board’s political issues. However, he said the real reasons behind the appointments are simple. “The reality is, there were three vacancies,” Lowery said. “The terms expired. And yes, sometimes people are reappointed; sometimes they’re not. That’s the normal evolution of boards. It happens statewide.” Herrin used a December 2012 basketball game to highlight an issue he had with the former trustees. Several trustees, including Hightower, did not attend the game they were invited to at the SIUC campus the night of the executive session, he said. However, Poshard said the event was irrelevant and cited how several members, including Herrin, did not attend SIUE chancellor interviews as an example of how much animosity there is toward the Metro East area, an area now underrepresented on the board. Please see TRUSTEES | 3
SINCE 1916
VOLUME 98, ISSUE 105
Kleinau consumerism
LAURA ROBERTS | DAILY EGYPTIAN
Visiting artist Amy Kilgard, a professor at San Francisco State University, performs a scene from her play, “Triskaidekaphobia: 13 Consumer Tragedies,” Friday in the Communications Building’s Marion Kleinau Theater. Using viewer participation and various monologues, the play tells stories of consumerism and issues that occur in retail stores. “Triskaidekaphobia” is on a 13-city nationwide tour, and Kilgard’s next performance will be March 14 at California State University in Northridge, Calif.
Airport tower closure to affect SIU aviation KAYLI PLOTNER Daily Egyptian Airports nationwide face possible closure of air-traffic control towers because of federal sequestration cuts, and Southern Illinois Airport is on the chopping block. Starting early April, government funding for 238 air-traffic control towers will be completely cut, leaving those towers to be shut down or find alternative ways to continue operation.
Spencer Dickerson, president of the American Association of Airport Executives, said the tower controllers provide guidance to pilots, up-to-date weather alerts, separation instructions and increased safety. “When towers shut down, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the airports shut down, but it does mean it is a drastic change in the operation and management of flights at the airport,” Dickerson said. “Every airport is different (and) has a different density of
traffic, different mix of aircraft, military (and) student pilots.” Airport manager Gary Shafer said SI Airport is the sixth-busiest Illinois airport, and operating with such high traffic and no tower to help guide could be chaotic. “Imagine Route 13 in Carbondale at eight in the morning and five at night when it’s full of cars, and each one of those cars avoids each other by talking to each other on the phone,” he said. Shafer said only 450 of the country’s
19,000 airports have control towers because of their high traffic density. “In the absence of a control tower, you’ve got pilots talking to pilots and trying to remain clear of each other, and when you fill the sky in a very dense manner you increase the likelihood that they aren’t able to accomplish that,” he said. “The real concern here is that the skies get so dense with airplanes that pilots will have an increased difficulty separating themselves from each other.”
The majority of SI Airport’s traffic comes from the university’s aviation program, which sends out flights at 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and sometimes 5 p.m., Aviation Department Chair David Newmyer said. NewMyer said these cuts will have a heavy impact because of timing, as April and October are the busiest months for students to fly when visibility is ideal. Please see AVIATION | 3
University applauds general counsel for years of legal service MATT DARAY Daily Egyptian The university’s general counsel has retired after several years of service. Jeff McLellan, who has worked for the university system since November 2005 when he began as a senior associate general counsel and special assistant to Edwardsville campus chancellor, retired Friday. McLellan served as the university’s interim lead attorney for several months until he was appointed in September 2011 to general counsel, a position which oversees SIU Board of Trustees and staff
member legal representation at both university campuses. The BOT will appoint an interim general counsel during a special session Tuesday, but university President Glenn Poshard said the board will take its time to find the right permanent candidate. Poshard said McLellan was a great asset to the university, and his presence will be missed. “Jeff was an excellent general counsel,” he said. “He did a great service for this university when he was associate general counsel up in Edwardsville as well as full general counsel for the whole system. He was
‘‘W
e’ll miss his services tremendously because he’s worked throughout the system and really knew this system well.
very diligent (and) very thoughtful.” McLellan said he chose to retire because of several factors, including his age and Illinois’ pension issues caused by the state’s budget. While he said he does not think he left much of a legacy, he thinks he displayed a good work ethic and was well liked by his co-workers.
— Glenn Poshard SIU President Poshard said the university is very grateful for McLellan’s service. He said McLellan represented several controversial cases against the university, including one that involved Christi Turpin, a former graduate student who sued two deans and a professor in federal court for failing
to acknowledge that she earned her doctorate. Despite a month of trial, the case was later dismissed. McLellan and his staff handled cases with integrity, Poshard said, and the time he invested served him well in his duties. “We’ll miss his services tremendously because he’s worked throughout the system and really knew this system well,” he said. McLellan said he will now join his wife in retirement and plans to travel to Europe and enjoy life. BOT members could not be reached for comment by press time Sunday.