Tuesday, March 27, 2012
 
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Turmoil costs University of Illinois on some fronts

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[March 27, 2012]  CHAMPAIGN (AP) -- At a meeting of faculty leaders this month, interim Provost Richard Wheeler felt the need to remind the couple of dozen people in the small room that, no matter what was happening, good work was still being done at the University of Illinois.

Hardware"The essential work of the university keeps going," he said, in a pained tone that acknowledged bigger, uglier events playing out at the state's premier public university were overwhelming the mission of teaching and research.

The trouble isn't limited to this week's resignation of President Michael Hogan over long-standing tensions with faculty.

The past three years have been trying for the university. A 2009 admissions scandal drove out Hogan's predecessor and a chancellor. Recently, a dean of admissions resigned under pressure over efforts to improperly boost the law school's image. And the new athletic director has fired three high-profile coaches in less than four months.

Outside experts, U of I alumni and those on campus are weary, and they worry that the school's image is taking a beating.

"We've been through a lot the last four years; we've had lots of new chancellors and coaches," said Tom Livingston, a 1990 graduate. "And from the alumni standpoint, when you have such quick turnover, there is a lack of long-range planning and morale inside the university, and that translates into a lack of support beyond its walls."

The consequences are real. An attorney who represents prospective presidents in negotiations with universities said hiring good faculty -- particularly top-flight researchers who bring in thousands of dollars -- could suffer.

"This kind of frequent and abrupt changes of presidents could put the University of Illinois -- and will put the University of Illinois -- at a competitive disadvantage with other large universities that do have stability at the top," said Raymond D. Cotton. The Washington attorney has never represented Hogan.

The law school situation has proven costly, too, as the school's national ranking fell this year.

But donations -- one of the largest sources of university funding -- are stronger this year than last, according to the University of Illinois Foundation. And experts on and off campus agree the value of the degree that students walk away with hasn't declined.

Longtime administrator Robert Easter has already replaced Hogan and will receive an annual salary of $450,000, which is $170,000 less than Hogan. Easter said Friday that while he understands the university's problems can hurt its reputation -- "we can't ignore the reality" -- he doesn't believe the injuries are critical.

"I understand the applications for admission this year as freshman are up by almost 3,000," he said. "This institution is built on a bedrock of really solid fundamentals."

University trustees accepted Hogan's resignation Friday, agreeing to pay him $285,000 a year when he moves into a tenured faculty position in July. Hogan came to Illinois from the University of Connecticut in 2010 to help clean up after the Category I admissions scandal, which admitted students with political connections over other, better-qualified applicants. It led B. Joseph White to resign.

Faculty members initially welcomed Hogan, a historian, as an academic. But some say they quickly grew to distrust him and bristled at plans they believed were intended to centralize too many operations of the university's three campuses -- Urbana-Champaign, Springfield and Chicago.

Some of Hogan's critics now say that, with Easter's appointment, they're ready to move on. But even on Friday, one faculty group, the Campus Faculty Association, said Hogan's departure fixes just one problem.

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"We need to hear a clear change of direction from the Board of Trustees itself," the group wrote in an email signed by its president, Harriet Murav, a professor of Slavic languages, and others.

Christopher Kennedy, chairman of the trustees, said he'll direct Easter to draw up a plan for the direction of the whole university, something Easter did for the Urbana campus without angering faculty.

While Hogan's troubles simmered, others boiled over.

Paul Pless, an assistant dean of admissions at the law school, stepped down in late 2011 after an investigation revealed that he inflated incoming students' grades and entrance-exam scores and posted that data online to improve the school's image.

Between November and early March, new athletic director Mike Thomas watched the losses pile up and eventually fired head football coach Ron Zook, head men's basketball coach Bruce Weber and women's basketball coach Jolette Law. Their buyouts totaled just over $7 million, though the school says privately raised money will cover all of that.

The athletic problems matter to many alumni and add to the perception that something is wrong at the flagship campus. But there are also academic consequences.

In the influential U.S. News & World Report rankings -- heavily used by schools to market themselves -- the law school fell this year from 23rd to 35th, in large part due to a drop in the perceived quality of the school among its surveyed peers, said Bob Morse, director of data research at U.S. News & World Report.

"Do I think (news about grade manipulation) played as a factor? Yes," Morse said. "Do I think it contributed to their view that something had changed? Yes."

And in academic circles, former President James Stukel said, there's no doubt the university system's image has been hurt.

"Yeah, I think it's a black eye," said Stukel, who was president from 1995-2005.

But Stukel, Cotton and others say a degree from Illinois, particularly the Urbana-Champaign campus, which has top programs in engineering, a number of sciences and other areas, is still as valuable as it was four or five years ago.

"Its reputation isn't made by its president," Stukel said. "A university's reputation is made by its faculty. It's a great institution by any measure."

[Associated Press; By DAVID MERCER]

Jason Keyser of The Associated Press contributed from Chicago.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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