I've been busy most of this week, but thought you'd want to discuss this:
Legislation that would elect University of Illinois trustees by district and downsize the UI governing board was introduced Thursday in the state House.
The legislation would ensure downstate representation on the UI Board of Trustees, according to state Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, co-sponsor with Rep. David Reis, R-Olney.
Currently, nine UI trustees are appointed by the governor, and one of three student trustees elected by students also has a vote.
Under Rose's bill, the board would be reduced from 10 voting members to seven. Six trustees would be elected from judicial districts across the state. Two members would be elected from the 1st Judicial District, in Cook County, and one from each of the other four judicial districts. The student trustee would have the seventh vote.
New trustees would have staggered terms initially, and six-year terms thereafter. The governor would continue to have an ex-officio vote.
I wonder if Gov. Edgar will weigh in on this proposal?
Gov. Edgar was on WDWS the day the Chief retirement was announced, expressing concern that the trustees were more loyal to the governor than to the university. It will be interesting to see if he will weigh in on this proposal.
I remember voting for trustee when I didn't live in CU - it was about as pure a proxy for party affiliation that there was. Didn't know a thing about any of them. Other than the Chief issue, are there really any other University issues about which someone from Peoria or Carbondale would even care?
I don't see this bill going anywhere.
How about the now-aborted plan to admit a greater proportion of out-of-state students to compensate for the lack of state funding?
I don't think that would fire up very many voters. And I doubt voters would even hear about it unless a trustee started running campaign ads. I guess creating trustee districts would make that at least possible.
Hey, we vote for judges, auditors etc. why not trustee's. I believe in voting rather than appointments with a few exceptions:
1---To get out of one Township and into another.
2---To retain the CU MTD capabilities.
As usual, I am dumbfounded by the lack of a U of I blog. With all of the problems the University faces, where is everybody?
To Anonymous; How about You starting a Uof I blog on here ??? Get verified, Register and lets see what happens. I don't post a lot but I have a blog on here and it always generates some comments. Good Luck! Greg.