Durbin: Hogan's Resignation Won't Fix All Of U Of I's Problems
CHICAGO (CBS) -- U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Saturday that it was time for Michael Hogan to resign as president of the University of Illinois, but his resignation won't cure the university's problems.
Hogan submitted his resignation under pressure Friday, effective July 1. He will remain with the university as a $285,000-a-year history professor. He had earned $651,000 as university president.
Hogan's disputes were legendary with faculty who found him to be arrogant, manipulative and bullying. The problems dated virtually from the time he took the job in 2009, and climaxed Thursday with a second letter from faculty seeking his immediate termination.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Bob Roberts reports
Podcast
Durbin said, during an unrelated event on the UIC campus, that the acrimony did not help.
"Michael Hogan worked hard for two years but ran into a problem -- a lack of confidence among faculty and others at the university," he said.
Durbin said incoming president Robert Easter and whomever should succeed Easter when he intends to retire, in 2014, will still face the financial pressures Hogan tried to address, and said it is important that those pressures be addressed in a way that preserves quality while making a university education more affordable.
"It's a great university. It's an important part of our nation and, of course, our state's economy," he said. "I want it working smoothly."
At the same time, he said students and their parents do not need debt loads from tuition and other university-related expenses that they will be forced carry for life.
