Report: Outgoing U Of I President Skipping Major Events
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (CBS) -- Many students don't like missing class and want perfect attendance, but that's not something you will find soon-to-depart University of Illinois President Michael Hogan going for.
As WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports, since Hogan announced last month that he was stepping down, he has not exactly packed his schedule with things to do.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports
Podcast
In fact, according to the Chicago Tribune, Hogan has been avoiding some pretty big events that one might think a university president making $651,000 a year would be likely to attend.
Among them are graduation, a state budget hearing, and a U of I Board of Trustees hearing, the Tribune reported.
Hogan says he is out of town on family business Thursday, and that incoming U of I President Robert Easter will be at the board of trustees meeting instead.
When his resignation takes effect July 1, Hogan will collect a $37,300 bonus, and then take a year's sabbatical at a $285,000 faculty salary.
Hogan took office in 2010, in the wake of a scandal in which students with political connections allegedly were favored for admission to the university, despite lacking the necessary academic qualifications.
The rift between him and the faculty has developed over a management style they charge includes the sending of the unethical e-mails to encourage their support of Hogan initiatives.
Faculty members also criticized Hogan for other steps the authors say threaten the autonomy of the three campuses.
They also accused Hogan of usurping the authority of the campus chancellor, lacking financial discipline, and trying to bully the chancellor and faculty into falling in line on enrollment issues, according to an earlier Chicago Tribune report.
On Feb. 23, 130 prominent faculty members from the main Urbana-Champaign campus wrote that they had "no confidence" in Hogan, and that he "lacks the values commitments, management style, ethics and even manners needed to lead this university."
