A Metro East lawmaker's attempt to rebuild SIU's Board of Trustees has cleared one legislative hurdle.
Alton Senator Bill Haine's bill would require three Trustees to have ties to the SIU Edwardsville campus, three to the Carbondale campus, and would give both student trustees a binding vote. He says last week's events illustrate the need for a change: "It isn't just the spectacle. It's the fact that it indicates a deep and irreparable breach. There's no excuse for it in a university board."
But critics of the plan say it's micro-managing the board. Senator Dale Righter of Mattoon points out that last week's rejection of SIU Trustee nominees was bolstered by accusations that the Governor's office was trying to insert itself into the board... and this goes against the same principle: "Is that not what the General Assembly is doing now, in what would be an unprecedented move, to reach into one of our state universities and say, 'You're all out - and we're starting over again.'?"
Haine's bill passed the Senate Executive Committee on a 9-4 vote, and now goes to the full floor for consideration.
