New UI trustees chairman didn't exactly have write stuff
One thing is pretty clear. There's no way Christopher Kennedy could have been appointed to the University of Illinois board of trustees based solely on the application he submitted to Gov. Pat Quinn.
Politics – and the cachet of the Kennedy name and the fundraising connections it presents – had to have been a much bigger factor because Kennedy's application is so painfully weak.
"I am Chris Kennedy and I am interested in being nominated to the Board of Trustees for one of our nation's most prestigious universities – The University of Illinois," wrote Kennedy, the president of the Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. "An institution that embraces innovation, embraces new ideas. An institution that embraces new ideas, embraces its future. The confident attitude that the people from Illinois embrace comes from their comfort with being surrounded by organizations like the University of Illinois that are the best in the world. The University of Illinois has taught us all how to embrace the future."
Kennedy, now chairman of the board of trustees, was one of about 425 applicants to embrace the opportunity to serve on the UI board.
OK, so he's not much of a writer and his degrees (a bachelor's from Boston College in political science and a master's from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern) aren't in English or rhetoric.
But his application (obtained by way of a Freedom of Information Act request) makes one wonder how much he knows about the UI or about Illinois.
"The University of Illinois is an economic incubator," he wrote. "Each year it retains the state's brightest minds and attracts thousands to our state to live here for four years. Most of them fall in love with the state, with its beautiful lakes and state parks, its vibrant culture, the welcoming nature of its people, and its wonderful communities and neighborhoods in which to raise a family."
Oddly missing from Kennedy's application, which was submitted Aug. 26 – the same day the Associated Press reported that he would be appointed to the UI board – is any mention of the reason for the shakeup on the board of trustees and in the university's administration. That was the investigation into admissions abuses at the UI that began with a May 29 story in the Chicago Tribune.
"The greatest challenge facing the University of Illinois is not the quality of its student body, it is not the quality of its teaching, it is not the quality of its campus – it is the quality of values of the leadership of the University," Kennedy wrote. "The Trustees must set the tone of that leadership."
Other applicants – successful and otherwise – noted the admissions scandal.
"I would be honored to be appointed by Governor Quinn to the U of I Board of Trustees to work with others to restore the public trust in the admissions system at the University, and to help maintain the quality education that our flagship university has had for so many years," wrote new trustee Karen Hasara of Springfield.
"Given recent developments I want to do what ever I can to improve the University and reestablish its superb reputation," wrote another new trustee, Timothy Koritz of Roscoe.
Former trustee Robert Vickrey of LaSalle, who served from 2001 to this summer, wrote that the growth in the number of students from outside Illinois "has created the demand we have seen on everyone from State Legislators to Trustees in the admissions process."
Vickrey's application – certainly more than Kennedy's – was intriguing and insightful.
He suggested the position of campus chancellor "is not needed," and that it tends to make the university president merely "president of the University of Illinois administration."
An administrative chart with a president over campus provosts is "better for the state and the governing board in that they have one person to hold responsible and accountable for the university's successes or failures, the president of the university," he wrote.
Vickrey also called for a 5 percent cap on out-of-state enrollment, which he said had grown from 7 percent in 1989 to 17.4 percent in 2008. He said that governors of the states with Big Ten schools should stop charging each other's students out-of-state tuition rates.
"Students can then choose any Big Ten Conference university and attend the best college within that university for them and study where they want under whom they want," he wrote. "That's good for the Midwest, and the Midwest states must reinvent themselves as our manufacturing base continues to deteriorate, our farms are getting larger (more acreage – fewer farms) and the mining of natural resources is receiving global competition from countries that subsidize those industries."
Finally, Vickrey said there is "too much focus being placed on the University of Illinois being an 'international university,' as opposed to educating the sons and daughters of Illinois residents. With 12 million residents we have enough high school talent and diversity in the state of Illinois to compete with any public university. Let the role of private universities be that of internationalizing. The University of Illinois is a public university that should be of Illinois, by Illinois and for Illinois students and their families."
Tom Kacich is a News-Gazette editor and columnist. His column appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. He can be reached at 351-5221 or at kacich@news-gazette.com.
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