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WNIJ's summary of news items around our state.

U Of I Officials Reject $400,000 Chancellor Severance

University of Illinois / illinois.edu

UPDATE: University of Illinois officials named Barbara Wilson as interim chancellor at the University of Illinois. A University Trustees Committee rejected the bonus pay for the departing Wise Wednesday. The University Of Illinois will dismiss Wise rather than accept her resignation. However, she is still welcome to teach at the school.

It’s been a tumultuous year for Wise and the Urbana campus. The year included lawsuits involving the non-employment of controversial professor Steven Salaita and allegations of abuse in three sports programs.

The day after Wise’s resignation, the school released hundreds of emails that showed Wise tried to keep University-related communication secret by using her personal email.

Because of this, Representative Carol Ammons -- a Democrat from Urbana -- urges U of I leaders to reconsider the chancellor’s severance amount.

"Say I'm not going to pay out this large sum when we are suffering at this point with a huge budget deficit," Ammons said.

Governor Bruce Rauner's office agrees. The administration sent a strongly worded letter to the board of trustees yesterday, asking officials to consider taxpayers.

Back in January, Rauner suggested bloated administrative salaries at the university put state funding in jeopardy.

"Goodness, I haven't gone deep with our team yet on the bureaucracy at the U of I...but we've got to deal with it," Rauner said.

Meisel works for Capitol News Illinois.
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