University of Illinois to fire chancellor, rejects bonus

University of Illinois trustees plan to begin the process of firing Chancellor Phyllis Wise rather than accept her resignation and pay her a US$400,000 bonus she had negotiated. President Timothy Killeen instead plans to assign her to an advisory position reporting directly to him, writes David Mercer for Associated Press.

Killeen and university trustees announced those moves after a lengthy closed-door meeting of a trustees committee last Wednesday, nearly a week after Wise said she planned to resign as the top official at the Urbana-Champaign campus. The action followed calls by Governor Bruce Rauner and others to reject the bonus in the aftermath of the school's recent announcement that she and other administrators had used their private email accounts to avoid public scrutiny of their communications on university business.

Killeen said that with students coming back this month for fall classes, he hoped the decisions made would help quiet what has been a series of storms on campus this year. They range from the ongoing lawsuit by Professor Steven Salaita, whose job offer was rescinded over a series of anti-Israel Twitter messages, to allegations of mistreatment by some former athletes and two related lawsuits.
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