Aug. 13--When Tim Killeen met in May with our editorial board as the University of Illinois' new (and 20th) president, he deferred our questions about scandals at the flagship campus to Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise. Killeen couldn't have known that the wingwoman seated to his left would create her own scandal -- or that within three months he'd be launching dismissal proceedings against her.
President Killeen, welcome anew to a state whose students and taxpayers have been serially chumped by departure packages like the one you approved for Wise. We can't speak to your experience in New York's university system. But higher ed boards and administrators here have agreed to reckless payouts that don't reflect how well or poorly someone performed. We hope you won't again propose a $400,000 bonus for a departing educator whom you wind up trying to fire.
We also hope Wednesday's refusal by U. of I. trustees to permit that bonus is a wake-up to every board member in this state's higher ed industry: no more clubby contracts on arrival, no more sweetheart deals at departure. Building on what we wrote two days ago: We would love for Illinois higher ed to be known nationally as a leader in pay for performance. Let's guarantee our university executives really good pay ... for really good work.
Third, we hope Killeen and the U. of I. board really do exploit l'affaire Wise as an opportunity to overhaul compensation. You clucked at our evocation of pay for performance in a university setting? That's the deal former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels gladly accepted when he took the top job at Purdue. And yes, the Purdue metrics are real measures of real success or real failure. This isn't eyewash.
We appreciate Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner's stated distaste this week for rewarding Wise, who had used her personal email account to hide public business from the public. We imagine Rauner, too, would welcome pay arrangements for university executives that reward demonstrated excellence. Instead, as the Wise case and those before it have shown, the cushy imperative in Illinois has been to lavish cash on departing administrators ... with no regard to the circumstances of their leaving.
We understand the desire of board members and educators to avoid unpleasantry. But that priority pales by comparison to the desire of students, their families and every Illinoisan to see each tuition or tax dollar well spent.
