Records shed light on UI presidential search

URBANA — The search for a new University of Illinois chancellor is winding down, with a decision expected within days.

If tradition holds, the university will simply announce its choice after closed-door interviews with the finalists, with little or no word about who else was considered for the job.

The same procedure was followed in 2010, when the UI introduced Michael Hogan as its new president after a six-month search.

The News-Gazette has learned the identities of two runners-up and other candidates for Hogan's job with help from documents obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

Kumble Subbaswamy, provost at the University of Kentucky, and David Daniel, president of the University of Texas at Dallas, each traveled to Chicago for two rounds of interviews, first with the search committee and then with UI trustees, according to the documents and sources who asked not to be named.

Daniel, who earned all of his academic degrees at the University of Texas at Austin, was dean of the UI College of Engineering from 2001 to 2005 before taking the UT-Dallas job. He did not return calls to The News-Gazette. Susan Rogers, vice president for communications, said she could not confirm any information.

Subbaswamy declined comment through a university spokesman. A longtime professor at Kentucky, he has been provost since 2006 and before that was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University, where he earned his doctorate.

Other candidates

David Chicoine, president of South Dakota State University and a former UI vice president, also met with the search committee. And records indicate that Elizabeth Hoffman, a former UI Chicago administrator who is now provost and executive vice president at Iowa State University, and Robert Shelton, outgoing president of the University of Arizona, may have as well. Hoffman was formerly president of the University of Colorado, and Shelton will assume his new job as executive director of the Fiesta Bowl on Aug. 1.

Chicoine, a UI professor and administrator for 35 years before taking the South Dakota job in 2006, said he interviewed with the UI search committee in the spring of 2010.

"It was a great conversation," Chicoine, a South Dakota native, said recently. "It was informative for me and informative for them. We just decided to go our separate ways."

An agricultural economist, Chicoine was dean of the UI College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences from 1995 to 2001, when he was promoted to vice president. The documents show that candidates also flew to Chicago between March 15 and 19 in 2010 from Atlanta, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Another candidate, from Philadelphia, canceled his or her interview.

Illinois Law Provides for Privileged Communications with Union ...

Did you know that as a union member, your conversations with union agents are privileged? Generally union members understand that a privilege exists with attorneys, medical providers, clergy and a spouse, but Illinois law provides for a limited privilege to union members when discussing issues with a union representative when he/she is acting in the scope of representation of the member. The specific Statutory Provision in Illinois is 735 ILCS 5 Code of Civil Procedure. Section 8-803.5 . This privilege is so important that we reproduce it here for you to see the extent of your protection. (735 ILCS 5/8-803.5)

Sec. 8-803.5.

Union agent and union member.

(a) Except when required in subsection (b) of this Section, a union agent, during the agency or representative relationship or after termination of the agency or representative relationship with the bargaining unit member, shall not be compelled to disclose, in any court or to any administrative board or agency arbitration or proceeding, whether civil or criminal, any information he or she may have acquired in attending to his or her professional duties or while acting in his or her representative capacity.

(b) A union agent may use or reveal information obtained during the course of fulfilling his or her professional representative duties:

(1) to the extent it appears necessary to prevent the

commission of a crime that is likely to result in a clear, imminent risk of serious physical injury or death of another person;

(2) in actions, civil or criminal, against the union

agent in his or her personal or official representative capacity, or against the local union or subordinate body thereof or international union or affiliated or subordinate body thereof or any agent thereof in their personal or official representative capacities;

(3) when required by court order; or

(4) when, after full disclosure has been provided,

the written or oral consent of the bargaining unit member has been obtained or, if the bargaining unit member is deceased or has been adjudged incompetent by a court of competent jurisdiction, the written or oral consent of the bargaining unit member’s estate.

(c) In the event of a conflict between the application of this Section and any federal or State labor law to a specific situation, the provisions of the federal or State labor law shall control.

(Source: P.A. 94-22, eff. 1-1-06.

Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, as effective August 18, 1982 and rules of Supreme Court as effective July 1, 1982

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