Trustees Convene at U of I

New trustees get on board

The newly composed University of Illinois Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet today for the first time, including including the two holdouts who intimidated Gov. Pat Quinn into keeping their positions.

Awkward! 

Quinn is planning to attend.

Even more awkward! 

And just to make things more uncomfortable, one of the first orders of business is expected to be a decision on the fates of University President B. Joseph White and Urbana Chancellor Richard Herman.

Refreshments will be served.

The board will first select a new chairman, then likely take up a resolution that has already been drawn up to eliminate the so-called Cateogry I clout admissions, according to the Urbana-Champaign News-Gazette.

(The Daily Illini says incoming trustees have discussed the resolution behind closed doors, possibly violating the state's open meetings law.)

A 30-minute comment period for the public has also been scheduled.

But all eyes will be on intransigent trustees James Montgomery and Frances Carroll.

Will they defend the old guard? Refuse to eat Quinn's cookies? Put a whoopee cushion on his chair?

Either way, it won't be pretty.

And just wait until the next tuition hike.

Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.

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