U of I Leadership Should Go.

Once again, Pat Quinn looks like the only straight shooter on the Illinois political scene. (I first wrote about this here.)

Three University of Illinois trustees resigned before the Mikva Commission's report was released, including the Board chairman. All three suggested the rest should join them. They didn't. Then, based on the Mikva Commission's recommendation, Quinn asked the six remaining members to resign. They haven't and probably won't.

The Chicago Tribune reports that one of the hold-outs, Trustee James Montgomery, is defiant. He told Quinn's general counsel, "If the governor has a legal basis for forcing me out of the trusteeship, he is going to have to access that avenue and I will defend against that."

The commission's report said Montgomery once intervened on behalf of a rejected student who was related to his daughter's boyfriend.

The university's president and chancellor have a slightly more defensible reason for not resigning. They want the Board of Trustees to decide their fate.

Sure, Quinn is a politician who wants to put his loyalists anywhere he can, but he also recognizes that the current board has zero credibility. If they don't go, one way or another (Quinn can fire them), clout will have won and reform will have died aborning yet again.