SIU president, Carbondale chancellor respond to explosive op-ed

CARBONDALE — Southern Illinois University President Randy Dunn is pushing back against claims that he colluded with SIU Edwardsville officials in developing a proposal to shift $5.1 million in state appropriations from Carbondale to Edwardsville.

In a guest opinion column published in The Southern Illinoisan on Thursday, former SIUC Faculty Senate President Kathleen Chwalisz claimed that budget-related documents and correspondences obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests reveal how Dunn kept SIUC Chancellor Carlo Montemagno in the dark about the proposal, which ultimately failed to pass the SIU Board of Trustees on April 12.

In one internal email, Dunn said he was using certain funding distribution figures "simply to shut up the bitchers from Carbondale" who opposed the reallocation.

In a statement sent out Thursday afternoon, Dunn said Chwalisz’s guest view was “misleading and frankly intentionally and grossly misrepresenting the situation,” but called his wording in the email “a mistake.”

Read more: http://thesouthern.com/news/local/siu/siu-president-carbondale-chancellor-respond-to-explosive-op-ed/article_63520c18-f82f-5d4d-be95-ad46dd5e8582.html