Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Did the SIU administration kill John Simon?

I hear that sad news that Professor John Simon has died. A long time senior professor, head of the US Grant work at SIU and a neighbor of mine in Carbondale. It is rumored that Dr. Simon was "fired" and "escorted off campus" for some unnamed transgression, against some unnamed accuser, without a hearing, without any process. Word on the street is that the stress of this event, caused him to have a major stress related collapse and he spent the rest of his life in the ICU and died yesterday. Because he was a member of the Faculty Association, he had people go fight for him and he was "reinstated," after he fell ill. Should make great reading at his widows lawsuit against SIU.

You have to wonder who is running the circus at SIU and why anyone would go after a 70-some year old professor this way? Word on the street is that Simon wouldn't play ball with his US Grant endowment and he was being pushed aside so the administration could get control of that money. Don't know if that is true, but why fire him, without a hearing and without any process, unless you are after money and/or power?

Should be interesting to see who decided to drop a 10 ton block on the head of a loyal and longtime employee. If these rumors are true, I'm hoping the widows sues and shines light under every rock, just to see the administration cockroaches run. If you can't be enraged about this, what will wake you from your stupor?

RIP Dr. Simon, you deserved better.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

SIU is doing this to another older professor who has a large endowment. The SIU administration had him escorted off campus, has banned him from returning, and made vague accusations without naming who the accuser was, what he had done, and without any due process. Word on the street is that in this case, also, SIU is trying to go after this man's endowment and destroy the man's health. So, here's a question: Is SIU after money or is it also trying to drive out seniors, or, perhaps, Jews?