A little review of what has happened in a week.

I think my Wendler rumor was correct? Not my fault if he was willing to lie.

Found I have something more to say.

Letter of Concern from SIUC Alumni about Mass Comm

Sorry about the formatting, another cut and paste job.

A Letter From Concerned SIUC Alumni
May 10, 2006 (signature list & signature references updated July 21)
President Glenn Poshard
Vice President Academic Affairs John Haller
Chancellor Walter V. Wendler
Provost John M. Dunn
Associate Provost Don Rice
Mr. Samuel Goldman, Board of Trustees
Ms. Tequia Hicks, Board of Trustees
Dr. Ed Hightower, Board of Trustees
Dr. Keith Sanders, Board of Trustees
Mr. John Simmons, Board of Trustees
Mr. Roger Tedrick, Board of Trustees
Mr. Matt Townsend, Board of Trustees
Mr. Stephen Wigginton, Board of Trustees
Ms. Marguita Wiley, Board of Trustees
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:
Manjunath Pendakur arrived in Carbondale five years ago to become Dean of the
College of Mass Communication and Media Arts (hereafter “CMCMA”). He inherited a
thriving program of national distinction. CMCMA was the fastest growing college on
campus with a dynamic energy, innovative spirit and educational track record that one
Southern Illinois University Carbondale (hereafter “SIUC”) Chancellor publicly described
as something that other programs on campus could only dream about.
Students in CMCMA routinely won major regional and national honors for print and
broadcast news, advertising, photography, industrial video production and creative
television programs; the faculty was diverse and superb; imaginative cross disciplinary
programs gave students extraordinary educational experiences while also helping them
secure jobs upon graduation; and an unprecedented number of alumni from every
generation were dedicated to collaborating with various SIUC Presidents, Chancellors,
Provosts, Deans, Department Chairs, teachers and staff to enhance the professional
learning opportunities for students from every arts and communication discipline.
Dreams were given shape during the years prior to the arrival of Dean Pendakur.
Thousands of media careers were launched with often astonishing speed and enduring
friendships were born as a result of this special environment. Dean Pendakur was
warmly welcomed by his faculty, staff and alumni. Everyone had extremely high hopes
for what we might accomplish for the students under his leadership.
Tragically, since Dean Pendakur’s arrival much of what is described above has been
destroyed. Many of the most talented and effective faculty have left. Recruitment of top
quality film, journalism and video production students has declined. Visionary programs
have been decimated or eliminated. College achievement awards have decreased.
And, faced with a notoriously unapproachable Dean, frustrated students have
transferred elsewhere or resorted to posting their grievances on the Internet.
Furthermore, the same alumni who were once invited to campus each year to help
refine programs, design new ones or conduct seminars in their areas of expertise have
stopped receiving invitations or have been informed by Dean Pendakur that they are no
longer welcome. Faculty members in at least one department have been expressly
prohibited from having any contact with alumni since this Dean took office.
Could it be that Dean Pendakur possesses unique insights and wisdom that his
successful predecessors and several SIUC administrations somehow lacked? One
glance at CMCMA’s mission statement, as currently posted on its website, reveals a
deeply troubling truth: nowhere does it mention that the College seeks to train students
for successful careers in their chosen profession or to assist them in finding jobs upon
graduation. The omission is no accident. It exemplifies everything that has gone wrong
in CMCMA under Dean Pendakur. He is simply not interested in a career oriented
curriculum.
What purpose could a college possibly have other than the benefit of its students?
What practical good is an undergraduate degree if it does not include employable skills,
let alone the kinds of tangible career advantages that CMCMA once reliably offered?
Before Dean Pendakur’s arrival, the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts
proudly and eagerly prepared graduates for career success. For fifty years, students in
CMCMA and its precursor entities received a stimulating blend of theoretical
understanding and practical experience so as to help them compete and excel in a
highly challenging industry. This competitive edge of CMCMA had long been a priority
of the College. SIUC was known to gifted prospective students and discriminating
employers alike as a place where creativity, craft skills and knowledge were honed to a
professional level.
At first, Dean Pendakur pledged to respect and nurture that tradition.
Unfortunately, that promise was only one of many misrepresentations by this Dean.
Dean Pendakur also assured students, faculty and alumni that their most cherished
programs would be secure on his watch. They were not. And he lies to the public. On
the CMCMA website Dean Pendakur currently touts a US News and World Report Top
Graduate Schools in America ranking that has not existed in a decade. Conspicuously,
that prized listing occurred years before this Dean took office. There have been a
myriad of other misrepresentations to the SIUC Administration, as well: particularly
about his success in righting a supposed sinking academic ship and the depth of his
alumni support. Perhaps most unfortunately, however, there have been repeated
smears by the Dean’s Office intended to diminish the reputations and contributions of
faculty and alumni, for no sin other than their concern.
Several noted CMCMA alumni have removed SIUC from their wills as a result. One
particularly successful individual, whose signature is included on this letter, had
previously bequeathed his entire estate to the College. He changed his will solely
because of Dean Pendakur’s policies and management style.
An alumna co-signer of this letter decided last week to cancel the CMCMA scholarship
that she funds until this Dean is removed from office. Also purged from the list of
CMCMA assets under Dean Pendakur is the annual Hollywood alumni reception for the
Dean and Department Chairs, privately organized and funded by another co-signer of
this letter and attended by hundreds of prominent Southern California-based CMCMA
alumni. Innumerable industry connections, student internships, alumni relationships,
graduate job opportunities and fundraising prospects enjoyed by Dean Pendakur’s
predecessor have ended as a direct consequence of this Dean’s conduct.
Indeed, something fundamental has changed in the College of Mass Communication
and Media Arts at SIUC, which enhances neither the quality of education nor prestige of
the University. Under Dean Pendakur, if you disagree with him, if you express an
independent opinion, if your priorities dare extend to the commercial interests of
students, or if you do not adhere to his personal ideology, then you are branded a
malcontent to be silenced. One outstanding member of the CMCMA family after
another has learned these lessons the hard way. Dean Pendakur has consistently
chosen to harass and humiliate his critics, real or imagined, rather than discuss issues
from an administrative or academic standpoint.
Since this Dean took office, the College has lost twenty tenured or tenure track faculty.
They are systematically being replaced by untenured – and, therefore, controllable –
faculty handpicked by the Dean and his small coterie of senior faculty administrators.
You may already be aware of Dean Pendakur’s efforts to marginalize authentic
disagreement as inconsequential dissent supposedly “stirred up by faculty.” But we
urge you, as duty bound administrators of a public university, to look past this smoke
screen and, instead, focus on merits of the statements put forward in this declaration.
Rest assured that many of us have watched Dean Pendakur most carefully since the
day he was hired. Our individual and collective experiences with SIUC and with him
give us the luxury of both accurate information and perspective. We have not been
provoked by faculty agitation, nor do we need it as a catalyst for action. The
overwhelming majority of us have been associated with CMCMA far longer than Dean
Pendakur. And we each feel a stronger emotional bond and sincere sense of gratitude
to it than he ever could.
We, the undersigned SIUC alumni, are motivated solely by our passion for the students,
programs and traditions of Southern Illinois University. Our careers have been good to
us and we owe a substantial debt of thanks to SIUC, the College of Mass
Communication and Media Arts and its predecessors. We vividly remember the
talented faculty who taught us. We value past administrators who guided the College
and SIUC with vision and caring. And we enjoyed collaborating with the many
professionals who excelled in those positions in recent years. We are trying to give
something back in the form of career-oriented experience, proven teaching techniques
and positive growth for the students' and CMCMA’s futures. We want only to see the
College restored to its former glory.
A crown jewel of SIUC has been systematically vandalized by Dean Pendakur. In the
process of revealing himself to be an inadequate educator, he has squandered the
national reputation and progressive programs of the College he inherited. He is
completely disengaged from the ambitions and needs of the students in his charge, and
the complex realities of the marketplace that they face upon graduation.
Even worse, he is openly indifferent to them.
Manjunath Pendakur’s contract is up for renewal this year. We believe that he has
repeatedly proven himself unqualified to hold the position of Dean and that his contract
should be terminated.
In considering our request, we urge you to reflect on several crucial goals which are
stated in the Core Values of the Southern@150 declaration on the SIUC website:
We must listen and respond to our students and provide instruction and services that
help them achieve their full potential. We will welcome all students and do our best
to prepare them for purposeful and productive lives. We may be challenged at times
to reassess our current beliefs, attitudes, and methods.
We will seek excellence in everything we do. We will define excellence with durable
national and international standards. In order to be truly excellent we must look
beyond ourselves and our immediate world. We must focus on the best. We must be
determined in our quest to get there. We are better than we think we are, but not as
good as we can be.
We will manage ourselves in a way that exceeds effectiveness. We will be bright and
thoughtful about solutions to problems. We will recognize that Southern Illinois
University Carbondale is a place that values people and the human spirit. We will be
wise. We will be careful. We will only be tolerant of the highest moral and ethical
standards in managerial and leadership behaviors, at every level of university life.
Our decision making should be directed toward excellence in all things.
We will develop and foster a sense of pride in our University, its traditions, and its
values. Our view of pride will not be parochial, but will be broadly inclusive and used
to constructively elevate each person whose life we touch.
For those inspiring words to be anything more than empty rhetoric, SIUC must
demonstrate them through action at every opportunity. The pending contract renewal of
Manjunath Pendakur cries out for thoughtful examination, as does developing a
comprehensive plan to revive programs that have withered or died on his watch. We
challenge you to carefully consider the points raised in this letter and seek answers to
the following questions:
* Why have so many proven teachers, including at least one Teacher of the Year, one
Researcher of the Year and the Director of Graduate Studies, left CMCMA in recent
years? Since Dean Pendakur arrived one department alone has lost over half of its
tenured faculty. Another has just one remaining full professor. Why? And why
have so many emerged from CMCMA to recount chilling tales of mismanagement
and abuse by Dean Pendakur?
* Why did nine tenured faculty representing all three academic departments in
CMCMA prepare a fourteen page Bill of Particulars against the Dean this February?
And why were other complaints of Dean Pendakur’s abuses of power, dating as far
back as February, 2002, and written by a senior professor and former Dean of the
College, not taken seriously by Dean Pendakur?
* The Dean has been quoted by a number of students, former faculty and staff as
publicly making pronouncements such as, “The media and advertising are ruining
society.” If this accurately reflects his opinion, and we believe it does, then what
business has he running what was once a nationally recognized media program?
A Letter From Concerned SIUC Alumni - 5
* During Dean Pendakur’s tenure, has he personally had any major success in
fundraising or attracting external research or development grants? Aside from the
donations which resulted from arrangements made by Dean Pendakur’s
predecessor, such as the recent financial gift from the Virginia Marmaduke estate,
haven’t most grants obtained by CMCMA been the product of a handful of faculty
and staff?
* At a time when SIUC is trying to build alumni support for its programs and plans for
the future, why have so many CMCMA alumni with lengthy and positive records of
College volunteerism and activism, as well as a history of major financial giving,
been made to feel unwelcome? Why have so many faculty in the College reported
that they have been prohibited from having contact with their most accomplished
alumni? How does that benefit the students?
* How is it that these same alumni were able to work well with a variety of Deans,
Department Chairs and Administration officials, from President John Guyon on
down, only to inexplicably become “problems” to be eliminated by Dean Pendakur?
* Why did Dean Pendakur unilaterally disband the CMCMA Alumni Advisory Board
immediately after taking office, only to create the so-called Dean’s National Industry
Council, which has never formally met, made any recommendations or offered any
information whatsoever to anyone in the College?
* Why has Dean Pendakur allowed his faculty to become so out of balance with the
marketplace? In the year prior to his arrival, the tenure/tenure track faculty in the
Radio-Television Department, which has a long tradition of faculty accomplishment
in the industry, boasted 250 years of professional industry experience. Those
numbers have been cut in half or more. Why?
* At a time when most major universities are expanding their video and film
production curricula to meet exciting undergraduate recruitment opportunities, as
well as the career interests of their students, why has CMCMA reduced that
curriculum in favor of theoretical media studies? Exactly how many jobs are there
for experts in "Media & Culture," anyway?
* With Dean Pendakur’s professed support of student production opportunities and
journalism, why did CMCMA fail to make the finals in this year’s SINBA Awards
when Northwestern University, Eastern & Western Illinois and Illinois State
somehow did? Didn’t CMCMA once dominate those awards?
* Other than a few newscasts, how many hours of overall programming per semester
do undergraduate students produce, direct and host for WSIU-TV, such as the nowcancelled
award-winning “Studio-A Café” and successful “SIU Sports Weekly”?
How far has that declined under this Dean, and why?
* How many minutes of news does WSIU-TV offer viewers each week and why has
the vital training ground of the “River Region Report” been allowed to deteriorate?
Exactly how does that decision serve the needs of the Broadcast Journalism and
Production students, or the community service mandates of SIUC?
* What kinds of professional extra curricular film and television production training will
CMCMA students be getting in the future under Dean Pendakur, such as the awardwinning
RT Productions unit? Does he believe that class work alone is enough to
prepare students for careers in the media?
* Why is CMCMA spending so much money administering a reduced version of the
innovative cross-disciplinary Hollywood Studies Program? Isn't the expenditure of a
whole faculty salary, plus benefits, on a part-time position that was once routinely
provided at an adjunct rate, along with alumni help, a poor allocation of resources?
* Why were the academic components of the Hollywood Studies Program, including
weekly professional seminars, onsite tenure track faculty supervision and alumni
mentoring, abruptly eliminated by this Dean? Could this be why students are so
unhappy with the way the program is currently administered?
* What has happened to the advertising track in the School of Journalism, which was
once a nationally admired program of CMCMA?
* What happened to the innovative Interactive Multimedia and MA/MBA programs in
CMCMA? Isn’t the former dead and the latter, with only one active student,
terminally ill?
* Just what have been the successes of Dean Pendakur to further undergraduate
education in CMCMA? Which of his initiatives can be held up for acclaim? Are
there any dynamic or innovative undergraduate programs in place that were not
initiated by his predecessors?
* Why was Dean Pendakur’s term as Dean at the University of Western Ontario cut
short? Has anyone at SIUC looked into that? Although our information about this is
merely anecdotal, it is also disquieting. If there is an unflattering trend to this Dean’s
management record, should it not be investigated?
And finally…
* Beyond our specific complaints about the decaying curriculum, performance and
reputation of CMCMA, it is a fact that a substantial loss of employee morale and
alumni goodwill has occurred under Dean Pendakur. Is this negative environment
really the path that the SIUC administration wants to take with any of its programs?
In your roles as senior administrators and trustees, you have a clear fiduciary
responsibility to do what is best for the long-term welfare of the College of Mass
Communication and Media Arts, students, faculty and staff. If you decide to act on this
responsibility, then it is imperative that you replace Manjunath Pendakur. Soon.
Dean Pendakur has caused so much damage to the College and its programs, and
inflicted so much pain on good employees and their families, that it may take a decade
or longer to fully heal the wounds under new leadership.
The choice is yours.

The two hundred seventy alumni who have signed this letter stand ready to help
CMCMA recover. We urge you in the strongest possible terms to take your
responsibility seriously.
Respectfully yours,

There are 14 pages of names here. Send me email if you want a copy of the pdf file and I'll send it to you.

OK, one more for a good cause. Mass Comm Audit letter

I was contacted by Ralph E. Becker about his concerns with corruption at SIUC and questions about my blog. We went back and forth at the end of last week. I think that the gentlemen pursing this are the real deal. Like me they are from Carbondale and went out into the world and did well. They don't want anything from doing this, just to help SIU. I am fairly convinced that their cause is just and something really wrong might be found at SIU.

I think that any observer of SIUC knows they are hiding money. Maybe for the football stadium and administration slush fund and maybe for something else? We do know factually that the accounting is very complicated at SIU and difficult to understand. In business, when an public organization starts to confuse their accounting it is almost always for a reason of hiding facts. If you told me that there were under the table payments to administrators or huge embezzlements of funds through travel budgets, or vendor kick backs, that would seem to fit everything else that is going on. It is also follows along our Illinois traditions of corruption. Of course, I don't know if anything like this is going on, just that it seems very possible.

Here is a copy of the letter sent to SIU asking for information. I transfered the letter from MS Word to html with Microsoft's converter and it didn't keep the correct formatting, but the content is there.

October 25, 2006

VIA CERTIFIED MAIL

Rickey N. McCurry, J.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Southern Illinois University Foundation

Colyer Hall, 101B – Mail Code 6805

1235 Douglas Drive

Carbondale, Illinois 62901-6805

Re: Request for Detailed Information in Advance of Compliance Audit Visit --

Southern Illinois University Foundation’s Stewardship of the Ralph E.

Becker Scholarship Fund (both current and endowed portions – from

December 2, 1985 to September 30, 2006) and the Larry G. Brown

Media Management Laboratory Endowed Fund (both current and

endowed portions – from June 21, 1996 to September 30, 2006)

Dear Mr. McCurry:

Further to our earlier correspondence (via US mail and via E-mail) and telephone conversations with you and your staff, the purpose of this letter is to set forth, in detail, the documentation and information we are requesting that you and your staff supply in advance of our visit to your offices all in furtherance of our compliance audits of SIU Foundation’s stewardship on behalf of the Department of Radio - Television in the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts of Southern Illinois University of the aforementioned philanthropic funds from inception dates – see above – to September 30, 2006. [As an attachment to this request, enclosed for your files is a copy of a written confirmation from Five Mile Group’s clients, Ralph E. Becker and Larry G. Brown, that they did indeed engage Five Mile Group, PC, CPA’s, to conduct compliance audits of SIU Foundation’s handling of their philanthropic funds entrusted to the SIU Foundation for the benefit of SIU.]

(1) For the periods dating from nine months before the inception dates – see above – of the aforementioned endowments to September 30, 2006, any and all files, contents of files, handwritten notes and/or notations, typewritten notes and/or notations, computer-written notes and/or notations (even if not yet printed out in hard copy from said computers), electronic communications including E-mails (even if not previously printed out in hard copy from said computers), documents in draft form, documents in various stages of revision, documents in final form, documents executed by any and/or all of the parties involved, and any and all research and/or information relating to any of the following individuals and/or funds: Ralph E. Becker, Jane Becker, the Ralph E. Becker Scholarship Fund (including the Ed Brown Scholarship, the Buren Robbins Scholarship, the Richard Hildreth Scholarship, the Frank Stanton Scholarship, and the Ralph E. Becker Scholarship), Larry G. Brown, the Larry G. Brown Media Management Laboratory Endowed Fund and the Larry G. Brown Media Management Laboratory. Should the name of the individual(s), the fund(s) and/or the laboratory appear in the SIU Foundation (and/or SIU) files and/or computers in any other form or format that does not parallel the above-referenced names exactly, the request extends to the other form that the name(s) takes in the SIU Foundation (and/or SIU) files. Collectively, any items that are responsive to this request -- including whole file folders consisting of the file folder itself and all the contents thereof, video clips, tapes, DVD’s or films, audio tapes or CD’s -- shall be called “documents” hereinafter.

(2) This request includes, but is not limited to, the following specific types of documents relating to the above-referenced individuals, funds and/or laboratory listed in (1) above:

(A) Any and all documents reflecting internal (within SIU Foundation), quasi-internal (as between SIU Foundation and SIU), and/or external (or any combination thereof) communications to, from and/or about any, some or all of the above- referenced individuals, funds and/or laboratory listed in (1) above. This request includes brochures and/or any publications, newsletters, annual reports, or other printed matter making reference to such individuals, funds and/or laboratory.

(B) Any and all documents reflecting notes of meetings concerning any, some or all of the above- referenced individuals, funds and/or laboratory listed in (1) above. Such notes should include notes of internal meetings, quasi-internal meetings and meetings with persons other than those who represent the SIU Foundation or SIU, or any combination thereof.

(C) Any and all documents reflecting notes of telephone conversations with or concerning any, some or all of the above- referenced individuals, funds and/or laboratory listed in (1) above. Such notes should include notes of internal conversations, quasi-internal conversations and conversations with persons other than those who represent the SIU Foundation or SIU, or any combination thereof.

(D) Any and all documents housed in the SIU Foundation’s Research Department and, specifically any and all documents housed in file folders that fit the description, if interpreted by a reasonable person, of “research and documentation” about any, some or all of the above- referenced individuals, funds and/or laboratory listed in (1) above.

(E) Any and all documents housed in the SIU Foundation’s Accounting Department and, specifically any and all documents housed in file folders that fit the description, if interpreted by a reasonable person, of “accounting/distribution of funds” about any, some or all of the above- referenced individuals, funds and/or laboratory listed in (1) above.

(F) Any and all documents identifying the name(s) of the employees and/or independent contractors of SIU and the employees and/or independent contractors of the SIU Foundation who have had any role in any matter concerning the individuals, funds and/or laboratory referenced in (1) above, including all “Constituent Development Officers” or their equivalent -- and all persons senior to those officers at SIU and at the SIU Foundation -- from nine months before each inception date to the present. If any document has been produced under any other paragraph of this request, identification of the full name of the author of each and every document, the author’s position at SIU and/or SIU Foundation, their tenure, and a description of their involvement with any matter concerning any or all of the individuals, funds and/or laboratory referenced in (1) above.

(G) Any and all documents identifying the fiscal officer assigned to each endowment, their position at SIU and/or SIU Foundation, their tenure, a description of their performance as fiscal officer, and the information requested at (2)(F) above.

(H) Any and all documents regarding the role of the Dean of the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts, including all documents referencing his role and including all documents now or at any time in the custody and possession of the Office of the Dean of the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts. Such documents shall include, but not be limited to:

i. Annual reports of academic performance of the top students in the Department of Radio – Television;

ii. Detailed calculations (with assumptions fully explained) for each scholarship awarded from the Ralph E. Becker Scholarship Fund each year;

iii. Brochures, newsletters, flyers and promotional material regarding the Ralph E. Becker Scholarship Fund, the Communications Courtyard, the Obelisk of Honor, and the Larry G. Brown Media Management Laboratory;

iv. Detailed identification of and underlying support for each and every expenditure on behalf of the Larry G. Brown Media Management Laboratory (including name and address of vendor, date, description, dollar amount, and use); and

v. The budget for the July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007 fiscal year for the Larry G. Brown Media Management Laboratory in the Department of Radio – Television.

(I) Any and all documents regarding the role of the head of the Department of Radio - Television, including all documents referencing his or her role. Such documents shall include the documents enumerated in (2)(H) above, including documents in the possession of the Department of Radio – Television and documents which were once in the custody and possession of the Department of Radio – Television but which are held in custody elsewhere by SIU and/or the SIU Foundation today or which are available by copy from another department or office at SIU and/or the SIU Foundation.

(3) Any and all internal and/or quasi-internal SIU Foundation / SIU accounting and contractual records relating to the Ralph E. Becker Scholarship Fund, the Larry G. Brown Media Management Laboratory Endowed Fund and the Larry G. Brown Media Management Laboratory for the full period under audit.

Information should include:

(A) Contracts with donors (including all amendments);

(B) The opening balance of each fund for each fiscal year;

(C) Additions and earnings credited each year to the principal amount held in trust in each fund;

(D) Deductions for fees imposed -- authorized as well as unauthorized -- by the SIU Foundation each year for each fund;

(E) Descriptive details and identification of all financial distributions made in each fiscal year from each fund and on behalf of the laboratory (identifying monies coming from other donors to the Larry G. Brown Media Management Laboratory);

(F) Calculations to determine the amounts to be expended each year from each fund,

(G) The names of the individuals responsible for proposing the use of monies from each of the aforementioned funds and/or on behalf of the Larry G. Brown Media Management Laboratory each year;

(H) The names of the individuals responsible for actually approving the expenditure of the proposed uses of monies mentioned in (3)(G) above;

(I) The names of the individuals responsible for actually making the approved expenditures noted in (3)(G) and (H) above;

(J) The closing fiscal year end balance in each fund for each year under audit.

Kindly attend to this request as soon as possible. My target date for receipt is November 15, 2006.

Sincerely,

Joi Reiner Gallo, CPA

cc: Michael C. Carr, Esq.

Immediate Past President, SIU Foundation /

Continuing Member of the Board of Directors, SIU Foundation

and

Assistant U.S. Attorney

Southern District of Illinois

United States Attorney’s Office

9 Executive Drive, Suite 300

Fairview Heights, Illinois 62208

Mr. Larry R. DeJarnett

President, SIU Foundation Board of Directors

and

Managing Director

The LAMAR Group

30810 Cartier Drive

Rancho Palos Verdes, California 90275

Chancellor Walter V. Wendler

Office of the Chancellor, Northwest Annex

Southern Illinois University

1235 Douglas Drive

Carbondale, Illinois 62901-4304

President Glenn W. Poshard

Office of the President

Southern Illinois University

1235 Douglas Drive

Carbondale, Illinois 62901-6801

Provost John M. Dunn

Office of the Provost & Vice Chancellor

Southern Illinois University

1235 Douglas Drive

Carbondale, Illinois 62901

Mr. Bryan C. Vagner

Managing Director, SIU Foundation

Southern Illinois University

1235 Douglas Drive

Carbondale, Illinois 62901-6805

Ms. Elizabeth Banycky

Controller and Treasurer, SIU Foundation

Southern Illinois University

1235 Douglas Drive

Carbondale, Illinois 62901-6805

Attorney General Lisa Madigan

State of Illinois

100 West Randolph Street, 12^th Floor

Chicago, Illinois 60601

Mr. Ralph E. Becker

219 Old Kings Highway South

Darien, Connecticut 06820

Mr. Larry G. Brown

7101 Falling Water Lane

Plano, Texas 75024

The end of this Blog.

Some of you might be asking why I would stop writing entries to this blog now. Let me go over the reason that I started and what I have found along the way.

For 5 years, I haven't been trying to make money, just to change things for the better. I decided to start writing about Carbondale business development and SIUC because I wanted to organize my thoughts. Really dig into what I was doing here and how I could do better. In the past I have done this and it has really helped me make correct decisions.

Here is what I found -

• SIUC is corrupt and is going to lose 10% to 20% of their students in the next 5 years. Bank on it.
• Illinois is corrupt and is a bigger version of SIUC. To many layers of government, to much corruption, to many family members on payroll, to much cheating and hiding behind political contacts. Hey, Chicago is in the state and that is the benchmark for political corruption.
• Brad Cole is a good mayor and has improved Carbondale in his time in office.
• Walker and Wendler are bad managers for SIUC. They have hurt the institution more then I thought was possible in 5 years.
• SIU administrators are paid more then their peers and SIU Professors are paid less.
• I'm guessing that the people digging into the College of Mass Comm mess have some real dirt and there is a real chance that people are going to jail over it.
  
• There are no people to start business in Southern Illinois, as defined by people who are 30 to 50 with a college degree. They have all moved away.
  
• We have no clue as a society what we are missing.
• People in Southern Illinois are nice.
• The place is beautiful.
• There is plenty of money looking for deals, but there are no deals.

Not much good news there. This is what I found out about myself.

• I like high tech. I started when I was 13 and I'm not ready to retire.
• If I stay in Southern Illinois, I must stop doing high tech and really retire or change businesses.
• There is no one to learn from about my business. Though I have a group of friends who are as smart and knowledgeable as anyone I have known before. It is no fun being the lone Indian.
• I enjoy writing. I have been sending hundreds of emails for years, it isn't that surprising, but writing my little blog has been fun.

My original plan was to move to Southern Illinois and split my time between being an Angel Investor and building furniture. I think this is still a good idea and I'm going to pursue it. I can't do that here, so like almost everyone who comes to Southern Illinois I'm going to vote with my feet and leave this place.

Two ideas for you -
"You can't help people who don't want to be helped." - Ross Perot
"Southern Illinois is experiencing social Darwinism." - a local smart guy. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to name him.

I'll still be working on my Art Blog on BoundlessGallery.com. Still be in town until next summer, but I'm going to stop thinking about this now and do some real work for a while.

Thanks to each of you who took the time to comment and make this blog come to life for just a little while. I enjoyed your input more then you can know.

I have a little plaque on my desk that I have had for a few years, that is kind of a motto of mine, "What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?" Think about it, you could be doing so much more than waiting for spoiled table scraps to fall your way.

As always, your comments are welcome.

The DE on Wendler

An interesting editorial from 2005. Only a year ago, but interesting as a historical piece of data.

Sent in from a friend.

How many days after the election until gas shoots up in price?

Just remember to refill those gas tanks before Tuesday. My bookie tells me that the over under bet on gas prices is $2.85 per gallon on January 1st. Looks like the mob thinks the gas companies are trying to save the Republican majority in Congress. :)

Brad Cole for Mayor.

I have been watching Brad work with the limited resources of Carbondale and start to turn things around as mayor. He wrote a plan before the last election and has marched down and done everything in his plan. The plan he wrote was reasonable and possible.

Brad has cut spending in City Hall. He has made doing business in the city go from impossible to possible, this is a big improvement. Brad has attacked the biggest building problems and solved them in partnership with private industry.

Brad has turned lemons into lemonade. But he also didn't decide to make his lemons into brandy or gold, it would have made him fail because he doesn't seem to believe in magic.

We know he has been the best mayor in Carbondale in my lifetime based on performance. I'm amused that Sheila Simon has decided to run against him with no visible agenda or platform, hoping her family name will work its magic (maybe she does have a plan and we will see it in November?). Why would anyone run against a mayor who is performing at such a high level.

I think that Brad deserves another term and since I'm shutting this down tomorrow, I'll put my support behind him now.

Wouldn't it be great if SIUC looked at Brad's methods and started to follow them? Bad buildings? Fix them up. Find partners in the business world to help you. Plan toward something possible in the short term, those big dreams are only possible if you win in the short term.

Please reelect Brad Cole as Mayor of Carbondale. He has earned it.

My biggest disappointment with SIUC

I'm a SIUC alumni with a BA in CS and my Father is a math professor. I have been trying to be involved with SIUC for the last 5 years. Really put some effort into it and tried all sorts of activities. I did the business plan contest for 3 years, worked with all sorts of people at the business incubator, started a business located at Dunn-Richman for a while, joined some advisory boards, ran the politics to start that Partnership for Innovation Center in CoBA and gave guest lectures whenever I was asked. As you have seen in my little blog entries, I know something about management and spend most every waking hour looking at how things are managed and how I might do it better or differently. I have ripped administration, faculty and students here in a somewhat factual way.

My biggest complaint about SIUC is that the administrators perform so poorly and are so damn arrogant. I have never seen so many managers who are only interested in having their rings kissed and with no interested in winning. So many administrators are terrible performers, but aren't fired for cause. I have certainly never seen so many people hiding behind layers of secretaries and doing no real work. If you want the big job, then work hard, 40 hours a week doesn't cut it.

The quality of the professors is pretty darn good. The results could be better, but better leadership would have to arrive before that happens. The students suck and are going to get worse unless the boat is righted.

SIUC will never do better until the management/administrator deadwood has been replaced and real leadership comes back. I don't expect this to happen, it isn't the way that Illinois conducts business.

I expect SIUC to have a long, slow and painful slide down from here. Yes, I know it has already slid down a whole bunch for the glory days. The administrators aren't worried though, they will all be gone or dead by the time the real crisis hits.

Sometimes you have to wonder who is in charge. Have you noticed that no one owns that Southern at 150 failure yet? It seems that Wendler is man enough to still be associated with it, but since I could tell it could never have worked, why didn't the administration pros? We know that Saluki Way isn't going to fix what ails this university too, why isn't the administration smart enough to leave themselves an out?

Your comments are welcome.

My biggest disappointment in Southern Illinois - BioInsite.

After I was in town for about a year I decided to stage a business plan contest and hopefully fine some companies to work with. The first year of the contest we had a couple of pretty good plans and one plan with great technology. The company with great technology was BioInsite.

After they won the business plan contest, I contacted the founders of BioInsite about having a meeting. They never called me back. Here we are more than 3 years later and BioInsite is nowhere (as far as I can tell). They still have interesting technology, but no money, no employees (I think), and no real future.

Just think if one company had taken a real investment and everyone had realized that you could start and company, get funding and try for the brass ring? Most likely it wouldn't have made any difference, Southern Illinois seems to be the resting place for the less ambitious. But, maybe it would have bootstrapped something good?

In over 5 years of trying to be an Angel Investor in Southern Illinois, that was the one moment where maybe things could have been different. Our culture here in the 51st state doesn't seem to understand when people come knocking with money it is better to at least take the meeting.

Interesting WSJ article about university libraries.

A friend sent me this link. I guess if no one reads then a Starbucks is more important then a library? Hopefully, our Morris Library redo measures up.

Wendler lifted passages - check Caleb Hale holding feet to the fire.

Here is the piece from "The Southern." Here is The Southern's link to the full report.

"Failure to do so raises questions about the intellectual honesty of all involved with the final editing and drafting," the report said.

This doesn't sound good. Questions of honesty? I really like Uncle Walt's quote -

"When I think of lifting, I think of something being stolen, and you can't steal what's already yours," Wendler said.

Maybe work is different for university people, but I think those words belong to his former employer. For example, I can steal from my former employer by using documents I wrote or inventions I patented while I was there, that is how employment works. Just because you aren't sued doesn't mean it isn't wrong.

Check this passage -

When asked whether anything in the report released Tuesday was grounds for Wendler's dismissal, Poshard said no.

However, both administrators were a little more elusive when asked whether the chancellor's days at SIUC may be numbered, regardless of the plagiarism allegations.

Early last week, Wendler and Poshard each were denying rumors the chancellor had resigned.

Wendler maintained Tuesday rumors about his resignation or impending leave are just rumors.

"There has been no pressure for me to resign," he said.

Asked if he suspected he would be asked to leave soon, Wendler responded: "You're asking me to speculate about things that I can't speculate about."

There might be no pressure to resign, but is he going to be fired? Of course, he can't be fired just demoted to being a professor.

While nothing publicly has been said by either Poshard or Wendler, the committee's report hints it experienced some difficulty compiling some information in its investigation because of possible tensions between the offices of the president and the chancellor.

The committee noted in the general observations and comments section of its report the sequence of events recounting the drafting and production of Southern at 150 "is contradictory and inconsistent."

The report attributes part of the problem to people's memory but also indicates trouble may have come due to the "seemingly strained relationship among the office of the president, the office of the chancellor and other senior administrative offices."

I think there is a special spot in heck where people get sent to work for someone they fired in the past. Wendler has the double whammy, his results are bad and he pushed Poshard out when he used to be his boss (at least, it sure looked like Poshard wasn't ready to "retire" from service to SIU when he left). You have to assume there is bad blood.

Good job Caleb, ask those hard questions.

Baby boom/boomlet demographics. Why this could get ugly.

When you look at the rise of SIU, you can see it is all about the times. Many universities were built up starting with the post WW2 GI Bill and continued to grow to serve the baby boomers attending college. SIU was built for these two demographic waves. At the end of the baby boomer growth era, SIU was the second crown jewel of Illinois University system.

As the numbers of kids went down and the baby boom died down, the student numbers stayed pretty high because a much higher percentage of kids attended college. SIUC did pretty well in these years. It was the second best university in the state for most of it, it was the cheapest place to attend a university (maybe in the country) and it was on the train route from Chicago.

We currently are heading into the end of the baby boomlet (the children of the baby boomers). The numbers of kids attending some form or college is way up, both in total numbers and percentages.

The junior colleges are offering college credit with super low tuition, paid for by property taxes. You might be able to get a quality eduction from a junior college, but it looks like they have no standards and are passing everyone. This combination is very attractive to the baby boomlet students who historically would never have gone to college.

SIU is no longer the second best university in the state. There is a reasonable argument that for undergraduate education it is 4th or 5th among the public universities in a beauty contest. In addition, every student has a car so the train doesn't matter much, SIUC has raised prices to not be cheap anymore, and there is no reasonable student work in Southern Illinois.

The numbers don't lie. SIUC is going down in undergraduate enrollment, while the total number of students going to some form of college in Illinois is up. This is a bad sign, but it gets worse.

The baby boomlet is coming to an end. The total number of college students in Illinois is going to flatten and might go down a lot. The population in Illinois certainly isn't keeping up as more Americans locate near a coast and in states that are corrupt.

If SIUC continues to perform this poorly and doesn't harvest its fair share of students, the numbers could get grim. I think that SIUC is going to earn a 5 to 10% reduction in students in the next 5 years and a 20% reduction in the next 10 years. The students that SIU seems to be losing are the top students, not the middle or bottom (also a very bad sign). If the administration gets better at executing the business model, things could be different. There is no sign that changing the person on top will improve anything, the whole administrative structure of SIUC looks to be corrupt. I figure just 5 to 10 firings of key administrators and managing the new people right could turn it around, but we haven't seen anyone with the stomach for doing the right thing at SIU in over 30 years.

Poshard and Wendler, are they really different then all the others that have come and gone here since Morris left? I guess time will tell. It is a shame when a good thing is wasted.

A smart marketing move from SIUC? Architecture gets a masters

From this article in the DE today, it looks like the architecture guys are getting a masters degree program.

SIUC's master's program will be set apart from other institutions because of its structure, Owens said. Students will go through a 42-credit hour sequence in 15 consecutive months, starting in May of one year and ending in August of the next. Other schools offer their programs in the traditional four-semester method, with classes only running in the fall and spring.

Instead of being bone heads and doing the same thing as every other establish masters degree program, these guys did something smart. They are going to get people through their program in only 15 months instead of 21. Genius! A marketing advantage.

Now if SIUC could do this about 50 more times, everywhere in the university it would be on the way.

Dave is holding a contest to rename this blog.

Check it out. One of the problems with dealing with management problems like you are a hammer is that really smart ideas like the names already suggested in Dave's blog are beyond me.

Have fun.

The end if near, I'm retiring this blog on Friday.

I have said what I need to say here and this space goes dead after Friday. I'm not sure that it has been fun, but I have learn a lot about SIUC. I'm sure I'll do something else, but we now know this story and it is time to write a new one.

Your comments are welcome.

Life Is The Coffee - a fable.

LIFE IS THE COFFEE

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, and some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee. After all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress."

"Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it 's just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups...and then began eyeing each other's cups."

" Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, houses, cars, things, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have does not define nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. God brews the coffee, not the cups ... enjoy your coffee. "Being happy doesn't mean everything's perfect, It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfections"

Live in peace and peace will live in you.

The strange case of the missing music brochures.

There has been a strange thing happening around Carbondale of late. It looks like someone is going around town and stealing the brochures for the TESSI Suzuki Music Academy and replacing them with the brochures for SIUC's Egyptian Suzuki program. When I got through the list of who has motive to do this and access to the several thousand SIU Egyptian Suzuki brochures needed to spread around, I come up with only one person - Paula Allison. Of course, I don't know if she is doing it. But logic tells us it can be no one but her or her agent.

As a Suzuki parent I can tell you that TESSI is the place to take lessons in this town (piano, violin, guitar and Wiggles and Tunes for tots). The SIU program turns over 100% of its staff every couple of years and that is a very bad sign. They TESSI teachers all used to teach in the SIU program and quit in disgust. Outside of TESSI a good source for piano lessons is Kara Benyas (another ex-SIU Suzuki teacher and wife of Conductor Ed Benyas), she is also supposed to be a super piano teacher and is a really nice person.

If anyone knows Paula, could you tell her to cut it out? Even with a husband on the music faculty you aren't untouchable if you are caught stealing.

Your comments are welcome.

Economic Development - Good News and the real problem.

I don't know if you have looked at the article in the local section of "The Southern" today, "Aboard the Connect SIU Train"? I met with Frank Knott the other day and he is good and he is smart. His company "Vital Economy" seems to be pointed at exactly the right problems that we have here in the 51st State.

I talked to him for a long time and I think that he and I agree on many of the problems of doing economic development in Southern Illinois. There is a shocking lack of people who are college educated and between 30 and 50 years old. There is plenty of money for early stage companies, but much less if you need bigger money. There is a lack of talent/people for knowledge based jobs. He said as we parted, "I was really surprised that you didn't name the large number of levels of government as the number one problem." I smiled and said back, "The first thing I told you was the Illinois state government is total corrupt."

For our second SI story today, "Campaign donor Pleads Guilty in Kickback Case." Not to defend the current governor, but

Blagojevich issued a statement saying that the plea agreement "reveals a pattern of wrongdoing by Stuart Levine that betrayed the trust of Gov. (Jim) Edgar who first appointed him and to all of us here in Illinois."

The guy who plead guilty has been around forever. He was finally invited to do the perp walk after getting crazy.

Prosecutors maintain that Levine, Blagojevich fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko and others schemed to get at least $20 million and perhaps as much a $50 million in assorted kickbacks.

What concerns me after talking to Mr. Knott is he doesn't understand the scope of the corruption problem here in Illinois. If you are in Illinois politics at any level, it should be assumed you are dirty. At the end of the day, good businesses start, locate and thrive on a clean playing field. Not saying everyone is breaking the law and should go to jail, but if you scrub toilets you always need to wash your hands before eating.

I don't believe you can successfully do business development in Southern Illinois without cleaning up the numbers of layers of government (the most of any state) and throwing the dirty politicians in jail. If you said this cleanup isn't going to happen because the people don't have the will, I would have to agree with you. But, that means that better economic times aren't going to happen either.

As always, your comments are welcome.

The firing list for SIUC - which administrators should go?

Wendler is gone, just as the rumor said (check the new comment). He isn't gone until May (or maybe January 1?) as Chancellor, it can't be soon enough. The DE needs to go back and ask the hard questions, they screwed it up earlier this week. The new rumor is this is happening at the next BOT meeting.

Ray Lenzi would go right here, but he retired already.

Seymour Bryson is going to retire soon I bet. He got a 24% pay raise last year and is blasting the university in the press. A huge pay raise is a typical and unethical trick we do in Illinois to give a give our friends a bigger retirement pension as they retire. It should be good for the university when he goes, he has taken his protection of black student to far.

Sue Davis - she is really bad. If you do a Google search for "Sue Davis SIU", my entry about her being the worse administrator of 2006 is number 8! In charge of PR and Marketing at SIUC for years, in addition she is just a terrible manager.

Removed someone because they complained. Don't have time to be fair right now, so I'll check it out and blog about it later.

John Koropchak should likely go. He sent me email complaining about my reasoning, so I have deleted it.

Glafkos Galanos has been chairman of Electrical Engineering for 20 years. He is the inventor of their cleaver program to allow anyone who wants a master degree in EE to enroll in the program. He has also managed to make the department worse, in a time where it is almost impossible to do anything but get better in EE. I suspect there are many other chairs of this quality at SIUC, but this is the one that I have analyzed up close. When you choose professors you can dominate instead of the best quality, you are almost always going to get sub par results. The amazing thing is that all the professors in engineering know all about this guy and do nothing. Sometimes management needs to step up and take care of business. I suspect this is one of those times.

I would name someone in the department of Computer Science, but I'm not sure picking on their chairman who tried to step down (the department is so politically fractured they couldn't elect a chair) is fair. If you want to consider how messed up the College of Science is, they are maybe the only people at SIUC that haven't tried to get money out of me in the last 5 years. Computer Science has never asked. A train wreck. Maybe the new Dean of Science might spend a little effort in CS and tell the professors to grow up?

That is my current list. Who else would you add?

Engineering Sophomores required to live in dorms

I have been wondering when the other shoe would drop on the coming SIUC student housing mess. SIUC has done little maintenance on any building on campus for the last 20 years. As their dorm and other student housing stock has been running down, the students don't want to stay there. As anyone who is watching knows, there is a coming crisis with on campus housing. I figure as the number of students dip, you will see SIUC require sophomores to stay on campus to fill up the dorms.

Where this does sound like a great program, it also helps solve the problem of filling those rooms. If this program works they can then require the sophomores into the dorms, because it will be good for them. ;)

From the article -

Nicklow said there would be approximately five students per mentor, and the mentor would attend at least one class per week with the students, along with providing tutoring and guidance.

I know Dr. Nicklow and he is a good guy. He is Interim Associate Dean and not Dean of course.

This seems like about the right number, 5 to 1. Watching the basic skills of SIUC students in the last few years, I have thought that SIUC should have a one semester boot camp for incoming freshman. Teach them how to study, take notes, write a research paper, the stuff students used to learn in high school. But this level of mentoring might work, if they can find that many "role models" who want that job.

Looks like the engineering students will be getting almost as much support as the kids in the athletic programs. It sure can't hurt and if it works maybe EE can stop doing open admission for their graduate program?

Should be interesting to see the results of this little experiment.