CARBONDALE - Several Southern Illinois University Carbondale faculty and staff members publicly blasted campus administrators on a number of issues during the board of trustees meeting Thursday.

Board members met in the SIUC Student Center and heard allegations against Chancellor Walter Wendler and several other top administrative officials on the Carbondale campus, related to breaches in shared governance, boosting the salary of the head football coach, and coordinating or abetting bullying of certain faculty.

Trustees approved a 14 percent pay increase to football coach Jerry Kill, raising his annual salary from $144,216 to $165,000. This is the second pay increase Kill has received in as many years from the administration.

Officials have described the action as a pre-emptive measure to keep Kill, who was named NCAA Division I-AA coach of the year for 2004, at SIUC. After the meeting, Wendler said Kill was entertaining offers from other universities but would not elaborate on the details.

Ruth Pommier, SIUC Association of Civil Service Employees president, spoke to board members during the public comment session, questioning how the campus finds enough money to give double-digit raises to one employee in a time when funds are still tight. Pommier said she doesn't stand against the raise for Kill but urged the board and administrators to find ways to increases wages for civil service workers.

Board Chairman Glenn Poshard said he appreciates the civil service community's situation but said keeping Kill at SIU is an important part of its success.

"Every university in the country has to treat the coaches in a different way," Poshard said. "Coach Kill is a teacher, like any other teacher on the campus, except his students are on public display all the time as representatives of the university."

Wendler said despite the high pay, a university football coach's security depends very much on the success he brings to the program.

"Coaches have very little tenure and little protection when they fail," he said.

Board members also heard, in the public comments portion of the meeting, complaints lodged by three faculty members that Wendler routinely overturns recommendations made by the Faculty Senate's judicial review board. The board is set up to review grievances filed by faculty against the campus administration.

Law professor Leonard Gross said Wendler has rebuffed more judicial review board recommendations during his tenure than all other chancellors together did in the last 11 years. He said the practice sets a dangerous precedent.

"If Chancellor Wendler is allowed to continue without board intervention there will be serious consequences for the university," Gross said.

Fellow law professor Pat Kelly, who sat on several judicial review panels, said the promise of justice isn't being upheld at the highest levels of administration at SIUC.

Wendler said he makes all his decisions on an individual basis, not on a track record. The chancellor contends he considers all recommendations made to him by the review board but judges each situation on its merits.

The longest discussion at the board meeting concerned complaints lodged by several faculty members that both past and present administrators, as well as colleagues, have conspired to target them in a manner of unfair treatment they called "academic mobbing."

Linguistics professor Joan Friedenberg said because of her involvement in organizing SIUC's faculty union, her criticism of the administration and filing grievances, administrators and faculty at all levels have attempted to discredit her by various means.

Tenured education professor Jerry Becker said colleagues, with the help of a former department head, lodged a sexual harassment complaint against him because he filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against the department.

Both faculty members claim to have suffered health problems because of the stress caused by the alleged "academic mobbing."

Wendler said he is not familiar with the term.

"The concept is fairly new to me," he said. "I can tell you one thing; we don't tolerate any uncivil behavior."

SIU President James Walker said if the information is "deemed worthy," his office would look into the matter. When asked, he added based on the information given to the board Thursday, he could not yet determine whether it warranted further investigation.

Faculty Senate President James Duggan indicated "academic mobbing" is not outside the realm of possibility on campus, but he questions whether the problem is as serious as some faculty would have others believe.

In other board business:

l Trustees approved naming the new $3.4 million Lingle Hall addition the Troutt-Wittmann Academic and Training Center. The new addition is a gift from SIUC alum Thomas "Pete" Wittmann. It is named after him and alum Kenny Troutt.

l The board approved contract bids for construction of a new multi-tenant building at the Southern Illinois Research Park. The total project cost is $2.8 million. The board also approved funds to install sprinkler systems in Schneider Hall, part of the Brush Towers housing complex.

l The third time was the charm from Carbondale campus officials in presenting an architectural concept of its proposed Grand Avenue/Wall Street residence hall complex. Officials gave board members a three-dimensional view of the facility, plus information about how ideas for the complex were gained from student surveys. Trustees praised the design of the complex, which will be the first new housing units erected at SIUC in 40 years. The residence halls will be completed by August 2006.

l Trustees passed a resolution honoring the life of late former university president James Montgomery Brown. Brown led the university as acting president on several occasions, the last time serving from 1992 to 1995.

caleb.hale@;thesouthern.com

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