CARBONDALE - Southern Illinois University has turned over information requested by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in his investigation into contacts personnel may have had with members of ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich's inner circle regarding student admissions.

SIU General Counsel Jerry Blakemore sent the subpoenaed information to Fitzgerald via overnight delivery service late Wednesday, university spokesman and government relations officer David Gross said. Today was the deadline set in the subpoena, which the university received in June.

The information submitted was collected from interviews university legal staff conducted in the past seven to 10 days with admissions staff, professional school deans, trustees, SIU President Glenn Poshard, as well as SIU Carbondale Chancellor Sam Goldman and SIU Edwardsville Chancellor Vaughn Vandegrift, Gross said.

Gross couldn't comment on what the information said, noting Fitzgerald's office would need to review it before the university made any statements.

SIU was one of a few Illinois public universities subpoenaed by the U.S. attorney's office in the wake of revelations administration at the University of Illinois kept a "clout list" of students, whom elected officials or prominent figures took special interest in seeing admitted. Northern Illinois University was also subpoenaed.

Why SIU was targeted by Fitzgerald for this investigation, Gross couldn't say. However, he noted SIU represents the second-largest institution of higher education in Illinois, behind only U of I.

"When you include the U of I system and SIU, that's about half the higher education presence in the state," Gross said. "The size of the systems is one thing, but I don't have a good indication of why the others schools would not have gotten (subpoenaed)."

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

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