Illinois Trustee Quits, Calls for Others to Leave

Lawrence Eppley, a University of Illinois trustee who is among those found to have urged the admission of politically connected applicants, is resigning from the board and urging others to do the same, the Chicago Tribune reported. "The public's confidence in the university must be restored, and one way to begin to restore that confidence is to make a clean start," he wrote in his resignation letter. The letter also strongly suggested that administrators -- many of whom have blamed the scandal on trustees -- need to share in the responsibility. "While the trustees are, in the end, responsible for the overall governance of the university, it is also important that the public has confidence and trust in the campus administrators who bear responsibility for the day-to-day decisions that have impacted the U of I in these circumstances. It is my hope that these administrators will also put the university first and assume responsibility for their roles in this matter," the letter said.