UPDATED July 13, 2015: our Freedom of Information Act request was successful, and the Retreat Guest List shows absolutely no need for keeping these invitees secret. Why must faculty and staff be kept in the dark?
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President Killeen is hosting a retreat this week, but if you want to know who is invited you’re out of luck. The administration will reveal only that it is “a meeting of the President’s senior staff to prepare for the July BOT retreat. It includes the chancellors and vice presidents as well as a few invited faculty members.” Presumably, the question of how to get off the AAUP censure list will be discussed.
So which faculty members have scored an invitation? The Campus Faculty Association sent exactly that question to the President’s Office, and also to the Secretary of the Board of Trustees. Their only response was an irrelevant assertion that the retreat is “not a public meeting.”
We aren’t seeking an invitation, we just believe that faculty members, staff and students deserve to know whose voices are going to be heard when important topics are up for discussion. And the administration refuses to open up.
This kind of petty secrecy is exactly how a public university should not be run. The administration needs to do better if it wants the trust of the campus community.
So we have filed a request for the guest list, under the Freedom of Information Act. Watch this space for developments. In the meantime, support our press for transparency at UIUC by joining the Campus Faculty Association!
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