The original sin of higher education, in southern Illinois, at least the one that inspired the creation of Muddy Williamson, was nepotism. We railed against its existence, as practiced, at John A. Logan College. However, Logan is not alone. Logan Board members and administrators were brazen, over the years, in their promotion of the careers of their children at school and tax payer expense. However, times have changed and some of that has abated; nepotism has given way to mere cronyism. However, at SIU, old fashioned nepotism is in full flame.
We, at Muddy Williamson, heard rumors, last year, of new SIU Chancellor Carlo Montemagno bringing on his daughter and son-in-law, she in University Communications and he in another department. Not knowing their names and not wanting to prematurely spook them, by calling University Communications or Human Resources, we held off. However, the Daily Egyptian got the scoop. And, congratulations to them for brave journalism and excellent reporting.
The bottom line is that as part of his own hire, Montemagno extracted a deal from SIU to create jobs for and hire his daughter and son in law. The usual process involves position requests from departments, vice chancellor level approval, job announcements, applications, search committees, interviews, a hiring decision by the department, review by Affirmative Action, a green light from Human Resources and then an offer to the candidate and negotiations between hiring department and candidate. Or, an alternative route is to have the President ask the department to "identify an opportunity" for you. Or, yet another is for your daddy to send an email to a department "introducing" you and inviting them to connect with you. That is an introduction in the sense that a shotgun wedding is by invitation.
We won't recap the story. We'll let you follow the link to the Daily Egyptian article. They deserve the read, the congratulations for the story and recognition of their bravery in publishing it. Special kudos should go to staff reporter Anna Spoerre, for a well written article.
