Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge) | Contributed photo
Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge) | Contributed photo
The Illinois Senate’s Higher Education Committee recently created a fact-finding subcommittee in response to questionable executive severance deals at state universities and community colleges in the state.
The issue of excessive severance deals came to the forefront after the College of DuPage granted a $750,000 buyout to President Robert Breuder.
Illinois State University also entered into a similar deal for $480,000 with its president.
State Sen. Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge) said the money spent on the severance deals could be better spent elsewhere.
"This money could be better spent on providing an affordable, world-class college education for students," Kotowski, a member of the new Subcommittee on Executive Compensation, said. "It could be used to offer much-needed tuition relief for families. Taxpayers cannot afford to pay for six-figure golden parachutes, shooting-club memberships and other lavish perks for public servants."
State. Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago), who heads the new Subcommittee on Executive Compensation, said taxpayers want answers.
"Taxpayers are demanding to know how we compensate administrators, why we are compensating them and what safeguards we can put in place to end the type of abuses we’ve recently seen," he said.
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