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Following Scandal, Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Quits

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October 21, 2009

Richard H. Herman announced his resignation Tuesday as chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Herman was faulted by many on campus -- and by a special state review -- for enabling and participating in a since-disbanded system that gave preferential admissions to politically connected applicants. While Herman said that he sought to minimize such activity and to advance the university's political interests, a reconstituted board was conducting a review of whether he should stay on. By leaving now, Herman will forfeit a $300,000 bonus he would have received at the end of his contract. Herman will, in the short term, advise the university on math and science education issues and will later return to the faculty. An e-mail circulated on the campus said that Stanley O. Ikenberry, who was appointed this month to replace B. Joseph White as president of the University of Illinois system, and Interim Provost Robert Easter will lead the Urbana-Champaign campus temporarily (an interim chancellor will not be hired).

Doug Lederman

Doug Lederman is editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed. He helps lead the news organization's editorial operations, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Doug speaks widely about higher education, including on C-Span and National Public Radio and at meetings and on campuses around the country, and his work has appeared in The New York Times and USA Today, among other publications. Doug was managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1999 to 2003. Before that, Doug had worked at The Chronicle since 1986 in a variety of roles, first as an athletics reporter and editor. He has won three National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association, including one in 2009 for a series of Inside Higher Ed articles he co-wrote on college rankings. He began his career as a news clerk at The New York Times. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated in 1984 from Princeton University. Doug lives with his wife, Kate Scharff, in Bethesda, Md.