Editor’s Note: This is the first part of a two-part series.

After visiting a group of Marines nicknamed the “Mad Ghosts” that just returned from serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Robert van der Hooning, former director of the University Executive MBA program, had a life-altering experience. He started a program at the University that would partner the Illinois Veteran Grant with a scholarship to the Executive MBA program in Chicago. It was supposed to give back to Illinois veterans who made immeasurable sacrifices.

Then on May 23, 2006, an e-mail was sent to him by his boss that mandated him to rescind admission to this program of 11 Illinois veterans – and they would receive this news on Memorial Day.

He refused.

But these letters were sent without van der Hooning’s approval, his electronic signature was attached, and the veterans were told they could no longer attend the Executive MBA (EMBA) program for missing a deadline they weren’t informed of.

“When they said this thing to me down in Champaign, that they didn’t want as many ‘jarheads’ in the program because it would bias the class demographic, it was just so naive and so discriminatory,” van der Hooning said, claiming administrators referred to veterans by the slang term for their cropped haircuts. “It was almost a racist comment.”

After van der Hooning felt overwhelmed by the actions taken to prevent veterans from applying to the program, he brought his case to Robyn Sato, ethics officer at the Chicago campus. She promised him anonymity, but after hearing his story she rescinded that promise, he said.

Then the problem was referred to President B. Joseph White, and finally to van der Hooning’s boss, Dean of the College of Business, Avijit Ghosh. On June 28, 2006, van der Hooning was fired.

He says administrators in the College of Business – including Ghosh; Larry DeBrock, associate dean for professional programs in the college; Sandra Frank, associate dean for admissions in the college; and David Ikenberry, interim director for the EMBA program – did not want the high number of veterans to put a stigma on the program.

Also, with the Illinois Veteran Grant (IVG) historically underfunded, the administrators worried about absorbing huge costs.

Van der Hooning says he was fired because he became the “fall guy” for the immoral, unethical and illegal actions taken by administrators that caused unexpected backlash from disgruntled and disheartened veterans. However, the University has argued he was fired for poor management and exceeding his means in recruiting for the program.

The former director filed a lawsuit in December against the University under the Illinois Whistle Blowers Act. This act protects any state employee who reports any co-worker or any member of a state agency for suspected illegal activity, provides information or testimony against them, or assists in the enforcement of the act.

If ruled in van der Hooning’s favor, he could be reinstated or even receive twice his regular pay in back-pay.

Robin Kaler, University spokeswoman, said the University has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

University Ethics Officer Donna McNeely said in an e-mail interview with a Daily Illini reporter that confidentiality to “whistle blowers” is maintained to the fullest extent of the law.

“Even if an employee does not specifically request to maintain their confidentiality,” McNeely said in the e-mail, “the University Ethics Office maintains the confidentiality of all callers.”

Disputed claims and misinformation

On March 3, 2006, the University issued a press release offering 110 full-ride scholarships to the EMBA program for veterans to use with the Illinois Veterans Grant.

These scholarships were a partnership with the IVG. If a veteran did not have all their IVG units left to cover the cost of the EMBA program, the college would pay for 30 percent of the remaining costs.

The 110 figure came from what van der Hooning says is the capacity of the facilities that were available or could have been made available.

The Illini Center, 200 S. Wacker Dr., Chicago, is the home of the Champaign-run EMBA program. According to van der Hooning, there were two rooms available for the program, each with the capacity for 55-60 students. Since the administration was already attempting to grow the program, they offered scholarships to the capacity of 110-120 and not limit any growth possibilities.

But something as simple as the number and size of the rooms seems to be the crux of the muddied controversy.

“The max capacity of the room, and there is only one, is 60,” said Robin Kaler, University spokeswoman. “The University doesn’t have the additional faculty even if there was another room.”

She said there is another room in the building, but it is used for the Master of Science in Taxation program. Also, increasing class size by just one student significantly increases the costs and strain on the program, Kaler said.

But, van der Hooning says, there was an easy solution to any such space constraints. Not only had the Board of Trustees signed a new lease for the building, specifically mentioning expansion to other floors, different programs run on alternating weekends.

“You run two classes at a time, like accounting and micro-economics,” he said. “So you have the accounting guy teach in classroom ‘A’ in the morning, then he moves over and teaches the same class in classroom ‘B’ in the afternoon. These guys could have taught four or five weekends and picked up $55-60,000. That’s how easy this could have gone down.”

Because the program was so small, van der Hooning says the overhead costs for marketing, staff and facility rentals would be the same whether it was a class of 10 students or the ideal 43 to “break even.”

He also says similar programs hire additional faculty, without trouble, to teach off-site programs. Professors showed interest in making extra money to teach more classes on the weekends they were already in Chicago, he added.

But in reality things would not be that easy, Kaler said.

“As a land grant University, we are required to perform research and outreach,” she said. “So this (EMBA program) is not the only thing our faculty are required to do.”

“And (the University) will not try to do more than we can do well,” she added.

Administrators in the college feel van der Hooning went beyond his means by recruiting a number of veterans that would end up exceeding capacity. But he said he was told to recruit up to 110, and nowhere in multiple e-mail conversations or press releases obtained by The Daily Illini were there objections to that number.

Only after van der Hooning recruited tens of veterans for the program was he told by Ghosh, DeBrock and others to limit the number.

“Ghosh had told me on more than one occasion that he didn’t think I could find 110 smart guys that were qualified for the MBA program,” van der Hooning said. “I said to him … ‘there’s tens of thousands of veterans here in Illinois. There’s lots of very capable people.'”

A multi-year commitment

The University claims these 110 scholarships were supposed to be offered over a three- to four-year period.

The March 3, 2006 press release reads “(UIUC) has partnered with the State of Illinois to award up to 110 new academic scholarships for Illinois-based military veterans and active-duty military personnel.”

The scholarship program was never meant to be a multi-year commitment, van der Hooning said. In fact, he would have supported a multi-year commitment if originally presented that way.

The University admits it omitted this crucial element to the scholarship announcement.

“Now (the press release) does not specify a time frame,” Kaler said. “In hindsight, I wish it would have.”

Originally the college was offering twenty-five $10,000 scholarships. However, this didn’t take off, probably due to marketing, van der Hooning said.

“The year before when we tried twenty-five $10,000 (scholarships) – that press release talked about twenty-five $10,000 scholarships over three years,” he said. “So, if we wanted the new scholarship program to be a three-year plan, we would have said, like we did the year before, that it had this time horizon to it. We didn’t.”

Also, van der Hooning said that since the administrators were aware of the shortfalls in funding for the IVG, they would never commit to future years while knowing the money would not be there.

“Deans, assistant deans, associate deans and public relations don’t make these kinds of mistakes,” van der Hooning said. “If it’s really a three-year program, you state it’s a three-year program up-front.”

Amanda Graf, Kathleen Foody and Jonathan Wroble contributed to this report.

Pick up a copy of tomorrow’s Daily Illini or check DailyIllini.com to find out more on the shortages of the IVG, and how admission offers were rescinded to tens of veterans.