Wise, Adesida resignations draws worry over College of Medicine

Yesterday, the Daily Illini Editorial Board published an editorial about the resignation of Chancellor Phyllis Wise. We signed off by saying the University needs “to see a time when resignations and scandals do not continuously plague this campus. Leadership will never be strong when administrators continue to come and go.”

While quoting ourselves might seem prosaic, it is not without cause. Not even a day after asking for consistency from our administration, we saw another change in the University’s leadership with the resignation of Provost Ilesanmi Adesida.

While we already feared how the campus would operate in the future months under a new president as the University searches for a new chancellor, we can now add provost to the search list, too. The provost oversees academic programs, policies and priorities and works with the chancellor, vice chancellors, college deans and the Academic Senate.

Adesida’s resignation comes after a month of controversy surrounding the use of personal emails that skirted Freedom of Information Act requests, along with the resignation of former Chancellor Phyllis Wise.

“I recognize that current controversies are causing distraction to the administration and the student body, and I do not want to contribute to those distractions,” Adesida wrote in a letter to Wilson, according to a University news release.

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Adesida was included in the more than 1,100 pages of emails not included in FOIA requests.

Wise appointed Adesida as provost in 2012, and the duo worked together to create the recently approved Carle Illinois College of Medicine.

The emails, which have now been released, showed Wise and Adesida’s attempts to implement the new biomedical engineering school, despite opposition from top University officials, including former Board of Trustees Chairman Chris Kennedy.

Regardless of whether it was ethical of Wise and Adesida to work behind Kennedy’s back to create the college, it has been approved and is on its way — with or without them.

As of April, $135 million still must be raised for the college, and a search for a dean is currently in process. The University has already invested time, money and energy into the development of the new college.

The Daily Illini Editorial Board worries how the college will come to fruition with its two biggest leaders now out of the picture. Further, we reiterate our concern for the University’s future with the current inconsistency in administration.