State Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-52, is delaying plans for a bill that would shift a majority of the power to appoint members of the University Board of Trustees away from the governor.

Though Frerichs, the bill’s primary sponsor, was unavailable for comment, his chief of staff Laurie Bonnett confirmed that he would wait on the bill that would give the University of Illinois Alumni Association Board of Directors the power to appoint five of the nine trustees that serve on the board. Currently, all members are appointed by the Illinois governor.  Vanessa Faurie, spokeswoman for the alumni association, said the organization requested that Frerichs delay putting the bill up to a vote, raising concerns about there not being enough time to fully vet the legislation. 

Although the senate has until May 24 to pass its legislation, Faurie said the UIAA wants more time to discuss the bill, which is opposed by Gov. Pat Quinn.

“Gov. Quinn has appointed one of the best boards in the school’s history and they are doing an excellent job,” Brooke Anderson, spokeswoman for Quinn’s administration, said in an email.

Anderson added that Quinn considers the suggestions from the UIAA and other public university alumni when filling board vacancies.

Faurie confirmed that there is a consultation process and said the alumni association is satisfied with the current arrangement. But before Quinn, neither Rod Blagojevich nor George Ryan, both former governors, consulted with the alumni association in making their trustee appointments.

“We’ve long supported this concept of a more permanent role of the alumni in the selection,” Faurie said. “It’s never been directed against Gov. Quinn.”

Currently, seven of the nine trustees are University of Illinois alumni. But neither board chairman Christopher Kennedy nor retired federal prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald, most recently appointed, are University alumni. That would disqualify them from nomination by the alumni association, but Faurie said this would not preclude the governor’s ability to appoint up to four non-alumni.

State Sens. Chapin Rose, R-51, and Jason Barickman, R-53, have signed on as cosponsors.

Rose sponsored several similar bills during his tenure as a state representative. In February 2009, he sponsored a resolution urging the governor to “return to the practice of selecting state university trustees from a list provided by and vetted by the alumni association.” The Chicago Tribune printed the first in its “Clout Goes to College” series, which precipitated the departure of all but two trustees on the board, on May 29, 2009. The resolution passed unanimously through the House the next day.

The next year, Rose, a 2000 graduate of the College of Law, sponsored legislation that would have the University trustees elected by the general public again, as they were before Ryan’s predecessor, but that bill failed when the House voted 69-44 against it.

Nathaniel can be reached at [email protected].