An investigation into hiring at SIU Carbondale is being elevated to the Illinois Office of the Executive Inspector General.
System President Randy Dunn called for an internal investigation into the hiring of SIUC Chancellor Carlo Montemagno's daughter and son-in-law Thursday, and the ethics office has now forwarded its findings to the state level.
Dunn acknowledges he signed off on hiring Montemagno's daughter and son-in-law as a part of the chancellor's employment agreement, but says he was acting based on direction from the Board of Trustees.
"Clearly, there was a feeling on the part of the Board (of Trustees), and it was a directive given to me in pretty explicit terms. Now, I'm not quoting exactly, but it's a pretty close paraphrase. That was a directive from the Board to 'do what you need to do, what you can do, to get Dr. Montemagno to this campus and take this position.'"
Dunn says he consulted with the university's legal counsel, as well, to make sure the hires didn't violate any laws or policies.
The university's ethics office is also looking into faculty searches that included candidates who'd previously worked with Chancellor Montemagno.
The SIU investigation will go a step further - it's also looking into possible influence in at least four faculty searches that included candidates who'd previously worked with Montemagno.
"For me, not having been a part of that faculty stuff, the best approach to try to take a look at it and find out what really happened, seemed to be to defer to our ethics office to really take the lead and see what happened with it."
The information came to light as a part of a series of stories in The Daily Egyptian.
The Chancellor says he had no direct influence on any of the hires or searches.
