A recent meeting between Metro East legislators and Governor Pat Quinn's staff turned heated at times, and as a result nothing was accomplished in the standoff over Quinn's appointments to the Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees.
The governor's three appointments to SIU's board were unanimously rejected by the Senate in late February - the first time anybody I've talked to can remember anything like that happening. But the governor has doubled down instead of compromising.
Quinn replaced three members with close ties to the university's Edwardsville campus, which is near St. Louis. For years, governors followed a "gentleman's agreement" that gave the Edwardsville campus three of the governor's seven nominated members. That agreement has coincided with explosive growth at the formerly backwater campus, so locals are loath to go back to the old days of being treated as the redheaded stepchild of the Carbondale campus. Just one of Quinn's new appointments had connections to Metro East, a complete unknown who applied for the trustee post on the Internet.
