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Northern Illinois University President Resigns

Jenna Dooley
NIU Trustee Robert Boey confers with NIU President Doug Baker during the June 15 Board of Trustees meeting. Baker announced he will step down June 30 following a state investigation looking into hiring practices at NIU.

Northern Illinois University President Doug Baker will step down on June 30, the end of the current fiscal year. He made the announcement at the beginning of the NIU Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, which had scheduled a closed session on its agenda to review "Presidential Employment."

Baker’s resignation follows a controversial ruling by the Illinois Office of the Executive Inspector General that Baker had “mismanaged” the university by hiring executives and consultants as “affiliate employees” in an apparent attempt to circumvent hiring procedures.

“Both myself and the board made clear our objections to the assumptions made,” Baker said in a campuswide message emailed as he was addressing the board, “most notably the implication that I in any way had intended to circumvent any NIU guidelines or state regulations.”

The report had been provided to the NIU Board of Trustees in August 2016 and was released publicly last month. Baker noted that the objections to the ruling were overshadowed by news reports that focused on the language of the rulings. Various newspapers – including the DeKalb Daily Chronicle and the Chicago Sun-Times – published editorials calling for Baker to be replaced.

“The result has been that the university community has continued to be distracted by the allegations in the report,” Baker said. “Given the challenges we face and the hard work ahead, I simply couldn’t stand by and let this situation continue to fester.”  

An end-of-term evaluation has been underway for several weeks, but Baker said he approached NIU Board Chair John Butler to discuss the best way to proceed.

“We concurred that it was best to move forward with a presidential transition agreement, under which I intend to leave the university on June 30, 2017,” Baker said.

The board will consider a transition agreement in its closed session.

Trustee Dennis Barsema, a major donor to NIU, spoke of Baker's leadership during the Board of Trustees meeting soon after the announcement.

"Have mistakes been made? Sure. But from an integrity standpoint, don’t ever question his integrity. Don’t ever question his loyalty to NIU. Don't ever question the amount of time this man has worked and the amount of effort he has put into this university," Barsema said.

During a public comment period soon after the announcement, several faculty members spoke about a fear of how the state investigation affects the reputation of the university.

Others spoke of low morale without pay raises while the hiring investigation revealed consultants were paid high salaries for short-term work.

Virginia Naples, a biology professor at NIU, says perception will remain a major issue following the state report.

"A new broom sweeps clean. We need a new broom," Naples said. "One of the things that needs to happen is that we need to change direction and to greatly increase the transparency with which things are done at NIU."

Baker became NIU's twelfth president on July 1, 2013. He succeeded Dr. John Peters, who had served for 13 years.