Former YSU president Randy Dunn separating from Southern Illinois University

Staff report

CARBONDALE, ILL.

Randy J. Dunn, who left as Youngstown State University’s president in 2014 to become president of Southern Illinois University, will officially separate from SIU on Monday.

Dunn agreed to a voluntary separation that will pay him a six-month severance of $215,000 and provide him with a position as visiting professer at the university starting Jan. 1 at a salary of $100,000 per year, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The Southern Illinoisian newspaper of Carbondale, Ill., reported that the SIU Board of Trustees will consider the separation agreement Monday and consider the appointment of J. Kevin Dorsey as interim president at a salary of $430,000. Dunn’s retirement will take effect July 30.

Dunn came under fire recently after nearly 1,900 pages of university documents showed that he colluded with officials on the Edwardsville campus of SIU to bolster a funding reallocation proposal that would have benefited the Edwardsville campus. The other campus is in Carbondale.

The funding proposal, which was made in April and failed, would have shifted $5.1 million from the Cardondale budget to the Edwardsville budget, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Around that time, a group of legislators introduced bills in the Illinois House of Representatives seeking to break up the Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses, change the makeup of the SIU board and give the Edwardsville campus more funding.

In June, some members of the SIU Board of Trustees tried to oust Dunn, citing 1,900 pages of emails and handwritten notes showing that Dunn had communicated for several months about the prospect of shifting more dollars to the Edwardsville campus and spoke of legislators’ plans before any bills had been introduced, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Dunn served as YSU president seven months before being hired in Illinois. He left YSU, where he earned $370,000 annually, in August 2014.

Dunn’s salary when he went to Illinois was $430,000 per year, according to The Southern Illinoisian.

Jim Tressel was hired in June 2014 to succeed Dunn as YSU president.