U of I: Anonymous emails an isolated problem

CHAMPAIGN — A report from the University of Illinois said Friday that two anonymous emails countering criticism of an enrollment plan proposed by President Michael Hogan were written on his chief of staff’s computer and likely the work of the since-resigned aide.

University officials said the investigation indicated the emails were an isolated problem. But faculty leaders said the messages were symptoms of a broader problem with the university’s leadership including the recent findings that university’s law school used fake grades to polish its own image and the enrollment scandal that brought Hogan to the campus in 2010.

Outside investigators said in the report released Friday that the laptop computer was with chief of staff Lisa Troyer when the emails were sent in December to members of the university’s Faculty Senates Conference. The group includes faculty leaders from all three university campuses, in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield.

“It’s reasonable to infer that Troyer composed and sent the emails representing herself to be a senator,” Ted Chung of the Jones Day law firm said during a conference call with reporters Friday. The Chicago firm was hired along with data analysis firm Duff & Phelps to investigate the emails.

Troyer, who resigned who her $200,850-a-year administration job in early January after the emails were reported, denied writing or sending them, according to a written statement.

“I had nothing to do with these emails and, although the source and motivation have not yet been uncovered,” she wrote, “I believe that in the fullness of time, the truth behind this matter will be revealed.”

University officials have said she may stay on as a professor, but that decision hasn’t been made.

Hogan, according to the report, told investigators he knew nothing of the emails until after they were sent. He didn’t speak with reporters but in a news release called the emails disappointing.

“This was a disappointing event, and we have taken the necessary steps to address it,” said Hogan, who also employed Troyer as an administrator at the University of Iowa and University of Connecticut.

An Illinois spokesman, Tom Hardy, said the university already has strong policies to prevent unethical behavior and neither Hogan nor university trustees plan further action based on an isolated incident.

“I think that this appears to be an incident where somebody acted alone,” Hardy said.

But Joyce Tolliver, an associate professor of Spanish at the Urbana-Champaign campus and vice chair of the faculty Senate executive committee, said she and many other faculty members don’t see the emails as a one-time problem.

“I know that there’s great concern, especially given the context of the last year and a half, and especially given the situation under which the president was hired,” Tolliver said. “I think that there’s a shared sense that this is a bitter irony.”

Hogan was hired to replace B. Joseph White, who resigned after news media reports documented links between political connections and some decisions about who to admit to the university.

The university earlier this year also disclosed that inflated grades and entrance-exam scores were used to boost the profiles of the four most recent law school classes. The practice preceded Hogan. A law school administrator resigned.

Some faculty members have complained since Hogan was hired that he has moved to reduce their role in decision making. The plan to manage enrollment was among proposals that have drawn criticism.

The Dec. 12 emails were signed as if they were written by an anonymous member of the faculty Senate, and were aimed at influencing other members before they released a report on the plan. That report has since been released and is critical of Hogan’s idea.

According to the investigation, one of the 20 recipients noticed that the emails appeared to originate from Troyer’s computer, and reported it to the university’s information technology department.

Troyer then made her own report of a possible security breech.

Investigators found that the Yahoo email account used to send the emails was created on Troyer’s computer on Dec. 5 during a period in which her cellphone records and an interview with Hogan indicate the two were talking. Hogan told investigators he didn’t know the account was being created.

On Dec. 12, investigators found, the emails were sent during periods when Troyer was shown to be using the computer. She told investigators that she was meeting with another university employee at the time the first email was sent, but that employee couldn’t corroborate the story.

A document the investigators said appears to be an early draft of one of the emails was also found on the computer.

Troyer’s job status remains to be determined, Hardy said Friday. University ethics officer Donna McNeely said there are no plans to take legal action against her.

Troyer said she was disappointed the report didn’t clear her, saying in her statement that she fully cooperated.