State audit report on COD coming Wednesday

Results of the state's performance audit of the College of DuPage will be released on Wednesday.

State Rep. Jeanne Ives, a Wheaton Republican, called for an investigation of the Glen Ellyn-based school's finances last year after the COD board approved a $762,868 deal for then-Present Robert Breuder to retire about three years earlier than his existing contract's expiration date.

Initially, it was anticipated the performance audit, conducted by the Illinois Auditor General, would reveal whether the COD board has followed its own policies and state laws since fiscal 2011.

But after a new majority seized control of the COD board in April 2015, they asked the performance audit to go deeper.

Those board members asked for the audit also to include all 2009 and 2010 transactions of the college and its foundation. In addition, the new board majority wanted the state to examine all 2009 and 2010 transactions "related to any bond offerings, or utilizing the proceeds from any bond offering."

COD trustees ended up firing Breuder in October after doing their own internal investigation. Ann Rondeau has since been hired as the sixth president of the state's largest community college.