Our chancellor is gone, and we don’t know why.

What we have to work with is that somehow, in some way, former Chancellor Fernando Trevi’ntilde;o did not fulfill his job duties. At least that’s what a press release from the university offered March 17. Since then, SIU President Glenn Poshard and other administrators have cited Trevi’ntilde;o’s privacy as reason not to divulge any further details.

We understand the concept of privacy in regard to employment matters. But we also understand that the university is simply making it that much harder for anyone – ourselves included – to take administrative actions seriously anymore.

Did Trevi’ntilde;o eat someone’s sandwich, or did he not come to work for a week?

We feel like the public deserves to know at least to what degree Trevi’ntilde;o did not “fulfill his duties.” But alas, we have learned that the university following such reasoning is more of a rare feat than what we could expect as normalcy.

This school has a great deal of good to offer. We offer two associate, 81 bachelor’s, 70 master’s, 33 doctoral degree programs and professional degrees in law and medicine, according to SIUC Institutional Research and Studies. Morris Library is in the top 75 for research libraries in the country. Our international students represent more than 100 nations.

But it’ll be hard telling that to the next prospective chancellor who Googles “SIUC” and sees what happened to the last three.

A “failure to perform job duties” can mean a hundred different things, and the Daily Egyptian is beginning to feel like we’ve heard close to that many theories.

It would probably do Trevi’ntilde;o and our school more good than harm if an official source offered something to quell these whispers.

Because these whispers are starting to include not just his supposed lack of aptitude – but the university’s as well.