A change in the University of Illinois’ governing board system was declared unconstitutional by a Cook County Court judge, but this will have no affect on SIU, a University official says.

Judge Albert Green ruled Gov. Jim Edgar’s law dissolving terms of current board members at U of I unconstitutional Wednesday.

The law is unconstitutional because the board members were elected to their positions in a state-wide election. An Illinois Constitutional amendment would be required before elected positions could be dissolved.

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Green said the decision was appealed and is now on its way to the Illinois Supreme Court.

Edgar and Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra have said the restructuring and reorganizing of Illinois’ public higher-education institutions is needed to eliminate excess bureaucracy. If the legislation is passed, there will only be two governing-board systems left; one for SIU and one for U of I.

According to the Charter of the Board of Trustees at SIU, each member of the board is appointed to a six-year term position by the governor. The governor’s appointees require consent from the state Senate and the superintendent of public instruction

Thomas Lamont, a U of I trustee, said the decision will not affect other boards of governance in the state because Edgar’s proposal just involved removing elected board members.

This keeps us in limbo, Lamont said. Our status is up in the air.

Sandy Renshaw, an assistant in the U of I board office, said U of I presently has nine elected board members with the governor serving an honorary position. She said the board members are serving terms ranging from 1997 to 2001.

SIU Board of Trustees Vice-Chairman Molly D’Esposito said the decision has nothing to do with SIU or its governance measures.

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Eric Robinson, spokesperson for Edgar, said Edgar wants the case to go to the Illinois Supreme Court.

Governor Edgar believes the University of Illinois should be taken out of the hands of partisan politics, Robinson said.