Administration

U of Illinois: Outgoing chancellor, administrators broke e-mail rules to hide communications

Associated Press
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FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2014, file photo, Steve Salaita, a professor who lost a job offer from the University of Illinois over dozens of profane, anti-Israel Twitter messages, speaks during a news conference in Champaign Ill. A federal judge ruled Thursday Aug. 6, 2015 that a lawsuit brought by Salaita, whose anti-Israel Twitter messages led the University of Illinois to withdraw a job offer, can continue. U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber dismissed four of Steven Salaita's accusations but decided that the bulk of his case could go on. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File) (The Associated Press)

In this Aug. 3, 2015 photo, University of Illinois chancellor Phyllis Wise, listens to athletic director Mike Thomas, during a news conference in Champaign, Ill. The university announced Friday, Aug. 7, 2015, that several administrators, including outgoing Chancellor Wise, violated school policy by using private emails to hide correspondence from public view. Those emails included discussions about controlling the damage from a controversy spurred by the revocation of a job offer to a professor who sent anti-Israel tweets. (John Dixon/ The News-Gazette via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT (The Associated Press)

In this May 18, 2015 photo, University of Illinois President Timothy Killeen speaks to reporters in his office on the Urbana, Ill., campus. The university announced Friday, Aug. 7, 2015, that several administrators, including outgoing Chancellor Phyllis Wise, violated school policy by using private emails to hide correspondence from public view. Those emails included discussions about controlling the damage from a controversy spurred by the revocation of a job offer to a professor who sent anti-Israel tweets. (AP Photo/David Mercer) (The Associated Press)

The University of Illinois says several administrators violated school policy by using private emails to hide correspondence from public view, including about a professor whose job offer was rescinded after he sent anti-Israel Twitter messages.

A statement Friday from the U of I says emails on several sensitive topics should have been turned over in response to a Freedom of Information request. The university simultaneously released hundreds of pages of the emails in question.

Among the emails were those from outgoing Chancellor Phyllis Wise, who submitted her resignation Thursday. A university spokesman was not immediately available to comment on whether the alleged violations of email policy was related to Wise's decision.

Wise and the school face a lawsuit filed by Steven Salaita, whose job offer she rescinded over anti-Israel tweets.