Defamation suit rocks college calm

Mr Gregory, you have some more homework to do.

When did the trustees' resign? What did they allege when they resigned? When was the proposal for posting all employees' salaries made?

To give readers the impression that the alleged allegations could have been in retaliation for the posting of salaries is seriously misleading.

If these things happened at a board meeting, there would be witnesses.

Also, if it was a public access to finances matter, that would be on the record too.

So, this shouldn't be too hard to prove one way or the other.

What is going on? I see the BOT is STILL not very gender inclusive nor minority diverse.

DuPage county might be a great place to live, but it is not all that welcoming to its various groupings of minority citizens.

The college is a great resource for the entire county and shameful to have to read about this type of scandal.

Former student and active community participant who is so proud to see some of the suggestion worked on a few years ago are being fulfilled.

As one of those "highly paid" faculty members - why is it that the words faculty member are always preceded by the snide "highly paid" in these sorts of comments? Perhaps Mr. Roberts should be referred to as "grossly overpaid" attorney - I take the greatest offense at the aforementioned Roberts baseless insinuation. At least I now know where I stand.

Alleged sexual harassment....The kiss of death to anyone's reputation.

I completely agree with "Staffer" this story is incomplete, shame on the Tribune for not publishing more details about the trustees tenure and asking the parties involved more detailed questions about all the allegations. You can't print half the story and think you're doing your readers any good.

Time for Brueder to come and rescue this place - clearly he is the man we need! Come on Superman save us!

He would fit right in at NU Kellogg.
Although, I'm not sure he would make sexual advances to someone while they are vomiting on themselves.

It's asinine to assert that the sexual harassment allegations are at all connected to the publication of faculty salaries. Conflating the two is not only a perfectly inane post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, but also smacks of a weakly constructed conspiracy theory. The real significance of these two issues is not causal, but indicative-- there are serious problems at COD and the BoT seems to be at the locus of each.

The allegations of sexual harassment go back to 2007 and even before that since Brown left the Board a long time ago.

There is absolutely no connection between a persistent trend in criminal behavior and the recent publication of salaries.

I am a "highly paid" faculty member at the College of DuPage, and I earn what amounts to a reasonable living wage for this area. I will never get rich, but I truly love my work, I love my students, and I am proud to be a member of COD's faculty. I have an MA and a PhD and nearly 20 years of classroom experience. I and my faculty colleagues work very hard to meet the needs of an enormous range of students who come to our college from all backgrounds.

The idea that three local women of good will and good reputations could be making accusations of sexual harrassment in retaliation for faculty salaries being posted on line is completely absurd. These events took place long before there was any discussion of posting salaries and they are unrelated. Too bad that such a highly paid lawyer couldn't come up with a more logical argument. I don't think he could pass my English class.

Guilty until proven innocent. An easy way for women to sue, phoney charges for a fast buck.

Allen: Where does it state that any of these three women have brought suit against anyone? I must have missed that part in the article.

But Allen, the three women haven't sued and haven't demanded any money.

IMHO, McKinnon just proved that the women's accusations are true. Some unnamed faculty members might object to some vague issues, so they conspired with female board members?? Balderdash. McKinnon is guilty.

McKinnon's attorney's allegation is false, that faculty have never discussed anything remotely related pressuring him or the Board into restricting the posting of public information, including salaries. A sexual harassment claim has no effect on not posting salaries.

I find this laughable. The citizens of DuPage county are getting ripped off by the COD Board of Trustees. And by the Chicago Tribune, apparently. Why doesn't someone at the Trib report on the millions of dollars in construction contracts and change orders and cronyism and sexual harassment and racism happening at board level at COD? The faculty, staff and students at COD need help. And Brueder is another crony, by the way! I'd love to be hired two months before I even showed up to interview, wouldn't you?

McKinnon's blatant abuse of his power as a Board member has been obvious ever since, years ago, he got the Board to issue a policy that all members of the college had to use the travel agency that he owned when they were conducting college business (or you had to provide 2 lower quotes from a competitor and give his firm the chance to meet them, which of course he knew no one would bother to do). When too many complaints were filed, he "fixed" the problem by selling the travel agency to his sister. This is the guy we have overseeing $300 million in construction contracts for the college? You can't be serious!!

So now we learn that in addition to abusing his power over DuPage County and Illinois taxpayers, he is also charged with abusing his power via sexual harassment. For those who might be tempted to believe his bogus claims that this is just "he said she said," consider the chances that not one, not two, but three different women have now leveled charges. I would be surprised if more do not join the chorus.

Enough is enough. We must restore the dignity of the college and protect our taxpayers by removing him from office.

Are you kidding me? This McKinnon guy's lawyer says the charges of sex harassment are because of high paid faculty! Isn't he the guy who approves the pay? He pays them and then complains about it? Smells fishy to me!

There was no college calm as this lawsuit popped up. The College is in the process of searching for a new President when the last one was suddenly dismissed. There has been almost a year of poor decision making on the part of the Board. There has been plenty of contention between the Board and the public. DuPage United and the College stakeholders have been asking for greater transparency in the process. What did they get? The wildly unpopular decision to post faculty and staff salaries online. Instead of focusing on the Presidential Search, McKinnon and his henchmen have decided to focus on attacking the Courier (Student Newspaper) and the lone female Trustee publicly during the meetings. Really? Aren't there more important things to worry about than attacking the people who are questioning your actions? As elected officials, it is the job of the citizens to ask those questions. Well, Atkinson was never elected. Just appointed by McKinnon and his cronies. Go figure.

For shame! Three adult females state that they were sexually harassed by this individual and his response is to sue them? This person should NOT be in charge of the education of my son or daughter.

I couldn't care less about teachers salaries. That man should be removed!