Champaign Senate, in which he maintained that he never reversed any denied admissions and stood behind every admissions denial during his term as president.
"My colleagues on the board and I appreciate that your resignation is motivated by serving the university's best interests and is not intended to create any presumption of wrong-doing by you concerning the subjects investigated by the governor's Admissions Review Commission," led by retired federal judge Abner Mikva, Kennedy wrote in his response to White. "We recognize that you have taken this step to enable the university to move forward with a change of leadership so that the university community may come together to focus on critical issues confronting higher education in this state and in the nation."
White's resignation came about nine days after the senate's passage of a resolution recommending that the trustees replace both White and Urbana Chancellor Richard Herman to help restore Illinois' reputation and re-establish public trust compromised by the admissions controversy.
An ad hoc committee of the board is conducting personnel reviews of key officials as recommended by the ARC and will report to the board in November.
During the "Know Your University" forum at the University YMCA the day before White resigned, he discussed the admissions controversy, which he said had undermined confidence in his and Herman's leadership and tarnished the UI's reputation temporarily. White said that he and the trustees were working very hard to resolve those problems, that the admissions reforms and the codes of conduct that he had requested from each of the three campuses in August would be in place and that the leadership problems would "be resolved very soon."
Although the experience has been difficult, White called it an "extreme teachable moment" that has taught him lessons that he plans to use in his pedagogy.
"Ethical issues never come with a neon sign that says: 'Attention President White - ethical issue embedded here,' " White said. "They come in the torrent of issues, problems, e-mails, meetings and phone calls, and sometimes they're hard to ferret out.
"I said to the Mikva commission and I will repeat it here: I would never knowingly violate ethics policy or act unethically."
While president, White has held appointments in the business schools at all three campuses, including the James F. Towey Professor of Business and Leadership in the College of Business at Urbana, but time constraints precluded his teaching.
When White returns to the faculty after stepping down as president, he will teach in Urbana's College of Business, according to Tom Hardy, executive director of the Office for University Relations.
University officials are in the process of preparing a new contract for White, which will need the trustees' approval.
White took office as Illinois' 16th president Jan. 31, 2005.
Under White's leadership, the three campuses and the university and the UI Foundation embarked upon the $2.25 billion Brilliant Futures capital campaign, one of the largest campaigns in higher education and in the UI's 142-year history. Currently 76 percent of the way to its goal, having raised more than $1.7 billion, the campaign will continue through December 2011.
Before becoming president at Illinois, White was a faculty member, dean of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and interim president during 2002 at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He also had six years' experience in the private sector as a vice president at Cummins Engine Co. Inc. and has served on the boards of several companies.
