Did SIU President prod pal to sway poll on resignation?

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

On Thursday afternoon, Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard called a religious leader on campus to discuss an online survey being conducted by the Springfield State Journal-Register.

The survey question: Should Poshard resign over allegations he plagiarized some parts of his doctoral dissertation?

The former Democratic gubernatorial nominee asked the religious leader, Hugh Muldoon, if there was anything he could do to help, Muldoon said Friday.


So Muldoon, who has known Poshard for more than 20 years, e-mailed his friends and colleagues out of concern that results of such a survey could negatively impact Poshard's future.

"He said, 'Anything you can do to help, I'd appreciate it,'" recalled Muldoon, who is director of the University Christian Ministries in Carbondale. "I picked up on that. I said, 'Maybe there is something I can do. I can alert my friends this poll is going on.'" Muldoon says he has a "couple hundred friends'' that agree with him that Poshard has been a great leader for SIU.

In the e-mail he sent out later Thursday, Muldoon wrote that he "just now got a call from Glenn Poshard alerting me to a poll being conducted by the [State] Journal Register on whether or not he should resign. He does not want to resign because, as he stated, he never stole anybody's work for his dissertation. Public opinion has a significant influence with the Board of Trustees and other political figures. Poshard thinks it is important to have a substantial majority in favor of his staying.''

Muldoon directed them to the Journal-Register's Web site and urged them to vote "no'' on the poll.

Poshard ended up winning the poll by a 3-1 margin.

The ethics of a former Congressman.I guess some people will do almost anything to say I the public payroll.