Illinois poaches UConn president

After just three years as president of the University of Connecticut, Michael Hogan is leaving June 30 to become president of the University of Illinois, receiving a public rebuke from Gov. M. Jodi Rell who expressed surprise at the decision.

Hogan did not immediately detail the reasons that he decided to put himself in the running for the Illinois job. He joined UConn in the fall of 2007, having previously been provost of the University of Iowa.

“Many, including myself, are deeply disappointed that he is leaving the university at such a critical time, particularly on the heels of the landmark financial investment we have just made to the UConn Health Center,” Rell said, in a prepared statement. “We had assumed President Hogan”™s commitment to UConn was a long-term one; it should have been.”

Under Hogan, UConn received a $362 million commitment from the state to expand the UConn Health Center in Farmington, whose affiliated John Dempsey Hospital has struggled to remain financially viable. Earlier this month, the school also inked a new, five-year contract for men”™s basketball coach Jim Calhoun, valued at $13 million.

“It”™s with a degree of sadness that I”™m leaving, but I can do so knowing that we”™ve accomplished many of the goals that the board of trustees set out for me when I began my term as UConn”™s president,” Hogan said, in a prepared statement.