The board of trustees of The College of DuPage, an Illinois Community College, have released a 230-point proposal for changes in college policy that students and faculty say violates established principles of university governance and academic freedom, and perhaps state and federal law as well.

The proposal, which the president of the DuPage faculty association calls “an attempt by the board to gain complete control over everything,” would give the board power to set specific policies on subjects ranging from curriculum to faculty salaries, grant them authority to veto speakers brought to campus, and place the student newspaper under the control of the college president. 

The board’s action casts an already troubled college into further disarray. In May the president of DuPage was abruptly removed from office for reasons that were never made public, and just last month the chair of the board of trustees brought a defamation suit against three former board members who had complained that he had groped them and made suggestive comments to them during their tenure on the board.