Members of Grady review panel announced
By KATE SCHOTT kschott@daily-chronicle.com
DeKALB – Three members of an independent panel charged with reviewing the performance of Northern Illinois University Police Chief Donald Grady have been chosen, the school announced Thursday.
The panel – which consists of a retired state supreme court justice, the head of the national campus law enforcement administration and a former community college president with extensive student services experience – was selected by NIU President John Peters and other senior administration, according to a written statement from NIU.
At least one more person will be added to the panel.
"The panel will have access to all records and sources of information necessary to evaluate the allegations and will present its findings and recommendations to President John G. Peters and Executive Vice President Eddie Williams as soon as practicable," according to the statement.
The committee will be chaired by John L. Nickels, a former Illinois Supreme Court justice who practiced law in Kane County for more than 20 years, according to the statement.
The other panel members are Marlon C. Lynch, who is associate vice president for Safety and Security at the University of Chicago who serves as President of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, and Robert T. Marshall, Jr., a retired higher education administrator who most recently served as vice president for student services at South Suburban College in South Holland. He also is a member of the American Association for Counseling and Development.
The statement notes that the privacy of all parties will be respected since the review entails personnel issues, and states that the advisory proceedings of the review panel will remain private. Officials will make public final decisions after reviewing the findings and recommendations of the advisory panel, according to the statement.
The team is expected to issue a final report to Peters and Williams, who oversees the police department.
Grady, who has been the NIU police chief since 2001, was placed on paid administrative leave by university officials late last week. Three lieutenants will run the NIU Police Department while Grady is on leave.
The performance review was prompted by an editorial last week in the Northern Star, NIU’s campus newspaper, which called for university official to remove him from his post.
The Northern Star’s editorial detailed an encounter Grady had with the newspaper’s editor in August in which the student said Grady yelled at him for nearly three hours, accused him of ruining the career of a patrol officer who had recently resigned and at one point offered the possibility of future employment if the Northern Star would write a story that painted the resigned officer in a favorable light.
Grady also implied that the student could face personal or professional negative implications if he didn’t write the story, according to the editorial.
The editorial was published Oct. 8; Williams said later that day that administrators would review Grady’s performance. The school announced Oct. 9 that Grady would be on paid administrative leave during the 30-day review.
