When Hurd emailed Herman about one candidate who was particularly poorly-qualified, Herman stated that university trustees would find jobs for five students after graduation to preserve the school's ranking. Although Hurd claimed in a letter to the "Chicago Tribune" that the portions of her e-mail exchanges with Herman appearing to be quid-pro-quo deals were purely sarcastic, the chairman of the commission investigating the scandal, ex-federal judge Abner Mikva, dismissed Herman's claims that the comments were 'sarcastic and facetious'. On July 6, 2009 several law faculty collectively wrote an open letter to the Tribune, protesting the coverage as incomplete, biased and inflammatory. During a hearing on July 27, 2009 at the Beckman Center on the Champaign–Urbana campus, White stated in response to a question that he had informed the chancellor of the Urbana campus of the application of a relative. Patrick Fitzgerald, who prosecuted Blagojevich on corruption charges, also subpoenaed Northern Illinois University and Southern Illinois University regarding correspondence between the former governor and admission offices. The Southern Illinois University School of Law on the Carbondale campus revealed that Blagojevich submitted letters of recommendation for two students, but neither was admitted. The commission led by Mikva found that trustees, deans, White, and Herman, all contributed to "substantial...admission-related abuses and irregularities." The panel's recommendation include, but are not limited to:  Governor Patrick Quinn announced the following day that he would undertake the panel's recommendation and called for the resignations of all trustees. Former chairman Larry Eppley (appointed by Blagojevich) had already resigned, as had then recently appointed chairman Niranjan Shah (also appointed by Blagojevich). Trustee McMillan tendered his resignation in accordance with the panel's finding. David Doris, Robert Vickrey, Devon Bruce, and Kenneth Schmidt also resigned, leaving two hold outs. On October 3, 2009, the University Board of Trustees accepted the resignation of President White (see related section) as of the end of the year. White timed his resignation to free the University from paying a $475,000 bonus that would have been due to him in February. Christopher Kennedy, who had taken over as Board chairman, said of White, "He is a class act and I think his decision today will contribute to his reputation." In accepting White's resignation, the Board named as a temporary replacement Stanley Ikenberry. Ikenberry had been president at the university from 1979 through 1995.