Tuition Increases Anticipated At Chicago State University?

Is that a spruce tree in the logo? And if so, why?

More bad news for the embattled college on Chicago's south side...

The school has been saddled with an unexpected expense that will likely be paid by an insurance policy, but you know what happens when you file a claim. Right, the next bill is markedly higher.

If insurance costs go up, it stands to reason that Chicago State would have to boost tuition to cover the cost. And by doing it that way, no one has to tell Illinois taxpayers that the tuition is really going up because of cronyism and getting caught trying to stiffle a man who blew the whistle on shady business at one of the world's shadiest institutions of higher learning.

James Crowley had the audacity to let the public know that the school's president was guilty of misconduct. At issue were preferred parking spaces and travel expenses for one clouted student. He did not do his job in the crony way when he did not block the release of documents that reflected very poorly on the university's president. After he ratted about some odd contracts to the attorney general, he sealed his fate.

None of that was supposed to get out, and Mr. Crowley failed to go along to get along. So he was fired.

Being the senior legal counsel for CSU, you can see how Mr. Crowley would be familiar with legal issues. He also possessed some knowledge of the state's ethics laws which protected whistleblowers from retaliation, and so he used his knowledge to file a suit against Chicago State for illegal termination of employment.

Several years later, after the first-of-its-kind case wound through the court system, Mr. Crowley has been vindicated and the school has been ordered to pay him lost wages, with a penalty tacked on. He will end up with upwards of $2 million, and his job back. If he's still interested.

He'll be unwelcome, as you'd imagine, and the university's administration would wake up every morning with a new plot to undermine him or make him so miserable that he'd quit and stop snooping around. Things are very cozy there at Chicago State University, a bastion of the Chicago Way. Those who profit from the arrangement would very much like to keep things profitable for themselves.

And if costs go up because of the price of corruption, it's just another expense for the students and the taxpayers to cover.

Like the parking meter deal and the red light camera deal.....