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U of I Scraps Ikenberry Sculpture Plan
URBANA, Ill. (AP) -- The University of Illinois is scrapping plans to spend nearly $100,000 on a sculpture of university President Stanley Ikenberry.

University spokesman Thomas Hardy says Ikenberry called off the project this week shortly after the Chicago Tribune began asking questions about it.

The university originally planned to hang the sculpture in the dining hall in the new Ikenberry Commons that's opening this fall. The art was to be paid for with student housing fees.

The Tribune reports that the school hadn't yet signed a contract, but university officials had filed paper work with the state to justify the no-bid, $98,000 purchase.

Hardy says Ikenberry stopped the plan because he didn't want to generate any ill will.

The expenditure would have come amid a budget crisis that's led university officials to furlough employees and raise tuition.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
06 18 10 by Newsroom
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