UI Trustee Faces Questions Over Future Son-in-Law’s Hiring

A University of Illinois trustee expected to face scrutiny today over admissions now may hear questions about how his son-in-law landed a six-figure job with the school.

The Chicago Tribune reports that trustee Niranjan Shah used his position in 2007 to help find his then-future son-in-law a job. Shah says he encouraged the university to hire Maarten de Jeu after he graduated first in his MBA class at Oxford University.

University Chancellor Richard Herman says the school created a $115,000 job for de Jeu in a business-consulting office. He left the university after 10 months. That's six months after he married Shah's daughter. Shah is scheduled to appear this afternoon before the commission examining the admission of politically connected applicants at the university.