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March 28, 2024

NIU – “Delete your emails…to protect yourself”.

By Kirk Allen & John Kraft

On June 13, 2016

DeKalb Co. (ECWd) –

At what point will law enforcement on College Campuses and State-s Attorneys start arresting and prosecuting public officials for their illegal acts?

Want a Red flag indicator that there is a problem in your local public body?  FOIA their e-mails and see how stupid they really are.  In this case, in the “Subject” line it tells us all we need to know!

“Delete your emails to me to protect yourself.” 

This is the subject message on a warning sent via the Northern Illinois University email system from the then top financial administrator of NIU, Interim Chief Financial Officer Nancy Dezort Suttenfield; this warning was sent to a staff employee who worked in a department for which CFO Suttenfield had oversight.  The recipient was an accountant whose designated job function was to prepare bank reconciliations.

We have already shown Ms. Suttenfield’s disdain for State rules in this article. Were these two individuals attempting to cover up something else?  Otherwise, for why or for what was the protection needed here?  Considering their job function(s), could it be possible that they were hiding something that would appear on bank reconciliations?  Questions…

Besides the obvious questions raised regarding the motive of Ms. Suttenfield’s email warning, the State records Act 5 ILCS 160 requires retention of the records of all state institution; records that include emails.  Was Nancy Suttenfield simply not aware of this requirement, or as in the past, did she choose to ignore State rules?  It could be that perhaps her experience in private higher educational institutions did not transfer well to the knowledge of the requirements of public institutions.  On the other hand, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

It appears from Suttenfield’s email that the state’s mandatory ethics training may not be adequate for this NIU administration and should be massively expanded to achieve the “ethically inspired leadership” to which President Baker attempts to lay claim. It also appears that this expanded training requires an emphasis on the training specifically for the upper levels of administration.

We once again have to ask: when will the NIU Board of Trustees act?  Better yet, when will this common place disregard ever face the scrutiny of the laws in place that were established to prosecute this type of behavior?

[gview file=”https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Delete-email-to-protect.pdf”]

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6 Comments
  • Concerned
    Posted at 23:09h, 13 June

    Anyone working in the public sector (and private sector) should know that emails are not private. The IT department can easily dig up your entire email history with a few clicks of the mouse. Deleting an email from your inbox doesn’t really delete it, it just removes it from your view. Even emptying the trash bin doesn’t delete emails. They are saved and archived for a set amount of time, and most businesses save them forever. Disk space is cheap, so it’s very easy for IT to archive every email you send/receive.

    In the public sector, this allows for FOIA. Don’t think because you delete it that it can not be FOIA’d. Are people really that clueless?

    • Dave
      Posted at 09:15h, 14 June

      Arrogance blinds…

  • Edgar County Watchdogs getting kickbacks?
    Posted at 00:31h, 30 July

    Maybe she was trying to protect staff from the ex-CFO’s (yes, that Eddie Williams) daughter who is responsible for investigation “stuff” like creating false allegations?? But you are too retarded for a so called “watch dog” to see the other side, especially when it is likely you have a financial interest.

    “You boys are going down, and there is nothing you can do about it now Danny”

    • jmkraft
      Posted at 06:19h, 30 July

      Good luck with that.

      • Edgar County Watchdogs getting kickbacks?
        Posted at 20:53h, 30 July

        EDITED BY MODERATOR. MODERATOR’s NOTE: “Keep posting these vulgar comments and you will be banned from even trying to submit a comment. When you can speak like you have something between your ears, we will approve the comment

      • Edgar County Watchdogs getting kickbacks?
        Posted at 19:47h, 31 July

        Since the people that run this “site” do not like to be talked to in the way they deserve to be talked to, here you go:

        You are getting some sort of benefits from the old corrupt NIU regime. It is obvious. NS was hired only in a temporary role, to help clean up the corruption of the past. Now, ask yourself, why would the people keep publishing this crap even after a year after she left??

        Illinois (and governments in general) creates these rules so to protect corrupt people and their cronies (Edgar CWD) as a way not to protect the public, but to protect their own interests!! So NS becomes aware of NIU ITS and the old regime corrupt management (the ex-CFO’s daughter runs AADR for Christ’s sake!!!) and others hacking her email and, working with Edgar County WD Corruption squad, while good people try to make things better by reporting up the chain corruption concerns, what would any reasonable person do??

        You are involved protecting your financial interest. Make no mistake – you are protecting the corrupt.

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