Chicago State University faculty and students are calling on Gov. Pat Quinn to block the school’s board of trustees from selecting a new president.

About 120 students and faculty gathered behind a podium in the university’s student center yesterday in an effort to drum up support for their demands, as about 50 other students looked on.

CSU’s board of trustees is expected to decide on Wednesday whom to hire as the school’s next president. Last week, the two finalists for the post, City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Wayne Watson and Illinois Department of Human Services Secretary Carol Adams each spent a day on campus.

On Tuesday, CSU’s faculty senate issued a unanimous vote of no-confidence in the board of trustees and called on Quinn to halt the selection process, remove the current board of trustees and appoint a new board.

“The letter has been received and it is under advisement,” says Marlena Jentz, a spokeswoman for Quinn. But she declined to say how seriously the governor was taking the issues raised by CSU’s faculty.

The Illinois Constitution allows Quinn to “remove for incompetence, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office any officer who may be appointed by the Governor.”

Pat Arnold, a spokeswoman for CSU, says the issues being raised don’t directly involve the administration, but she was “delighted” to see students so engaged.

“They certainly handled themselves today in a very professional way and it speaks to the openness of the university and the fact that they certainly have a voice here and nobody is squelching that voice,” Arnold says.

Many at the school have been critical of both presidential candidates for their political connections and relative lack of teaching experience.

“The faculty will not be comfortable with either of those two people overseeing them go through tenure,” says Emmett Bradbury, the chair of the criminal justice department.

The students who turned out at yesterday’s press conference represent a small slice of the nearly 7,000 enrolled at CSU.

“There are some students that are not aware of what’s going on, and we’ve been educating them,” Orebiyi says.

Some of those students are people like criminal justice major Daria Holmes, who watched the news conference from the other side of the room.

“It’s my first time actually hearing about this, so it’s really interesting,” she says. She added that she doesn't yet have an opinion on the search process, let alone the most recent demands.