Who is Marcia Langsjoen?

Forthcoming column from yconservatives.com; to be published this weekend | April 3, 2002 | By Gene J. Koprowski

[Writer1]

Remember back in the early 1990s how the Wall Street Journal had a series of stories about the corrupt bureaucrat, Web Hubbell, who wielded power in secret in Washington D.C.? Invariably, the articles were headlined, “Who is Web Hubbell?” or some variation on that theme.

Well I have a question about an Illinois bureaucrat who secretly wields power from Springfield, the state capital. “Who is Marcia Langsjoen?”

I would, as a journalist, like to know the answer to that question.

Langsjoen, a state employee and staff counsel with the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), was the machiavellian marketing force who placed a series of stories in the Chicago newspapers in the late 1990s about the American Conservatory of Music, and its chairman, Richard Schultze.

Through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, I located documents that put Langsjoen in direct contact with reporters at the Chicago Defender, The Chicago Tribune and other media outlets. She also was probably the source for Raymond Coffee, the now-retired columnist of the Chicago Sun-Times, who wrote a series of strange and tendentious articles about the conservatory.

Langsjoen’s job description does not include pitching stories to the press, as far as I know. So I’d like to know how she took it upon herself to place stories about lawsuits and other harassments that the IBHE and its wild-eyed allies elsewhere in the state government were inflicting upon the American Conservatory of Music. Why were they marketing this story in the first place? The documents are there in the courts for any reporter to see when a hearing is underway. What was the reason for the multi-level marketing?

The harassment by bureaucrat ended abruptly just about 18 months ago, I discovered through FOIA, when the chairman of the conservatory, Richard Schultze, died as he was poised to go into court on a motion to overturn some nonsensical ruling instigated by IBHE’s allies.

I wrote recently that the bureaucrats at IBHE had blood on their hands and were natural born killers for causing the stress-related death of this man. I’m sure Schultze wasn’t perfect, but who is? But did he deserve to be regulated to death by these regulatory ruffians? Surely, no.

Well, it turns out that IBHE definitely did not like my reportage on their doings. Last week, IBHE’s public relations flack Don Sevener requested a delay in responding to my latest FOIA request.

I had simply requested all of the e-mail and memoranda that Marcia Langsjoen had written contemporaneous with the death of Mr. Shultze.

One wonders, and rightly so, what she thought when the elderly man died.

IBHE does not appear to want to let the world know what, in fact, Langsjoen said during that time.

To me, this raises the issue of a possible cover-up here. With most things political, the cover-up is sometimes worse than the crime. But maybe in this case, the conduct is worse than the cover-up.

It might gall the world to know the truth of what Marcia Langsjoen wrote about the death of a man she helped persecute for years.

Langsjoen, in fact, wrote to me by e-mail too, asking that I not write about certain aspects of the conservatory case.

Who is Marcia Langsjoen?

[CyberAnt]

"asking that I not write about certain aspects"

Where are the FREE SPEECH screamers ... ??

Is this guy a repub or something ..??

[visualops]

Marcia Langsjoen is not just "a state employee and staff counsel with the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE)". She is the Associate Director/Staff Counsel for Academic Affairs of IBHE. That puts her just below the Deputy Director and the Associate Director. As such, I'm sure she wields some power. She is also listed as the contact for Degree Granting Authority for the National Association of State Administrators and Supervisors of Private Schools (NASASPS).

[skinkinthegrass]

Perhaps, A Mindless goverment hack w/ an chip on her shoulder, who couldn't stand watching someone else earn a living.

[archy]

You familiar with the Fife/Lawless FmHA scandal downstate, in which an Illinois farmer defrauded by a county farm adviser uncovered fraud totalling tens of millions of dollars, some of which appears to have been funnelled into the political campaigns of several prominent political figures in the Midwest, particularly Illinois and Missouri? He too has been refused FOIA documents, by those in the Justice Departments of Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II.

Sounds to me like you may have run into something related. And his info goes back to the 1988 election, at least, I believe. I wonder if it touches upon Attorney General Ashcroft....

-archy-/-

[tdscpa]

"I would, as a journalist, like to know the answer to that question."

Perhaps it is time to change occupations.

I would, as a reader of journalism, prefer to read almost anything written by someone else.