The reason?
It seems that the chairman of the U of I Board of Trustees is one Christopher Kennedy. His father was a certain Robert F. Kennedy. The same Robert F. Kennedy who, on June 5 1968, was cut down by a bullet fired by Sirhan Sirhan. The same Sirhan Sirhan who, in 1974, William Ayers partially dedicated his book Prairie Fires to.
From Christopher Kennedy's statement:
"[I cannot in good conscience] confer the title to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father."
Paybacks a bitch, ain't it?
EDIT:
This gives me a good excuse to post this:
