The University of Illinois has cited a conflict of interest in deciding to cancel a partnership between its police-training program and a leading military contractor, Blackwater U.S.A., that has a business relationship with the program’s director, according to the Chicago Tribune. The newspaper quoted from e-mail messages in which the director, Tom Dempsey, told his subordinates to hide his Blackwater work while he negotiated the partnership. Mr. Dempsey, who has denied the existence of a conflict of interest and said he received official permission for his outside work, is currently on leave in Afghanistan, on a Blackwater training mission. No money changed hands in the partnership, which enabled the university and Blackwater to exchange students and instructors. —Andrew Mytelka