The University of Illinois board of trustees has begun an emergency meeting, believed to involve the scandal over political influence on admissions to the UI. It was scheduled to start at 11 a.m. in Chicago but began at 11:20. As soon as the meeting was called to order, trustees voted to go into secret session.
The meeting may involve disclosure of previously unreleased documents regarding influence over admissions of unqualified students to the UI’s law school.
There are lots of rumors flying around.
So who goes under the bus first - the President - or the Chancellor - or both?
The fallout continues
White is gone.
Yeah sure, they're going to call a special closed meeting -- at which no action cane be taken -- to fire the president who can turn on every one of them in a minute when they cut him loose. Clear thinking, Einstein.
Well 221 anon since you seem to be so smart, what is the topic.
Wait a minute, is this the whole board, or just the "executive committee"? Just yesterday, it was mentioned that the board was not able to call everyone in time to vote for a tuition increase, so the executive committee approved it instead. Now all of a sudden everyone is available?
I highly doubt either the Chancellor or President White will be fired. I think they're just going to be called on the carpet and scolded.
I hear it's about Jeff Jordan and how to keep him on the team.
No, wait, I hear it's about changing the name of Mathews Street to Dave Mathews Street.
No, that's not the latest, it's about moving the baseball team to inside the Assembly Hall for indoor games.
Darn, which rumor could it be?
Is it Obama? Is it Palin? Is it W? Oh my oh my, what can it be?
I love rumors, don't you?
"No, wait, I hear it's about changing the name of Mathews Street to Dave Mathews Street."
Suh-weet!
Now that Patti Blagojevich is done with her reality show, maybe they want to hire her.
Maybe they are going to authorize a "tent community" on the quad.
Herman was quoted as saying he doesn't know what the meeting is about. Doesn't that seem odd; the number two man at the University not knowing why the Board of Trustees is holding an emergency closed door meeting? If he really doesn't know, that speaks volumes about the regard with which he is being held by the Board. More likely, he was lying; he does know.
The "scoop" is in this morning's Tribune and it ain't pretty!
CLOUT GOES TO COLLEGE
U. of I. jobs-for-entry scheme
E-mails reveal law school put a price on admission of unqualified candidate
By Jodi S. Cohen, Tara Malone and Robert Becker | Tribune reporters
June 26, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ui-trustees-26-jun26,0,3541380.story
My least favorite Tribune columnist, aptly named Jack Kass writes this morning:
"If there were any doubts that Illinois is the diseased poster child of political corruption, those doubts are long gone.
"Friday's story in the Tribune exposes a widening pattern of corruption at the University of Illinois. This time, with the trading of law school admission for patronage-style jobs.
"So any doubts about where this state stands should be erased. What remains is the smell."
3 Score + 10
Keith Hays
More from the story:
This is not yet the end of the story (except maybe for our home-town newspaper who would rather fill its scarce news columns with information about what some softball pitcher in Gifford's favorite food is.) Who were the five law school graduates who got the jobs? How werer they selected? What jobs did they get? Whose relatives are they? Is this why Heidi Hurd left the lawschool deanship? Does anyone still think White and Herman are going to survive this mess?
It is time to sack White, Herman and the entire board of trustees. Oh, and Fire Ron Guenther too!
From what I can put together, David Dorris's son got wait-listed down by UI Law. Dorris declined to intervene, and his son ended up at the University of Chicago law school, which is higher-ranked than UI. A Google search yielded some well-written legal blog entries by a Daniel Dorris there and also indicated that he'd won a fellowship there for at least one year. Meanwhile, the released UI documents talk about having to take clouted applicants who "can't think" and may not even be able to pass the bar. I'm guessing that U of Chicago's law school will stay comfortably ahead of UI's for the foreseeable future.
This is the perfect example why the News Gazette is worthless. The NG should have contacts on campus, the ability to get information ahead of or deeper than any other news organization. The NG, PIMG actually, makes a lot of money from the University and won't ever report a negative without great pressure. Total lack of indepedence.
In a way, not trying to get the truth to the public is as corrupt as what the politicians have done.
The U of I says, in effect, "If you keep quiet about the dirt we'll extend your contract with us and give you more access to the athletic department". That is as corrupt as it gets.
You're absolutely right, Anonymous at 8:14. When my N-G subscription comes up for renewal, I think I'll save the $175, or whatever it is now, and just ask the U. of I. public relations department to send me their press releases directly. I can always buy a Tribune if I'm interested in local news.
I know right now the university isn't releasing names under the federal laws governing student privacy, but I think the public has a right to know which students had that kind of political pull, and who the politicians supported for admission when the students weren't qualified.
The public does not have a right to know which students benifitied from clout, the public has a right to know the profiles of the students so long as it doesn't identify the student. I believe many students that benifited from clout did not know of the backroom deals that got them into the U of I. We have FERPA for a reason, lets respect that. On the other hand students should be able to find out if they benifited from clout and have the oppertunity to release their names to the public.
Go Whitesox!!!
Anonymous 8:14 says: "This is the perfect example why the News Gazette is worthless. The NG should have contacts on campus, the ability to get information ahead of or deeper than any other news organization."
ABSOLUTELY. In the current media climate, I fully expect to get my national and international news from national-level papers (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, etc). I won't complain too loudly about lack of national coverage in the N-G (though I might wish they'd at least run the long version of the AP stories). But the LOCAL STORIES?? That is where a local paper should shine, and they should shine precisely by maintaining those local contacts, putting in the face time to build up relationships.
Furthemore, the "local contacts" should NOT by any means only be the people at the TOP of all the various local organizations. People down in the trenches who are willing to report negatively on what management is doing are essential.
Wayne Williams says: "I believe many students that benifited from clout did not know of the backroom deals that got them into the U of I. We have FERPA for a reason, lets respect that."
I also agree with this. It might come out anyway as the clout-requesters are shown, but there's no need to specifically single out the students. Just profile them.
I understand that issue of privacy, but surely the students themselves know that they were admitted through improper use of clout. What does it say about a law student who got in through unethical behavior? The College of Law has a code of conduct that this probably violates.
Yes, the "special admit" students need notification and talking to (or whatever sanctions levied), I just wonder if the entire state needs to know their names.
I can easily imagine a scenario where an applicant knows that a relative has written a recommendation letter to the trustees or Herman or whomever on his behalf, but did NOT know that the relative went so far as to get him on a super secret list, or worse yet, offer an outright bribe. I can even imagine a scenario where the applicant is actually appalled upon finding out - "I asked you to put in a good word, I didn't ask you to bribe them, and now you're saying I didn't get in on my own merits??? How dare you, I could have gone elsewhere" etc.
If he has to go, I don't see the harm in letting him slip by as just another student who withdraws for personal reasons.
To Akibare @ 2:49P and Wayne Williams @ 11:33 A--it is very difficult for me to fathom the scenarios played out in that these students did not know somewhere along the admission process pressure was brought to bare, whether covertly or overtly, to get them admitted. These people knew they did not have the credentials or had minimum credentials for admissions. All one has to do is read what is posted on the university web site about admission credentials. And I am not certain that protecting their privacy is in the long-run best interest of them as "good public citizens" in the future. All this does is reinforce a behavior of how things get done. Have we not had extensive discussion on this blog about the recent behaviors of several public figures. When and how did these individuals get to a point of thinking what they do/did is beyond question?
Pattsi Petrie
Pattsi
Admission to the undergraduate school is not solely test score and gpa driven. Other facters are taken into account such as the school and performance on the two personal essays. I beleive this is to get a complete picture of the student. For example the avergae student that gets admitted from New Trier may have a different academic profile than a student admitted from a poorer rural school, or from a poor inner city school. School profile matters. I remember when long ago I started at the University, everyone asked everyone else what their gpa and test scores were. There were wildly different answers. No one really knows why the admissions decisions are made, with the execption of the few clouted students. Also, when I applied the median academic profiles were published and easy for everyone to see, however the median number only means have the students had higher numbers the other have had lower numbers. It is not easily known by the student if they got in because of clout. Also pattsi you usually have links, can you provide one with the u of i incoming student academic profiles? I heard and ugly RUMOR that the u of i tries to hid this information so underqualified stuents will apply so the school can reject them. A low acceptance rate makes the school look more selective and improves rankings. Again this is a rumor treat it a such.
Go Whitesox!!!
I just think that if the actual crime was done by the relative requesting the clout, then it's possible (far too easy for me to imagine, as Wayne hints at too) to have applicants honestly NOT knowing just how much pressure their uncle or Dad's state law firm golfing buddies brought to bear, as plenty of perfectly honest normal people do have relatives write in basic "my nephew is a really great guy" letters. There's grey areas. Heck, some kids maybe don't even ask, they just let it be known that they're applying to the U of I and the relative thinks for himself, ah, well, let's see what I can do for my sister's kid, eh? Or his parents take the initiative to start it. (I'm thinking more of the undergraduate admissions here, I suppose.)
If someone has been admitted in error, to the point that without the clout he would not have made it in, or he was mentioned in the horse-trading emails, I don't have a problem with letting him GO. My only small kindness to the student is to not put the name all over the place. Let him withdraw and go on to some other life without the taint of "wait, aren't you that dumb corrupt kid from the paper?" hanging over his head. If he can't get in ANYWHERE on his own, so be it, but there are other universities and law schools out there, as well as other careers.
Of course it's possible that if the parents are the ones involved and their names get out, the kid will lose privacy anyway. If so, so be it.
But in the case of further removed relatives (uncles) or parental friends, it might not be so obvious.
To Wayne Williams @ 3:15 P--indeed, you are correct that there is more criteria than GPA and test scores. In addition, this changes depending on the college and sometimes departments within colleges along with adjustments depending on the number of applicants. Today's college applicant is smart enough via a school counselor to find out all of the criteria information for the specific institutions to which the individal will be applying. In addition, conversations with people in the various colleges to which a person is considering will yield further information so one can create an educated guess as to admission probability. Now I am assuming an individual is willing to work toward admission. Then there are those, we are learning, who prefer other methods. I have no information about what you term, "an ugly rumor."
Pattsi Petrie
If someone has been admitted in error, to the point that without the clout he would not have made it in, or he was mentioned in the horse-trading emails, I don't have a problem with letting him GO. My only small kindness to the student is to not put the name all over the place. Let him withdraw and go on to some other life without the taint of "wait, aren't you that dumb corrupt kid from the paper?" hanging over his head. If he can't get in ANYWHERE on his own, so be it, but there are other universities and law schools out there, as well as other careers.
I'm not sure about that. Yeah, it sucks that they got in and someone more qualified didn't, but I don't think that expelling them because someone pulled strings for them before they were admitted would be justified. However, I did hear that a fair number of the students who wouldn't have made it in on their own ended up flunking out anyhow, so the problem may have rectified itself in those cases.
The following is printed in the Peoples Vanguard of Davis, CA newspaper on 3 July about Linda Katehi's potential involvement in all of this. Much of the article comes from a Chicago Tribune article. http://www.davisvanguard.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2883:new-chicago-tribune-report-appears-to-directly-links-katehi-to-scandal&catid=64:students&Itemid=118
Pattsi Petrie