Sunday, June 28, 2009
The Chicago Tribune Series on Political Muscle and U of Illinois Admissions
The Chicago Tribune has run a series of articles (start here and follow the links) on the use of political clout to get sub-par students admitted to the University of Illinois (including the law school), but appears to have missed the actual story (they are journalists, after all): the University of Illinois is hostage to the public purse for a lot of its operations, so every request for 'special consideration' on admissions from a politician with influence on the purse strings comes with an implied threat: admit this student, or lose funding. One can be sure Chancellor Herman understands that. Attacking university officials over this scandal is like attacking the victim of a robbery for handing over his money. (Also odd is that they missed the sarcasm in former Dean Hurd's e-mails to the Chancellor: are journalists really this humorless?)
And, by the way, the same story is waiting to be written about admissions at every state university in the country.
https://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/2009/06/the-chicago-tribune-series-on-political-muscle-and-u-of-illinois-admissions.html