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.