OSKEE-KOWTOW. The Chicago
Tribune releases more information about Rezko U's
clout admissions.
University officials faced criticism from all corners Friday: Rejected students and their parents questioned whether less-qualified applicants won their spots. Faculty and student leaders said they planned to question administrators. And the spokesman for a national admissions group criticized the university for allowing such a practice to occur.
It's unknown how many of the Category I students would have qualified for admission on their own, but their acceptance rate is higher than the average for admitted students even though the group had lower average ACT scores and class ranks.
That was disturbing news for Stevenson High School parent Howard Teplinsky, whose daughter was denied admission to the U. of I. this year. She plans to enroll at Illinois State University in the fall.
"When it's so competitive to get into the university and there are so many qualified students who are disappointed, maybe their credentials just don't stack up to the person sitting next to them," Teplinsky said. "But to add another perhaps unfair level to the consideration process just is appalling. It's not fair."
The problem, as the
Tribune's
editorial notes, is that the clout list is one of several thumbs on the scale.
Admissions officers legally can choose applicants on the basis of grades, athletic skills or certain other variables. But have officials defrauded tens of thousands of applicants by hiding from them a shadow enrollment system that secretly penalizes those without clout?
The Diversity Boondoggle gets its special admits, and the athletic program, which has been a candy store for a long time, gets its. Something in the Tribune's concluding paragraph reminds me of Spencer Tracy's concluding remarks in
Judgement at Nuremberg: the evil began when you first jailed an innocent man.
And if [Illinois president B. Joseph] White is correct that this sort of thing happens at other public universities, we hope someone will ask tough questions at those schools, too. Students who apply for admission at the U. of I. or elsewhere don’t deserve entrenched and systematic mistreatment from officials they trust to be fair.
That everybody else is
following the same orders doesn't change that.
University officials contended that it's not uncommon for selective universities nationwide to receive admissions requests from donors, alumni, friends and others. And although some influence peddling may occur, Barmak Nassirian, spokesman for a national admissions group, said it compromises the integrity of the process.
"The more subjective the admissions process becomes ... the more critical it is that there is credibility with the public," said Nassirian, of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. "Because if the public believes it is a rigged game ... then the whole enterprise might be at risk."
I intend to keep this story in front of people for a while, as it offers an opportunity to question all the other riggings of the admissions game, no matter how dressed up they might be as inclusion or holistic evaluation or rewarding strivers. Too often, it's admitting unprepared students and calling it access. Look closely at the first sentence. Such behavior, on the part of a sports fan approaching a coach, is contrary to the sports cartel's recruiting rules.
The
reaction of elected officials is instructive.
While the practice is common among legislators, they don't all do it.
"It's completely inappropriate," said state Rep. Robert Pritchard (R-Hinckley), a member of the House Higher Education Committee, who said he refuses to push applicants. "You're being unfair to people who apply expecting an equitable system. It's clearly something that needs to be ended."
Northern Illinois University is one of the larger employers in Representative Pritchard's district. He's certainly in a position to be able to engage in favor trading, and I commend his principled stance.
[Senator Chris] Lauzen (R-Aurora) contends his recommendation of the U. of I. applicant reflected his commitment to good constituent service. The state senator said the candidate, who opted not to attend U. of I. and has graduated from another law school, was highly qualified and deserved admission.
He said the only upsetting parts about Dean Hurd's exchange with the chancellor are her tone in the e-mail and that she said she would remember the favor.
"If it were me, I'd fire her, maybe for insolence," Lauzen said. "If she doesn't believe the person is qualified, she should say no. Instead, she asks for a quid pro quo. Where are her ethics?"
Senator Lauzen is thin-skinned for a politician, and he's been no friend of the state universities. But then, neither has the Democratic establishment. Perhaps somebody in Urbana had intentions of winning over a hostile politician. Appeasing bullies simply induces more bullying.
John Kass's
column, which also deals with the Oskee-kowtow, conflates the clout list with the legislative scholarships.
If the Tribune's series on political clout influencing University of Illinois admissions hasn't made you angry enough, try this one:
Kurt Berger is a corrupt former Chicago Buildings Department supervisor now in federal prison for taking bribes. A couple of years ago, he had a problem. It wasn't just the FBI.
In 2007, Berger's son was a student at a state school, as Berger was facing time in the federal pen. The feds shut down his bribe operation, and he needed some extra cash for the tuition.
But he didn't have enough. So he gladly accepted the gift of your cash. That's right, yours. And who helped him to your cash?
Why, none other than state Sen. James DeLeo (D-How You Doin?), the eminent philanthropist.
Under a little publicized program called the Illinois General Assembly Scholarships, DeLeo provided a year's free tuition for the son of the bribe-taker at Northern Illinois University.
The program is available to all Illinois legislators. Each lawmaker receives the equivalent of two four-year scholarships (actually tuition waivers) for state schools every year. Legislators may parcel these out in any way they wish.
That's also true of
congressional nominations to the service academies. The difference is that a
legislator's recommendation becomes a tuition waiver. Not all nominees to the service academies make muster. (There's something cute in that tuition waiver part: that rules out fees, which at Northern Illinois include a deferred maintenance fee, an athletics fee, and a Convocation Center mortgage fee. Thus the scholarship recipient is on the hook for the legislature's failure to pass a capital bill, as well as for the state government's incomplete attempt, about fifteen years ago, to defund intercollegiate athletics.) Mr Kass notes that the legislative scholarship program is different from the clout list, although it, too, can be tainted.
The Tribune investigative series "Clout Goes to College" -- by reporters Jodi Cohen, Tara Malone and Stacy St. Clair -- has been detailing a different aspect of political influence in higher education. Politicians, lobbyists and university trustees frequently use clout to win admission to the U. of I. for students who wouldn't otherwise qualify.
But what of high school seniors with top grades and exceptional ACT scores who aren't accepted at U. of I. because somebody's somebody who doesn't belong got their spot? DeLeo and his obedient sidekick, state Rep. Angelo "Skip" Saviano (R-Jimmy), are big players in the admissions game. Sunday's "Clout Goes to College" installment shows that in the last five years alone, the two have backed at least 50 students who ended up on the admissions clout list.
That list is called "Category I."
But the one I'm writing about today -- the money part -- also needs a cool name. How about we call it the "We Don't Want Nobody Nobody Sent Scholarship Fund?"
I figure that, for some clout kids, the two lists intersect.
His column suggests it is sometimes the case that the lists intersect. It is not always the case. I have had occasion to write at least one reference letter for an applicant for such a scholarship who had a solid academic record.