A state panel investigating the role of clout in getting unqualified students into the University of Illinois is expected to release its findings Thursday, including a recommendation that Gov. Pat Quinn ask for the resignations of all U of I trustees.
A state panel investigating the role of clout in getting unqualified students into the University of Illinois is expected to release its findings Thursday, including a recommendation that Gov. Pat Quinn ask for the resignations of all U of I trustees. The Illinois Admissions Review Commission voted last week to recommend that all nine voting trustees resign following revelations that the university maintained a list of politically connected applicants and admitted some over better-qualified candidates. Two trustees, board chairman Niranjan Shah and Lawrence Eppley, have quit. Quinn hasn’t commented on what he will do. Eppley, the board’s former chairman, resigned in late July. University records show he wrote e-mails to university President B. Joseph White noting former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s interest in candidates, including a relative of convicted influence peddler Tony Rezko. Board Chairman Niranjan Shah, a Chicago-area businessman, resigned Monday. E-mails released by the university include lists of applicants Shah sent to Chancellor Richard Herman, asking for help in reaching "a favorable outcome for these individuals." Documents also show Shah successfully pressed Herman to create a six-figure university job for his future son-in-law. Quinn formed the commission in May after the Chicago Tribune published stories about the clout list. The commission also will recommend that admissions be handled in a manner similar to that at the university’s College of Medicine, where 25 people review applications and forbids recommendation letters from anyone who does not know the applicant’s academic merits. The commission’s report also will recommend a code of conduct for trustees, suggest procedures for appointing trustees and ask the university to consider efforts to improve diversity. Many of the thousands of pages of e-mails and other documents released by the university involve communication with Herman, chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus. They include exchanges with former law school dean Heidi Hurd about admitting underqualified, well-connected applicants in exchange for scholarship money, and a plan to admit a poorly qualified applicant backed by Eppley in exchange for jobs for law school graduates. Herman told the commission he felt pressure by trustees to give special consideration to applicants. White told commission members that he plans to kill the list of politically connected applicants the university has maintained at least the past few years. ______ Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
About Post Author
