University Of Illinois Faculty Slam Chicago Tribune For Biased Reporting In Clout College Stories

Nearly a month after the Chicago Tribune exposed the influence of political clout in the admissions process at the University of Illinois, a group of the school's law professors are biting back.

In a 9-page "Open Letter to the Chicago Tribune" published Tuesday, the 16 professors accuse the Tribune of biased reporting and sensational editorial judgment in its "Clout Goes To College" series and the prominent placement it has received on the newspaper's front page and web site.

"We have read with ever increasing dismay the "State of Corruption: Clout goes to college" series of stories that have dominated both the front and the editorial pages of the Chicago Tribune since May 29, 2009," the letter begins. "Not dismay at the University of Illinois or its administrators; rather, dismay at the way that the Chicago Tribune has told the story. As long time academics who care deeply about the integrity of the Academy, we are disappointed in the Tribune's performance here. Consider three questions about that performance: (1) was there really a story here worthy of the kind of front page attention and editorializing focus lavished on this issue this past month? (2) Even if there was, has the Tribune told the story in a fair and unbiased way? (3) Since we conclude both that there was not much of a story here and that it was reported in a biased and slanted manner, this gives rise to the motivational question: what has apparently motivated the Tribune to go after this distinguished University and its equally distinguished administrators?"

The Tribune's reporting led Gov. Pat Quinn to establish a commission to investigate the role of political influence in state university admissions. Just yesterday, the U. of I.'s chancellor, Richard Herman, testified that he felt unable to resist the demands from trustees on behalf of connected applicants and that it was in the best interest of the school to scrap the "clout list," known as Category I.

U. of I. suspended the use of the Category I list following the Tribune's original investigation in May and school President Joseph White has promised to cooperate with the state panel.

But as university administrators face the state probe, the faculty behind the open letter condemn the Tribune for elevating a common, if tawdry, fact of university admissions to high scandal.

"We have between us taught at many different universities in the United States," the professors wrote. "The story the Tribune has 'discovered' about the University of Illinois could be written about every one of them. This fact is not one to be celebrated, nor is the fact that 'everyone does this' given as an excuse. But this fact does call into question whether the story merits the amount of attention given it by the Tribune, to say nothing of the shocked tone of the Tribune's editorials and columns."

Read the entire letter here. Read the entire Tribune series, "Clout goes to college," here.

Comments

[MikeTieByUofI]

It is a case of getting a dose of their own medicine by God. They play games with you. I complained to a professor and he simply lied about an exam he had given me (We don't get to see exams more than once). The dean tells me professors can write whatever they want on exams and I should stop complaining before I get labeled a troublemaker. So by the same note newspapers can cover whatever they want in their papers and U of I should stop complaining before they get labeled troublemakers. That's what they taught me.

[Dr Manhattan]

Hmm... the professors are complaining. I wonder if the same corrupt system that push these lousy students thru admissions was further helped by the U. of I. professors pushing them thru curriculum with grades they didn't deserve? They are probably as dirty as the admissions officials and are afraid of being found out.

[Cogs]

Univerisity officials played ball with these characters for only one reason. They expected something in return. The real story will be when we learn of what they wanted and what they got.

[uncleentropy]

I read the "open letter" and it is full of muddled reasoning, insufficient substantiation and narcissism.

I am no fan of the Trib, but the slant of the articles is clearly toward highlighting the corruption of elected officials and their staffs. Yes, it was wrong for the university to cave to the pressure, but the journalistic point was that the pressure should not have been applied. This is not about you, profs, or the university except to the extent that it capitulated to political influence!

The suggestion that this is "no big deal" is offensive to me. I teach at a community college that serves low-income minority students in the Chicago area. I want my gifted and motivated students to get EVERY PLACE AND EVERY DIME of scholarship money for a four-year college that is due to them. This is an appalling breach of the public trust....please remain quiet until you get that, good doctors?

[shthar]

I see a lot of outrage over 'priveliged' admissions.

But I don't see anyone coming up with how the colleges can protect themselves from 'privileged' parents who are mad at the college.

One guy in the state legislature can really mess with a school's funding.

[blackdemocrat]

George W. Bush (and many others) are/were unqualified to get in the schools they attended. This practice should not be confused with affirmative action.

[ManwithaParachute]

Don't people ave to read a newspaper for something like to matter? The Chicago Tribune has become the Meet the Press of newspapers. A week ago from Sunday, my family and I were visiting family and they had on NBC when Meet the Press came on. My wife commented on how they canceled that show since Russert died. I told they did, only NBC does not know it yet.

[ffakr]

I used to work at the Chicago campus, which is structurally a branch of the larger Illinois University System of which Urbana is (in some ways) the hub.

The bureaucracy was pretty bad. I lost at least 4-6 months of time toward my pension because it took them nearly half a year to process my paperwork to transition from a Student to Staff member.
Way back in the day, I had my application lost.. which was common at the time thought that's supposedly much better now.
My personal favorite was when I nearly flunked my application exam after calling and raising hell about why it was taking me months to get my paperwork processed. The exam covered complex issues like alphabetizing and matching room numbers on a map to a list of employee names (as in, JSmith needs something dropped of in his office. Where is his office? (and you're provided with a floor plan with names on it).

There are a lot of problems in the Illinois University system. Perhaps the Tribune should stop by UIC Chancellor Manning's church to ask where their computers came from (7-8 years ago). I should note, Manning resigned last year.. she isn't the current Chancellor.

[madHenry]

I work at UIC now. Talk about top heavy bureaucracy! My office employess fewer than 100 people, but fully 1/4 of those employed are "Directors," "Deputy Directors," or "Assistant Directors." I got a glimpse at the budget, including salaries, last year, and each of these "leaders" makes over $100,000 annually. A few have joint appointments and make nearly $150,000 annually. Budget crisis? In Illinois? Nah!!!

[knightoftheroundtable]

Position and money come from who you know, not what you know. Want the big pay job? Then it is time to prostitute yourself and forget about ethics. Nice people rarely get the top jobs. Prostitution pays, look at the politicians.

[sue805]

My daughter was not accepted at U of I although she was in the top 10% of her class, 32 ACT score, Illinois Scholar (means you are in the top 10% of students in Illinois), AP classes through last two years of HS, etc. That she was turned down as a resident of Illinois, whose parents pay to support this school is wrong. That other, unqualified students were admitted over her and that these teachers at the school think that the Tribune was too hard on the school is equally wrong. These professors who wrote this open letter are Law School professors, teaching our up and coming students how the game is played. The moral and ethical implications are astounding. You wonder why our justice system is broken? That the law professors at our top state college find that the investigation was too hash for people who held this kind of power in their hands is astounding.

[sue805]

Zero tollerence for the use of power to further one's own agenda should never be taken lightly. It is a slippery slope we are going down. Let's allow these less than moral people to teach our students the less than moral and ethical values and standards we all hold dear, is that okay with everyone??!!? Let's not forget that many of these students that were admitted, although they were less qualified, also recieved scholarships at additional costs to the taxpayers. Oh, and the great part? U of I got jobs promised to them (for admitting these less than qualified students) for the lowest performing students in the law school. That's right! The ones that were not expected to pass the Bar Exam were going to be given jobs with the government because "They're good enough for governemnt work". More taxpayer money to be wasted, and in addition, probably future leaders writting laws you and I will have to abide by. Great going Chicago Tribune!!!! You were not harsh enough!!

[dusteallen]

Do you know for certain that less qualified kids were accepted over your daughter specifically? What program was she trying to get into? There is a huge difference in the programs at the U of I and the admission requirements. I'm really confused on why so much attention is being put on the U of I alone on this. This happens every single day across the country. Haven't you heard that, it doesn't matter what you know, but who you know? People preach that all the time and that's exactly what this is about.

If you really think the U of I is the only school in the country (private or not) that has a "clout" list then you're seriously in major denial. It happens at every school, every work place, etc etc...

Is it wrong? That's for you to decide, but to pick on one institution and try to diminish their reputation over it, really is wrong on all accounts.

[LolaB]

So how does your child ace the ACT and only rank in the top 10% of her class? Something isn't adding up here. How was her SAT score? Where are her extra curricular activities? These academic credentials are nice, but most schools want a well-rounded too, not just a smart one.

They want them to be involved in more than just their studies. Unless you just didn't post that type of information, I would have passed her up too for a more involved student with slightly lesser grades.

[larryjackshon]

I doubt this is true

[sue805]

Doubt what is true? That a student that had these qualifications and many extra curricular activities was passed over for a slot at Uof I in the liberal arts program? It is fully true and not just my daughter, but many others here in Illinois who have equal qualifications, but were passed over by our "wonderful" state school. Just because you do not have the personal knowledge of something doesn't make it untrue. In the Midwest, we take the ACT, the SAT is more an Eastern School requirement. She was in top 10% of her class, that means she could be top 5%, top 3%, top 1%... Just because it happens somewhere else does not make it right. Murder happens too, does that make it okay? We, as a people have really set out ethics low lately haven't we? Is it really okay with all of you that this takes place? I used my daughter's experience because it is fact and wanted people to understand and learn. She has moved on and doing very well at a much better school than U of I, but the facts are the facts and I thought people should know those facts to fight wrongs by powerful people.

[jalowe1957]

There is another issue that needs to be explored, and that happens to be the so-called "loophole" admissions, which is a de facto form of affirmative action for disadvantaged applicants who show promise and potential.

There is potential for abuse for this type of process, as political clout could be abused in this manner.

[BushBites]

The Tribune's a Wingnut rag.

[jsgaetano]

The far right's war on Illinois continues.

[crookedcountyillinois]

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but since when was UIUC hard to get into? Especially for undergraduate programs? I grew-up downstate, and almost everyone I knew got accepted there. It's not exactly a big achievement to get into a nominally-rated public school.

[BringthePaine]

Most of the attention has been focused on the College of Law, which has only about 500 students and is ranked in the top 25 in the country. I believe about 10% of those who apply are admitted. Your point has some validity regarding the undergraduate admissions.

[Endora]

I wasn't aware of it until this issue came to light, but apparently the U of I tries to balance admissions geographically. They limit the number of students from highly competitive suburban Chicago schools, so that more people from downstate will be admitted. It is still lopsided in that the majority still come from Chicago/suburban Chicago, but if they admitted strictly based on qualifications then fewer downstate people would be admitted. Many downstate schools simply do not have the resources to compete with suburban schools. Often there are not enough students in smaller downstate schools to have advanced classes or offer anything beyond the basics. The geographic weighting of admissions limits the number of qualified suburban students being admitted, and makes it easier for downstate students.

[poomplet]

They are, however, correct in stating that these kind of clout admissions for unqualified candidates happens at EVERY major university!

Just wait....you'll see a slew of copycat investigations across the country.

GOOD!!

[ekoorb]

It happens for pre-school. Seriously.

[poomplet]

Pre-schools are almost universally private institutions.

Just like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc....they can & do admit who they want for whatever reasons they want (legacies).

The outrage here...and soon to be wide ranging...has to do with the fact this is a public university that gets tax dollars.

[Patrick Brown]

Like these lawyers, I haven't understood what makes this such a big deal. Maybe it's wrong, but Ivy League schools let kids in on legacy all the time (remember George W. Bush, Yale and Harvard alum?). UIUC hasn't done anything that other schools don't do--and we're a school of 30,000 undergraduates. It's not like Yale, where letting a mediocre kid in on his/her legacy denies a rare, coveted spot to a hard-working student. We have room to let politicians' sons and daughters in--not that, in a strictly moral sense, it's right to do so, but come on, Trib, we're not the worst offenders here.

[poomplet]

Tell that to the family where the kid w/an ACT of 32 got rejected.

Unlike Yale & the other Ivies, U of I is a PUBLIC institution, which is subsidized with TAX DOLLARS.

Ergo, I'M PI$$ED OFF!!

[Endora]

Your assertion that the U of I has room to let in clout applicants without denying spots to other more deserving students is not true. The U of I admissions officers repeatedly expressed concern that admitting clout applicants would "raise eyebrows" at various high schools where more qualified applicants were rejected or waitlisted. This is why they repeatedly discussed the importance of timing. They would delay the acceptance of the clout students until the end of May to minimize suspicion. Imagine being the guidance counselor at a competitive high school and knowing that 20+ of the best and brightest students were not accepted while another student with poorer grades and test scores but connections was admitted. Nobody is beating down the door to get into English, but Business, Law or Engineering is another story. If people want their child to get a similar quality education, they are then forced to pay out of state rates or enroll in a private university. That will cost them thousands of dollars more in tuition and fees. There are consequences.

[tominmadison]

Listening to these U of I insiders defend Richard Herman is like listening to Nixon Aides Defend Watergate. Amazing hubris. Tin Ears.

Explain your excuses and "situational ethics" to a deserving kid who didn't get in because he wasn't slimy enough to play the influence game. That's a great life lesson. Tell the tax paying parents all about your excusing this clear abuse of power. BTW: Where can I get a TONY-U T-shirt?