The News-Gazette.com: Local politicians made UI admissions inquiries too

Local politicians made UI admissions inquiries too

By Christine Des Garennes

Saturday, May 30, 2009 1:30 AM CDT

Local legislators are among those who have forwarded admission inquiries to the University of Illinois on behalf of their constituents, documents obtained by The News-Gazette show.

UI officials kept an "Admissions Casework Legislative Log" to track admissions questions from legislators about particular applicants, from House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton to area legislators, according to the documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Legislators and UI officials insist there's nothing inappropriate about the process, and that it's been the norm for years.

Rich Schoell, executive director of the University Office of Governmental Relations, said the school's lobbyists are the official liaisons between the UI and the state and federal governments. His office receives hundreds of inquiries a year from legislators or constituents via fax, phone calls or in person, he said. All of those are logged in some fashion – whether they deal with admissions, student housing, financial aid or other issues – and are forwarded to the campuses, he said.

Legislators sometimes want to check on the status of an applicant or why a certain student was denied; other questions are as simple as whom to talk to about a particular career option at the UI, Schoell said.

Area legislators whose names appeared on the UI's admissions casework logs dating back to 2004 included state Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, two inquiries; former Republican state Sen. Rick Winkel, seven; state Rep. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga, one; Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, two; and Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-Champaign, two. Congressman Tim Johnson, former Congressman Dennis Hastert and Sen. Dick Durbin were also listed as making inquiries going back to 2004. The legislative log for 2007 was unavailable.

Not all of the students the legislators inquired about gained acceptance into the university.

Students who are denied admission are often told about alternative options, such as applying to a college within the UI that has less stringent admissions requirements or attending a community college first to boost their grades, Schoell said.

Frerichs said Friday that he had forwarded two names to the university for consideration since taking office in early 2007.

"I had a couple of constituents tell me a story about their children, gave me their scores, gave me their grades," he said. "I said, 'Well, it sounds like someone who would qualify.' I asked the university to look at it."

One student was admitted and the other one was denied, he said.

"I don't think I ever exerted any pressure on the university to admit anyone," Frerichs said.

Frerichs said the UI's high standards mean that not everyone who is qualified will get in.

"Admission is a fairly subjective decision," he said. "I would think there's some students where their scores and grades are so far out of the norm that they clearly shouldn't be accepted. Every now and then, kids are wait-listed who have good test scores, good grades.

"There can't be any threats," he said. "But there are more qualified applicants to the UI than we have room for in our system."

Jakobsson said it was rare for her to forward the names of any applicants to university officials, recalling only two examples. In one case, she asked about the status of a student's application. In the second, she was working on a higher education bill in response to hearing about a local 14-year-old student who wanted to attend the university but was too young.

Overall, Jakobsson said, "The concern I'd have is admissions people should be admitting people on their merit, on their qualifications."