UI officials testify before Mikva Commission
CHICAGO -- University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman says the university should get rid of the special admissions category that has prompted a state investigation.
And he said he overruled a "very small" number of admission cases because of " additional information."
Herman testified Monday before the commission investigating admissions and influence at the UI.
Herman said he was troubled by the "Category I" admission requests which received special attention, and seeks reform.
He said the system has existed in some form for decades. He received about 40 requests a year, he said, most from UI trustees. He said he had "no idea" how much UI President B. Joseph White knew about the cases.
The requests included students from Chicago public schools, he said.
Many of the e-mails the UI has released after records requests are from or to Herman. He told the commission he tries to insulate the UI's colleges from the requests.
Of the admissions requirements for test scores and grade-point averages, Herman said, "God help us if that's all we rely on."
Commission chair Abner Mikva asked Herman why he didn't direct all calls to the provost's office, since the admissions office reports to the vice provost.
Herman said then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich applied pressure over admissions. He also said trustee Lawrence Eppley told him "we need to get this done" after a complaint over admissions.
"You should take them out to dinner and buy them a cigar," but not help them gain admission to the UI, said Mikva.
Asked about dealing with Blagojevich, Herman said, "absolutely not." He confirmed that an e-mail reference of "straight from the G" referred to Blagojevich.
He said he had a "directive" from Eppley to admit a law school candidate "at the low end of the spectrum," and did so.
"My message was, 'What does the law school get for this?'" He said he doesn't recall whether he or Eppley brought up the notion of five jobs, noted prominently in a series of e-mails involving Herman, Eppley and then-Law Dean Heidi Hurd.
Hurd's e-mail, in which she discussed the jobs for the lowest-ranking students, was "facetious," Herman said, though he added the language in the note was "regrettable."
Mikva noted that Eppley could have jobs in his law firm and said that idea was "too important to joke about."
Herman said, "This is me grasping for a straw here," referring to the five jobs for law graduates.
The admission to law school was made "simply on the basis of the directive" from Eppley, he said. "I chose to ask (Eppley) to help the law school."
Herman was asked if he was "dead serious" about securing five jobs.
"Did I feel Larry had to provide some sort of compensatory action? Yes," said Herman.
"This doesn't sound like joking," Mikva said to Herman.
He said he doesn't believe any jobs were ever granted.
"I honestly thought Dean Hurd was joking," he said. "This was my way of tweaking Larry Eppley to do something for the law school. But I didn't seriously believe there were jobs."
Paul Pless, assistant dean of law school admissions, told the panel later Monday that over four years, the university forced the College of Law to admit 24 politically connected students who wouldn't have been accepted otherwise. During that time, about 900 students were admitted overall.
Pless said the number of forced admissions gradually tapered off after peaking in 2006, and that there haven't been any this year.
Pless, who has worked for the university since 2003, said he always opposed clout admissions but didn't feel he should make a formal complaint.
"I thought of this as distasteful and wrong. I never thought of it as illegal," he said.
Pless said after the hearing that he also didn't know where to turn.
"At the time that this was going on, who could I go to?" he said. "Gov. Blagojevich?"
The situation has caught the eye of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who already is prosecuting the ousted Democrat for political corruption and has subpoenaed the University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University and Northern Illinois University for any correspondence about students from Blagojevich and four former associates.
As the only school that complied with Fitzgerald's request by Thursday's deadline, Southern Illinois revealed Friday that it only found Blagojevich submitted recommendation letters in 2005 on behalf of two applicants to the Carbondale campus law school. Neither applicant was admitted, the university said without identifying the prospective students.
UI spokesman Tom Hardy has said his school still was looking through documents. Northern Illinois says it has been given until Aug. 15 to comply.
Monday's meeting is the third held by the commission, appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn after revelations about pressure over admissions at the UI.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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