Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Political Privilege & U. of Illinois Admissions:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_06_28-2009_07_04.shtml#1246217747
The Chicago Tribune [1]reports on a brewing scandal at the University
of Illinois law school. Government officials pressured U. of I.
administrators to admit politically connected but unqualified
applicants. Paul Caron rounds up more coverage [2]here.
As [3]Brian Leiter notes, many of those attacking U. of I. officials
are missing the bigger picture.
the University of Illinois is hostage to the public purse for a lot
of its operations, so every request for 'special consideration' on
admissions from a politician with influence on the purse strings
comes with an implied threat: admit this student, or lose funding.
One can be sure Chancellor Herman understands that. [4]Attacking
university officials over this scandal is like attacking the victim
of a robbery for handing over his money.
Leiter concludes: "the same story is waiting to be written about
admissions at every state university in the country." I would like to
think that public universities in some states are more insulated from
political pressure -- Illinois is Blago country, after all -- but that
may be a bit naive.
References
1.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ui-trustees-26-jun26,0,3541380.story
2.
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2009/06/illinois-admitted-unqualified.html
3.
http://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/2009/06/the-chicago-tribune-series-on-political-muscle-and-u-of-illinois-admissions.html
4.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-clout.edit.sun.0628jun28,0,7498870.story
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