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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Law - "Illinois Law Dean Announces New Admission Policy in Wake of Scandal"

Updating this ILB entry from June 28th, Lynne Marek reports in The National Law Journal:

University of Illinois College of Law Dean Bruce Smith, in an effort to counter a scandal that indicated that some applicants to the college were admitted with the help of influential people, said on Thursday that no applicant will get special treatment under a new policy.

In a letter to staff, faculty, students and alumni, Smith said the new policy will also require the college to respond only to inquiries on the status of an application if the inquiry is made by the applicant. In addition, the school will now accept only formal letters of recommendation that are made to the admissions office and placed in the applicant's file.

"Under my deanship, the college will give no 'special' consideration, treatment, or procedure to any application," Smith said in the letter. "All applicants will be treated equally."

In addition to the existence of the so-called clout list on which the special applicants were named, at least one of the school's trustees, Frances Carroll, testified at an Illinois Admissions Review Commission hearing last week that she would sometimes make inquiries about the status of particular applications directly to the school's top officials.

The letter follows a series of Chicago Tribune stories that revealed that the university kept a list of applicants, including those to the college of law, who were backed by influential state officials, university officials or large donors. Applicants on the list were given special consideration and in some cases admitted to the university despite subpar qualifications. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn last month set up the special admissions review commission to investigate the matter and has called on various officials to testify.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 12, 2009 07:12 PM
Posted to General Law Related