In light of the Chicago Tribune’s startling revelation that *GASP* Mike Madigan may have peformed service for taxpayers in Illinois, I am repeating a piece from the last Tribune witchunt at the University of Illinois.  Great minds thinking alike here

Trib Headliner Stop the presses.  Mike Madigan might be doing useful work!

John Kass falls into the Clout tarpit.  Is there anyone without Clout in Illinois?  Can I use my Clout to get my kids to go to bed on time?  What can’t be clouted JK?

Carol Felsenthal thinks Lisa Madigan may be involved in helping kids get an education.

Attention Chicago Tribune….More than 50% of the students get into the University of Illinois based on something other than a competitive basis.  Less than 1% were clouted.   Carol, John, you are two of the best journalists in Chicago..get a grip.

Bonus!

Abner Mikva gets in on the act.  Just what we need, another commission.

**

The Tribune has been obsessed for several months now over the admissions process at the University of Illinois, the flagship public university in the State of Illinois system.  As the Tribune had it, students using political clout were being provided with preferential admission to the competitive U of I system.  The Tribune editorial board demanded the University Trustees and President resign for participating in preferrential admission procedure.  Most of the Trustees resigned a few weeks ago.  Today, the Tribune got it’s wish: University of Illinois President Joseph White has resigned.

I added up over 100,000 words in the Tribune a few weeks ago devoted to this subject.  Which begs the question…is preferential admission really a problem? Most every private university has some non-quantitative method of admissions.  Letters from an alumni, recommendations from clergy, and yes recommendations from politicians are routinely used at colleges and universities all over the United States.  Gasp! West Point requires a political recommendation for admission.

Oh, and most public graduate and doctoral schools require some sort of recommendation letters for admission.  In many states, a letter from the Governor is considered a good thing, adding some credibility to an applicants status.

Given that the Tribune has not only refused to cover many simple cases of political corruption (Robert Creamer anyone?) in the State of Illinois, they have also participated in skulduggery aimed at Blair Hull, Jack Ryan, and anyone else who does not fit the Tribunes narrative, perhaps some discretion would have been advised in this case.    The State of Illinois has plenty of corruption to go around without making up a scandal where not much of one exists.

Take a look at some numbers.  Out of 120,000 student applications, 800 (.6%)  were set aside for additional consideration, CLOUTED, per the breathless newspaper.  Fifty percent of the clouted applicants were accepted, vs. 40% of all waitlisted applicants being eventually accepted.  An average of 12 students (out of 42,000, or .02%) per year over the last 5 years were accepted who would not otherwise gain admittance to the U of I.

Maybe the practice of recommending students for special consideration is flawed.  Many universities and almost all graduate programs would disagree.  On the other hand, maybe the public wants the University of Illinois to be managed by the Press rather than our elected officials and trustees, which given the state of our political class is a distinct possibility.

I’ll toss out the fact that President White introduced a distance learning program that was extremely unpopular with faculty and alumni.  It has been suspended.  As an alum, I thought the distance learning program was a ill-formed idea myself.  But as bad as it may have been, I certainly don’t think that University Governance should be fundamentally changed based on the ramblings of the Chicago Tribune.  The University of Illinois is in sound condition today, as it has been during President White’s tenure.  Ask yourself, do you really want the editorial board at the Tribune, the same editorial board that  turned a blind eye to ACORN for over 20 years now,  running one of the country’s premier research universities?

**
John Powers is the President of the Chicago Daily Observer.  He was admitted to the University of Illinois in 1981 via the competitive early admission process (but only because I did not know about Clout, as we subscribed to the Pantagraph and not the Tribune)