“…WE'RE ORANGE AND BLUE, ILLINOIS, WE'LL BACK YOU SO STAND 'GAINST THE BEST IN THE LAND…”

8/9/09

I have already addressed the U of I admissions “scandal” in my already seminal 6/8/09 post “WE ARE LOYAL TO YOU, ILLINOIS…,” but, since the Chicago, and much of the national, press can’t let go of this “issue, I feel compelled to expand (largely repeat, really) my arguments.

My compulsion to revisit this issue was fed by an article in this morning’s (i.e., Sunday, 8/9/09’s) Chicago Tribune that featured, as a figurative sidebar, comments from students on the Champaign-Urbana campus. The comment of young Mr. Mike Donahue, an aeronautical engineering major from Palos Park ((sort of) south side Irish and a U of I student; how can the kid possibly be wrong?), and an obvious braino, and not only because of his especially challenging major at the nation’s premier engineering school (Take that, MIT!), especially caught my eye:

“The state senators and politicians who were involved should be held to the same standard (as trustees and administrators). You can’t blame the people who don’t have clout for giving in to the people who did. The blame needs to be spread around a little more.”

While the musings of all three students were cogent, the observations of young Mr. Donahue especially added to the already immense pile of evidence that the U of I remains capable of developing students who display both keen insight and wisdom far beyond their modest years.

The lessons of the U of I admissions “scandal” are many:

--Our level of shock that clout has infiltrated the admissions process in the flagship school in the most corrupt state in the union should be approximately the same as Captain Louis Renault’s level of shock that gambling was taking place at Rick’s Café American.

--The notion that the “clout admission” of 800 undergraduate students and “dozens more at the graduate level” somehow dilutes the talent pool, or even significantly impairs the admission chances of “non-clouted” applicants at the 41,000 plus student Champaign-Urbana campus is ludicrous. I say this fully aware that, if you or your child were one of 800 who would have been admitted to that academic equivalent of Valhalla had it not been for some politico’s kid getting the under the table nod, the sense of anger is real and justified, but, statistically, the numbers involved are minuscule.

--The administrators at the U of I, including President Joseph White and Urbana campus Chancellor Richard Herman, should not resign or be fired over this incident. If they lose their jobs in some sort of catharsis seeking witch hunt, those calling for their heads ought to be ashamed of this blatant case of scapegoating. On this note, one should also point out that former law school dean Heidi Hurd’s comments on trading admission to a clout laden applicant for the hiring of students from the dregs of the class rank lists were just as she said they were, i.e., a display of sarcasm and irony laden, and highly developed and sophisticated, wit, not an accession to the outrageous demands of a friend of Governor Blagojevich. Those of us who went to the U of I could pick that up immediately.

--The trustees probably should go and, thankfully, some have gone. While not knowing much of the backgrounds of this current crop of U of I trustees, these sorts of “trustee” posts generally go to an assortment of political lackeys, hangers-on, toadies, and/or heavy campaign contributors as rewards for years of loyal coat holding and/or funds dispensing. The holders of these sinecures generally aren’t expected, and certainly don’t expect, to do much, much like holders of board seats at Fortune 500 companies. In this case, they did one of the few things they thought they had to do: convey the wishes of the guys who got them their posts. They should have known better but, in most cases, were probably not capable of knowing better due to the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” mentality surrounding politics in this state and, in some cases, the low bar involved in acquisition of such plum jobs. If these trustees are let go, I am sure their political sponsors, or sponsees, will find them some other platform for self-aggrandizement that doesn’t involve the nation’s premier public university. (Okay, “one of the nation’s premier public universities.”)

--To Mr. Donahue’s point, if anyone should go as a result of these shenanigans at the U of I, it should be the pols who put the pressure on the trustees who put the pressure on the administrators to admit the whopping 800 clouted students. The Mikva commission dismisses this obvious point by stating that the elected officials who got their friends’ and bankrollers’ kids admitted will have to face the voters. This sounds like a case of former Congressman Mikva protecting his own and those who continue to butter his bread. The voters are too busy watching such nonsense as “John and Kate Had Eight” or “America’s Got Rhythm” to pay the least bit of attention to anything remotely resembling real news. If they vote (And I hope those who consider “Entertainment Tonight” their daily dose of news stay far, far away from the polls on election day.), many, if not most, citizens will make their selections based on whose name sounds best or whose sign they saw most recently before making the trip to the polling place. They won’t remember this scandal; in most cases, they won’t remember the names of their legislators, the governor, their Congresspersons, their Senators, the President, etc., etc. Relying on the voters to address the meretricious machinations of our public servants, especially in the Land of Lincoln, is a quaint notion more appropriate to a time when people considered their responsibilities as citizens more important than the latest developments in the pathetic worlds of vacuum brained celebrities and the equally mentally indolent who follow such things.