Documents show negotiations, influence on UI admissions

URBANA – Newly released documents show University of Illinois administrators negotiating with powerful figures seeking to influence admission to the Urbana campus.

The 123 pages of e-mail messages were released Thursday after a four-hour board of trustees meeting was held behind closed doors. They were in response to Freedom of Information requests from The News-Gazette and the Chicago Tribune. Radio station WDWS also received the documents.

The new documents expressly show President B. Joseph White acting on behalf of a candidate. In a undated e-mail, White writes Engineering Dean Ilesanmi Adesida and Chancellor Richard Herman on behalf of an engineering applicant.

"If he is an admit, no problem, please proceed. If he is a denial or wait-listed, please let me know so we can discuss the case," White wrote.

UI spokesman Tom Hardy said White was unavailable for comment.

Another series of e-mails in April 2006 involved Herman, then-law school Dean Heidi Hurd and Trustee Lawrence Eppley in a discussion of finding five jobs in the legal field, to satisfy a request "straight from the G.," Herman writes.

Herman said Thursday he could not speak about that issue.

"In the future, I expect to be talking to the Mikva Commission, and I believe I owe them my first public statement," the chancellor said.

The Mikva Commission was created earlier this month by Gov. Patrick Quinn to look into possible political interference in admissions. It next meets Monday in Chicago. Former federal Judge Abner Mikva is the chair.

"To investigate concerns about improper admissions procedures at the University of Illinois, Governor Pat Quinn on June 10 signed an Executive Order creating the Admissions Review Commission, an independent advisory panel. Governor Quinn looks forward to that panel's report. Upon reviewing its findings, the governor will take appropriate action," the governor's office said in a Thursday e-mail.

Hardy said the new 123 pages were found in the course of preparing documents for that commission.

"The university's cooperation with the commission is being managed by the University Counsel's office. The additional documents came to the University's attention in the course of efforts to provide information requested by the commission. The documents were identified on June 23, 2009. The university informed the commission of the additional documents on June 24 and is providing them to the commission today," Hardy said in a written statement.

Hardy said later that his office has sent out 5,000 pages of documents and in the process of "collecting documents and conducting interviews, they were discovered and promptly produced. Inevitably, you find materials after a deadline."

No one has been fired as a result of the probe, Trustee David Dorris of LeRoy said.

The emergency trustees meeting was announced 3 1/2 hours before it began on the University of Illinois-Chicago campus.

The closed session was approved by a voice vote.

Dorris said he was appalled by reading the new documents, which were separate from a trove of papers released earlier to The News-Gazette, Chicago Tribune and radio station WDWS after Freedom of Information requests.

The exchanges show a mordant wit from put-upon administrators. In April 2006, Herman writes former law Dean Hurd asking "what kind of job counts" to fulfill the five sought "Straight from the G.," adding "my apologies."

Hurd answers:

"Only very high-paying jobs in law firms that are absolutely indifferent to whether the five have passed their law school classes or the Bar. Sheeshk. It's enough to make one want to be a Republican."

In a March 2007 discussion between Herman and Hurd, Hurd writes asking the chancellor for "help to hold the line on the folks below."

"What is the fallout from rejecting all?" Herman asks.

"What we don't have below is the backers of the students in questions so we can assess the fallout," Hurd responds.

In May 2006, Hurd asks Herman:

"Have you done all you want/need to do on this at your end? Any more phone calls to make to influential people just to make sure they feel the love? Or can we go on with our usual admissions process?"

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