Posted on 06/25/2009 9:39:01 PM PDT by greatdefender
What does it cost to get an unqualified student into the University of Illinois law school?
Five jobs for graduating law students, suggest internal e-mails released Thursday.
The documents show for the first time efforts to seek favors -- in this case, jobs -- for admissions, the most troubling evidence yet of how Illinois' entrenched system of patronage crept into the state's most prestigious public university.
They also detail the law school's system for handling "Special Admits," students backed by the politically connected, expanding the scope of a scandal prompted by a Chicago Tribune investigation.
In one e-mail exchange, University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman forced the law school to admit an unqualified applicant backed by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich while seeking a promise from the governor's go-between that five law school graduates would get jobs. The applicant, a relative of deep-pocketed Blagojevich campaign donor Kerry Peck, appears to have been pushed by Trustee Lawrence Eppley, who often carried the governor's admissions requests.
When Law School Dean Heidi Hurd balked on accepting the applicant in April 2006, Herman replied that the request came "Straight from the G. My apologies. Larry has promised to work on jobs (5). What counts?"
Hurd replied: "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."
Hurd's e-mail suggests that students getting the jobs are to be those in the "bottom of the class." Law school rankings depend in part on the job placement rate of graduates.
It wasn't immediately clear if the private sector or government jobs were provided.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
And we are supposed to believe Obama got into Harvard because he was a smart, articulate young man? You know something nefarious like this got him admitted there.
Law, Chicago-style:
First, argue the facts. If that doesn’t work, argue the law. If that doesn’t work, buy the judge. What could be easier?/s
>> If he is at least making the grade, maybe it won’t be a totally lost cause.
It’s not a “cause”, lost or otherwise.
It is C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N. Plain and simple.
It should not be tolerated. Ever. Not even for the “right reasons”.
Corruption is corrosive to human character, and to the organizations we build from that precious substance.
Ironically, standardized tests were designed to prevent discrimination in admissions. If the affirmative action quota advocates were to get their way, schools could discriminate against minorities if the “whole student” concept is applied in a subjective manner.
I don’t think it’s a problem if schools take the occasional inferior applicant because this will mean big donations to the school/career benefits for students (e.g., if a trustee promises $1 million to get his kid in), since it’s probably in the school’s and student body’s interests to do this. The problem if when an official uses the power of his office to provide that incentive.
In a few years there shall be a new crop of Chicagoland candidates that will have to seal their school records.
He was President of the Law Review. That doesn’t mean he was the top student there, but they don’t give that position away to someone who wasn’t at least a good student. He was also magna cum laude, which means he graduated in the top 10% of his class.
Please explain how a drug-addled nobody from Hawaii got admitted to Harvard without a patron. There are no records of any of his school careers prior to Harvard or any records of who sponsored him to get into Harvard.
And what president of the Law Review doesn’t publish a single thing during his tenure? He was an affirmative action beneficiary, nothing more.
Lots of people with decent grades and a good LSAT get admitted to HLS without patrons all the time. No one’s saying he’s a great legal scholar (clearly he’s not), but it’s not that hard to get into HLS.
ping
Apparently Blago’s sale of a US Senate seat was just the tip of the iceberg. Unbelievable.
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