[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [ISO] Herman Resigns

[Jenifer Cartwright]

Because the U of I is a PUBLIC institution, NOT a PRIVATE one. Just as public schools can have AP classes, gifted programs, science, and music and arts HS, football teams, etc etc etc... Osensibly open to all, if they can make the grade (and yes, in some cases and places, there are points added to minority students' scores for reasons of fairness or diversity).
 --Jenifer

--- On Tue, 10/20/09, John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com> wrote:


From: John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: [ISO] Herman Resigns
To: "Chris Tuck" <christuck911 at gmail.com>
Cc: "Peace Discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 11:42 AM




On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Chris Tuck <christuck911 at gmail.com> wrote:


ahahaha, im so happy right now..


Just more hypocrisy to me.  ALL private colleges and universities give preferential treatment to applicants whose relatives attended the university or whose sponsors are big financial donors.  If a state institution can't do this, then why make it selective at all?  Why not just let everyone in who can pay the tuition?

John Wason


 


UI Chancellor Richard Herman resigns his position 




By Julie Wurth 
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 8:46 AM CDT 

E-mail Story Printer-friendly 
Comments 

URBANA – Richard Herman, University of Illinois chancellor since 2004, has 
resigned, The News-Gazette has learned. 

Herman's decision follows an admissions probe that also forced the 
resignations of most University of Illinois trustees and President B. Joseph 
White. 


Trustees are expected to meet later this week to consider the matter. The 
chancellor is expected to return to the faculty. 

Herman now earns about $400,000 a year as chancellor and was due to receive 
a retention bonus of $250,000 next July. 

Speculation about Herman's future has been rampant since White announced 
Sept. 23 he would step down at the end of December. Former UI President 
Stanley Ikenberry will serve as interim president until a permanent replacement 
is found, likely by next fall. 

Herman's departure means the UI will be searching for a new president, 
chancellor and provost, with a board of trustees composed mostly of new 
members. 


University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman has resigned, The News- 
Gazette has learned. He is expected to rejoin the university's faculty. By Darrell 
Hoemann 
An investigation this summer by the Illinois Admissions Review Commission, 
prompted by media reports of admissions abuses, found that scores of 
politically connected students over five years were admitted over more- 
qualified applicants under pressure from trustees, legislators and others. The 
university kept a "Category I" list to track undergraduate applicants with 
powerful backers. Testimony before the admissions commission showed 33 of 
the 160 students on the 2009 list had their initial rejections overturned and 
were admitted over more-qualified applicants. 

An ad hoc committee of the board of trustees has been reviewing top UI 
administrators and their role in the Category I system. 

Herman has publicly apologized several times for his part in Category I and 
vigorously defended his overall record as chancellor and provost. He has said 
he was trying to insulate academics from outside pressure when he personally 
handled admissions requests from trustees and legislators. 

Despite his appeals, the campus faculty-student senate voted 98-55 last 
month to call for White and Herman to step down in an "orderly transition." 

In an Aug. 31 speech to the senate, Herman said he had considered resigning 
because of the admissions scandal but decided his accomplishments 
outweighed "my failings this summer." He said he believed he didn't have the 
power to "end a system that was long in the making and was ingrained in our 
state's political culture." 

"I believed that the best I could do was shield others at the university from 
these behind-the-scenes maneuverings. I truly believed that I was serving the 
greater good of the university by doing something that, in retrospect, was 
sometimes not so good. I still believe that for all the hundreds of inquiries from 
well-connected people over many years, only a small percentage ended up 
being mishandled," he said. 

Dozens of prominent UI faculty wrote a letter of support for Herman, and some 
also criticized the senate's actions. Similar letters from UI alumni in Chicago 
and local business leaders praised Herman's fundraising abilities and his 
promotion of Champaign-Urbana as "an incubator of new ideas in technology, 
sustainability and the arts." 

But in another letter, eight employees who worked closely with former provosts 
and chancellors said their bosses did not admit applicants because of outside 
pressure or clout, contrary to Herman's assertions. 

Herman was grilled by the admissions commission about several admissions 
cases, including a 2006 e-mail exchange with former law Dean Heidi Hurd. 
They discussed the possibility of obtaining jobs for law school graduates in 
exchange for admitting less-than-desirable students pushed by Gov. Rod 
Blagojevich, through former UI Board of Trustees Chairman Lawrence Eppley. 
Hurd and Herman both testified that no jobs were awarded, and Hurd 
described the discussion as "facetious." 

Law school officials said the university had forced the College of Law to admit 
24 politically connected students over four years who wouldn't have been 
accepted otherwise. Hurd also requested from Herman, and received, about 
$350,000 in scholarships to recruit top students to the law school to offset the 
effect of accepting students with lower credentials. 

Herman, a widely published scientist and mathematician and native of New 
York, was hired as UI provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs in 1998. 
He came here after eight years as dean of the College of Computer, 
Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Maryland. 

He was named interim UI chancellor in July 2004 following the departure of 
former Chancellor Nancy Cantor, then was tapped for the permanent job in 
April 2005. 

As provost, Herman was a finalist for the university president's jobs at Iowa, 
Texas A&M and Florida in 2002-03. 

Herman has said he is proud of his record, listing his efforts to promote racial 
and gender diversity on campus, the hiring of 100 "faculty excellence 
professors," a doubling of private sector research money, the globalization of 
campus, and the Illinois Promise program, which guarantees that low-income 
students will graduate from the UI debt-free. He has cited specific projects 
such as the new Blue Waters petascale supercomputing facility, the Center for 
the Study of Democracy in a Multiracial Society, a $500 million biofuels and 
biosciences project with energy giant BP, and the Advanced Digital Sciences 
Center in Singapore, a partnership with the government of Singapore 


-- 
Chris Tuck
-Undergrad-UIUC
     Political Science, Philosophy, Physics.

-Carroll Fire Dept.
     Firefighter/EMT-B

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