Former UI law school assistant dean charged with stealing from Chicago agency

Authorities say a former assistant business dean at the University of Illinois College of Law had been charged with stealing $20,000 from a Chicago city agency.

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez says 38-year-old Ming Liu of Urbana, also known as Ming Liu Bengtsson, was indicted for theft, official misconduct and forgery.

Liu is accused of stealing $20,000 intended to promote tourism while working as a project administrator with the city of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs from 1997 through June 2006.

The Chicago Tribune dutifully reports…

Ex-dean calls herself ‘victim’ of admissions scandal
After testimony on University of Illinois abuses, Heidi Hurd left message praising chancellor she had criticized
By Stacy St. Clair

University of Illinois law school dean has made a final effort to distance herself from an admissions scandal, writing a lengthy letter to the state panel charged with investigating the practices.

Heidi Hurd — who testified before the Illinois Admission Review Commission nearly a month ago — sent a 15-page letter late last week in which she describes herself as a “victim” of the school’s clout lists, not a “perpetrator,” and details her efforts to push back against them.

She also supports her earlier assertions that Chancellor Richard Herman and public officials abused their power when they forced her to admit subpar students.

Commissioners will weigh the letter against a voice mail message Hurd left on Herman’s home phone shortly after she testified. University attorneys turned over the message to the commission, officials said.

According to a transcript, Hurd refers to Herman as a “knight in shining armor” and says she remains his “most ardent admirer.”

“I just know someday … when we are kicking around in heaven, we will be able to drink and laugh about this the whole time,” she says. “But to the extent that I have played a role in a scenario that should not have unfolded for you, I am beyond, beyond belief sorry.”

Read more at The News-Gazette…

Ex-UI law dean says she ‘pushed back’ against influence
By Julie Wurth

A former law dean at the University of Illinois said she inherited a “well-greased, well-oiled” system for admitting students with political clout when she became dean in 2002, and did her best to “push back.”

But members of a state panel who questioned Heidi Hurd on Wednesday appeared skeptical, asking why she didn’t do more to change the system for admitting “special interest” applicants pushed by trustees on behalf of powerful politicians, including ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

“The former governor of this state, the chair of your board of trustees, the chancellor of your university forced you to admit a student into the law school that you otherwise would not have accepted. You paint a picture of an abuse of power. Is that correct?” asked commissioner Zaldwaynaka Scott.

“I certainly thought so,” Hurd acknowledged.
…

Earlier testimony from Paul Pless, assistant law dean for admissions, indicated that, over four years, the university forced the College of Law to admit 24 politically connected students who wouldn’t have been accepted otherwise. During that time, about 900 students were admitted overall.

Hurd opened her testimony Wednesday with a prepared statement saying that during her tenure, the College of Law “never took a student who was not qualified to study law or to enter the profession.”
…

Hurd said when she arrived at the law school, decisions on “special interest” admissions at various UI colleges were made by three administrators at the campus level – then-Provost Richard Herman, Associate Provost Steve Schomberg and Richard Schoell, executive director of the Office of Governmental Relations.

The following year, according to her testimony, Hurd got more involved, to protect the law school’s efforts to boost its academic profile.

“I elbowed my way into the process,” she said. Based on the 2002 admissions, she said, “It was clear I was going to have to push back at every turn.”

During her first year, she said, half the students on the clout-influenced law school list were admitted; in her last year as dean, 2006-07, none were, she said.

Rod Blagojevich urged SIU to let 2 into law school
Neither 2005 applicant was admitted, university says

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich sent two letters of recommendation on behalf of applicants to Southern Illinois University’s law school, the university said Friday after a search of its admissions records in response to a federal subpoena.

The university, based in Carbondale, said it discovered the 2005 letters but found that neither applicant was admitted to the law school.

A review of applications from 2002 to 2008 to its other schools found no other examples of Blagojevich trying to use political clout to influence the university’s admissions process, the university announced.

SIU was one among three state universities — including Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois — that were subpoenaed by federal prosecutors seeking evidence that Blagojevich and his power brokers gave applicants an unfair edge.

Frankly, I’m not surprised that this type of stuff happens. I’m not alarmed that it happens, either, since that would necessitate a pretense that these types of antics are particularly uncommon. Most alarming to me is that the people involved were foolish enough to leave a trail of emails that make the whole plan clear and unambiguous.

I expect a higher quality of shenanigans from those trusted with educated the next generation of legal eagles.

Read the whole story at The Chicago Tribune.

U. of I. jobs-for-entry scheme
E-mails reveal law school put a price on admission of unqualified candidate

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.