The University of Illinois College of Law admissions scandal just keeps getting worse. ATL has the latest damning emails, including one in which former Dean Heidi Hurd apparently traded off admitting unqualified but politically connected applicants in exchange for job placements for Illinois graduates who "can't pass the bar and can't think." The emails also make clear the Illinois was simultaneously gaming its admissions to maximize its US News ranking.
I did a couple of stints on UIUC law's admissions committee back when I was on that faculty. I saw a lot of race-based affirmative action admits with GPAs and LSATs well below the 25th percentile. As for politically connected unqualified applicants, however, the folks in charge back then routinely rejected them.
Apropos of Dean Hurd's comment that the process is "enough to make one want to be a Republican," I should perhaps point out the Governors during my stints on the admissions committee were in fact Republicans. This scandal took place on the Democrats' watch.
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