Illinois Chancellor Expresses Regret for Role in Admissions Scandal

In testimony before a state investigative panel today, the chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign accepted responsibility for a “shadow” admissions system that favored applicants with political connections and said “we have to fix it,” the Chicago Tribune reported.

The chancellor, Richard Herman, acknowledged that he had interceded on behalf of a law-school applicant backed by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and expressed regret for how he had handled the matter. “I should have stood in the door,” Mr. Herman said. “This was a bad moment for me personally.”

Mr. Herman is the highest ranking administrator yet to testify before the investigative panel, which was appointed last month by Illinois’s current governor, Patrick J. Quinn III, in response to a series of Tribune articles alleging that the university had admitted subpar applicants in response to pressure from politicians and donors.

Also today, the Tribune published an open letter from several Illinois faculty members criticizing its coverage of the issue. —Charles Huckabee