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THE DAILY ILLINI
THURSDAY April 25, 2019
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The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 148 Issue 59
Champaign to see road closures for marathon BY SAM BOYLE NEWS EDITOR
This Saturday, the Illinois Marathon will affect several roads along the race route, closing streets around campus as early as 6 a.m. Pulsing traffic will be let across the roads when possible. The roads will reopen again at different times depending on the peak running times. However, the last roads are expected to be cleared by 2:15 p.m. Listed below are the roads that will be closed: Start of Race on St. Mary’s Road • First Street from St. Mary’s Road to Green Street • Green Street from First Street to Race Street Green Street from Lincoln Avenue to Race Street • Race Street from Green Street to Main Street • Main Street from Race Street to Cottage Grove Avenue • Cottage Grove Avenue and Philo Road from Main Street to Washington Street • Washington Street from Philo Road to Kinch Street • Kinch Street from Washington Street to Florida Avenue • Florida Avenue from Kinch Street to Smith Road and Stone Creek Boulevard • Stone Creek Boulevard from Smith Road to Amber Lane • Amber Lane from Stone Creek Boulevard to Philo Road • McHenry Street from Philo Road to Vine Street • Vine Street from McHenry Street to Windsor Road • Windsor Road from Philo Road to Race Street • Race Street from Windsor Road to Pennsylvania Avenue • Pennsylvania Avenue from Race Street to Sixth Street • Sixth Street from Pennsylvania Avenue to Gregory Drive • Gregory Drive from Sixth Street to Euclid Street • Euclid Street from Gregory Drive to Peabody Drive • Peabody Drive to end of race at Memorial Stadium
RYAN CHOW THE DAILY ILLINI
The University admissions firewall policy was created in response to the Category I scandal in which donors or legislators contacted the University and asked to aid in an applicant’s admission. The firewall aims to block outside interference with admittance decisions.
Admissions firewall pursues transparency BY JULIE KANG ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
The University’s admissions firewall policy aims to provide transparency, which has been brought an issue to light due to recent college admissions scandals. A decade ago, an investigation at the University revealed “high-level administrators were providing special treatment for relatives of legislators, trustees and other influential individuals,” according to an op-ed published this month by Andy Borst, director of Undergraduate Admissions, and Kevin Pitts, vice provost for Undergraduate Education. In other words, if a donor or legislator contacted the University and asked the school to help an applicant in the admissions process, the applicant’s name was put on a special list called Category I, Pitts said. The main response to this Category I scandal was the creation of the firewall. “We thought, ‘OK, how
can we make sure nothing like this happens again?’” Pitts said. “The best thing we can do is to just keep all that information away from the review process.” The firewall blocks outside interference with admittance decisions, meaning nobody is allowed inside the firewall except admissions officers and application reviewers; presidents, donors, lawmakers and provosts must stay behind the wall. “Any attempts to cross that line are logged and reviewed by the University’s ethics office,” the op-ed writes. “The log itself is a public record.” Borst said in a followup email the University makes admissions decisions through independent reviews and not committee reviews. In an independent review process, an admissions staff member assesses an application based on the criteria of each academic program. A newer staff member typically does the first independent review, then a more
senior-level staff member does the second review, independent of the first. Staff are required to justify their decision to either admit, refer to another major, defer, waitlist or deny the applicant with qualitative notes. If the two decisions differ, a third independent review is done. The process continues until two decisions match. The process also includes cross-checking. This helps the admissions staff look for anomalies and any other information that can explain differences in decisions. Borst said this year, the office added greater detail to the program explorer so students could see the academic profiles of students in the middle 50%, the range between the 25th and 75th percentiles. In addition, Pitts said the recent scandal has led the school to think more about potential holes in the admissions process. “(Although) we feel like our system is pretty good,
we’ve been really trying to think things through,” Pitts said. The March 29 firewall report, issued by Borst, was presented to the Senate Admissions Committee on April 7. The report describes nine attempts by nonadmissions personnel to intervene with admissions denials since last year. One account in the report, dated Dec. 18, states an applicant called the office wanting to know why he was denied admittance. An anonymous source identified the applicant as Korean. Upon explanation, he was told an appeal would not be successful and was suggested to apply as a transfer student. The applicant later said he hoped to be accepted based on his academic credentials. The report writes he said he did not want to make this offer but asked, “Can I donate to the University instead?” The offer was rejected, and he dropped the subject. He and the staff member con-
tinued to discuss his transfer process. The applicant was denied admission. “We don’t get to know who makes donations and who doesn’t,” Borst said. “So if someone asks if they can make a donation to the University, we can put you in touch with our foundation staff; that information is kept separate.” The University of Illinois Foundation functions to secure and administer private gifts to the three schools in Urbana, Chicago and Springfield. Sue Johnson, director of marketing and communications at UIF, said in an email in fiscal year 2018, the foundation received $498.5 million in grants, pledges, gifts and deferred gift commitments. Donors can be alumni, corporations, foundations, friends and other designations. They designate where the gifts go, whether it is to SEE ADMISSIONS | 3A
UI System plans to add more tenure positions BY EUNICE ALPASAN STAFF WRITER
University of Illinois System President Timothy Killeen introduced a five-year plan to hire more tenure faculty positions in response to increasing student enrollment across the system. The five-year plan would accommodate 168 more tenure faculty positions at the UI campus with consideration to the amount of positions needed to replace faculty retirements and turnovers. Killeen announced the plan on March 14 during a Board of Trustees meeting. Tenure-line faculty positions include assistant professors, associate professors and professors. The additional tenure faculty positions would be a 9% increase in overall faculty at the University. Since fall 2014, student enrollment across the University System grew about 9.5%, increasing by about 7,500 students. Total tenure faculty growth lagged behind, increasing by 2.1%, or 68 professors, Killeen said during the meeting. Killeen attributed this delayed faculty growth to a two-year state budget impasse that took away hundreds of millions of dollars from the University’s day-to-day operations. “In the end, our universities rise on the quality of
BRIAN NGUYEN THE DAILY ILLINI
our students and faculty,” Killeen said. “As we grow one group, we must nurture and grow the other.” The additional funds to support new salaries and cover start-up costs would be millions of dollars across the three campuses every year. These funding needs would be met by expanding on all revenue sources, including fundraising and state appropriations.
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Bill Bernhard, vice provost for Academic Affairs, was unable to comment directly on Killeen’s fiveyear plan but rather more broadly about the University’s faculty hiring plans. “We have identified the net growth of our faculty as a critical and pressing need over the next five years,” Bernhard said in an email. “The actual numbers and the timing of hires we might
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make will be determined by many factors, including regular attrition (retirements, etc.), funding availability and the needs and priorities identified by our academic colleges and departments.” Killeen said most of the new faculty positions would target graduate and professional programs, which have fueled the bulk of the University’s recent enrollment growth.
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While enrollment in professional programs has remained steady, student enrollment in graduate programs has risen over 30% since 2013 compared to 3% in the undergraduate programs. Business and Engineering, in particular, have seen a significant increase in graduate students. These programs have seen an additional 2,000 graduate graduate students in Business and 1,000 graduate students in Engineering since 2013. Nearly all growth in the Gies College of Business’ graduate program has been in its recently, introduced online masters programs. Students from around the world have enrolled in the programs. “We had to make big investments in technology, in studios for recording live streaming classes, videographers, instructional designers and other specialized staff,” said Dean of Business Jeffrey Brown. “Even online teaching puts demands on faculty time. Part of the reason we’ve been growing our faculty is to expand our capabilities to deliver on-campus and online programs.” While the online graduate programs do not require as many faculty resources compared to on-campus
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Number of undocumented immigrants with college degrees Immigrants make up 14.2% of Illinoisʼ population
Source: American Immigration C
News: A new bill would allow more financial aid PAGE 3A
Sports: The Illinois men’s club volleyball team placed second
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