To: All Faculty & All Academic Professionals & All Civil Service Staff
           <everybody@illinois.edu> 
    From: "Chancellor Richard Herman" <chancellor@illinois.edu>

Reply-To: chancellor@illinois.edu
 Subject: MASSMAIL - Admissions

Dear Campus Community:

Following a meeting late yesterday afternoon with members of the Senate 
Executive Committee, the provost, and other campus leaders, I am writing 
to inform you that we are initiating a multi-pronged approach to 
admissions reforms on the Urbana campus.

These efforts at Urbana respond to and complement the broader system-wide 
effort begun by President White last week, when he directed the Urbana, 
Chicago and Springfield campuses to develop by September 23 a framework 
that outlines how we will implement the recommendations made by the 
Illinois Admissions Review Commission (ARC) in its August 6 report.

Among our new measures on the Urbana campus are the following: 

- Interim Provost Robert Easter, Senate Executive Committee (SEC) 
Chair Joyce Tolliver, and I have appointed an Admissions Task Force and 
charged that group to produce proposals concerning how appeals, third-
party inquiries and related components of the admissions process will be 
handled at Illinois.  Members of the Task Force and our charge to them 
are identified below.*
- A web-based appeals process for admissions will go online this 
fall.  Planning for this began in the fall of 2008 and the fall 2009 
rollout will enable an electronic appeals process that is both easy and 
accessible to all individuals applying for academic year 2010-11.
- As the Task Force work unfolds, we will be seeking the advice of 
experts in higher education who have volunteered to add their larger 
input concerning the guidelines and practices we will consider, to set 
our outcomes in a national perspective.  Members of this distinguished 
panel, who are being appointed by Interim Provost Easter, SEC Chair 
Tolliver and me are:

o William B. DeLauder - President of Delaware State University, 
1987-2003; Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at North Carolina A&T 
State University, 1981-1987; Executive Director to the Commission on the 
Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program
o Shirley Strum Kenny - President of Stony Brook University, 1994-
2009 [Stony Brook is one of only two "flagship" institutions of the 64-
school State University of New York system]; chairman of the landmark 
Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University
o Richard D. Legon - President of the Association of Governing 
Boards of Universities and Colleges, 2006-  ; with the Association since 
1983 and previously served as its Executive Vice President
o M. Peter McPherson - President of the Association of Public and 
Land-grant Universities (acting as a private citizen); President of 
Michigan State University, 1993-2004 [Richard Herman is a Board member of 
APLU]
o Gary F. Smith - Director (Emeritus) of Admissions and Registrar 
of University of Missouri-Columbia, 1971-2000
o John D. Wiley - Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-
Madison, 2001-2008; Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at 
University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994-2000

Since May when significant media coverage began to focus on the "Category 
I" admissions practice at Illinois, we have stressed that we have an 
exceptional group of admissions officers on campus. The integrity and the 
validity of decisions made by this group have not been brought into 
question by the intensive review conducted by the ARC or by the extensive 
media coverage of "clout" in admissions. The decisions of our admissions 
team are guided by sound principles, they are produced through a 
scrupulously fair process, and they reflect the integrity of an excellent 
professional staff.

The Admissions Task Force is not asked to change the work of the 
admissions staff but to protect it and clarify it - to put, in the words 
of the ARC report, a "fire-wall" around it and insulate it from external 
pressures and undue influence from administrators.  Those factors have 
been removed.

Moving forward, I plan to take responsibility for ensuring admissions 
reforms here at the Urbana campus.  I will work with our great admissions 
staff to create a process that is a model for the nation.  This will be a 
seminal best practices approach that is equitable and transparent and 
befits the academic reputation of one of the finest universities in the 
world.  Illinois deserves no less.

Very truly yours,

Richard Herman
Chancellor
 
*Members of the Admissions Task Force
Abbas Aminmansour, Chair-Senate Educational Policy Committee
William E. Berry, Associate Chancellor
Roy Campbell, Chair-Senate Information Technology Committee
Stacey Kostell, Director of Admissions-Undergraduate Admissions
Tanya Gallagher, Dean-College of Applied Health Sciences
Christine Hurt, Chair-Senate Admissions Committee and Chair-Admissions 
Task Force
Keith Marshall, Associate Provost for Enrollment Management
Joyce Tolliver, Chair-Senate Executive Committee
Bradley Tran, Student Body President and Member-Senate Executive Committee
Ruth Watkins, Dean-College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Richard Wheeler, Vice Provost
Barbara Wilson, Vice Provost

Charge to the Admissions Task Force:
- Produce a statement making it clear that what has come to be 
known as the "Category I" admissions process has ceased to exist.

- Produce a statement that clearly describes our admissions 
criteria, and the decision-making process they inform, that will be 
publicly accessible on the admissions website.

- Identify the key components necessary to institute an admissions 
appeals process and report on progress toward the development of that 
process.

- Identify the components necessary to construct a University-wide 
Code of Conduct regarding admissions, a code by 
which "sponsors,"  "University leadership," and all other parties will be 
expected to abide.

- Establish a process for dealing with third-party inquiries. This 
process should cover three key areas: how to respond to third-party 
inquiries; how best to record third-party inquiries in a log that will be 
a public document; how to ensure that admissions decisions are not 
influenced by third-party inquiries. 

- Produce a statement that recognizes the importance of diversity 
in the admissions process and that helps ensure diversity among 
admissions officers.

- Recommend provisions for a one-year intensive review of actions 
taken as a result of the previous recommendations.

This mailing approved by:
The Office of the Chancellor

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