|
|
|
October 7, 2009
By Laurel Bollinger
Public Affairs Reporter
While the story of the University of Illinois admissions clout scandal broke over the summer, the wake of the controversy continues to spread, even to UIS.
Following the discovery of flawed admissions practices at UIS's sister school, UIUC, University officials told the UIS and UIC to examine their own admissions policies.
Last week UIS released their Admissions Reform Recommendations. There are seven brief recommendations ranging from increasing diversity among admissions officers to creating more transparency in the admission process.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Tim Barnett said the reason for the report was in direct correlation to the issues at the UIUC campus.
Admissions Counselor Raymond Barnett said he really appreciated the committee’s interest in clarifying to the community where UIS stands on the admissions process.
The report acknowledges the now famous Category I, which allowed UIUC admissions to monitor inquiries about student applicants made by outside parties like board of trustee members or politicians.
The recommendation states, “UIS has not in the past and does not now use a special tracking system to identify applicants about whom third party inquiries have been made.” The recommendation report proposes to eliminate Category I.
It also recommends creating a process for handling third party inquiries. Admissions Counselor Barnett said he thinks this will help back him up on those occasions when he does get requests from third parties.
“There is always that small population who will approach me with questions and comments that seem to imply 'let’s make a deal' for their student or students," he said. "With this report, I have something to refer to when I explain what our admissions standards are and are not.”
The report recommends that the Vice Chancellor should inform all outside parties that the admissions staff follow the policies in place to admit students.
Vice Chancellor Barnett said that there were benefits that came out of this report that help provide consistency among all the different departments.
“For the first time we gathered all admissions requirements for every graduate program and undergraduate program into one document,” he said.
Other recommendations include addressing the visibility of an appeals system in certain circumstances for students who have been denied admission.
“We have an appeals process and that was not published and so we needed to do that and get that online and in a written document,” Vice Chancellor Barnett said.
There is also a recommendation to prepare an intense review at the end of one year where the University will review the transparency of the different departmental processes for admissions and work towards consistency of terminology.
“We also need to make sure departments use the same language in terms of talking about admissions processes for students,” said Vice Chancellor Barnett.
Departments must also complete an evaluation of admissions practices by this December and May 2010 is the deadline for submission of revised catalog copy.
Vice Chancellor Barnett said that all recommendations made in the report are important and that he is very proud of UIS’s admissions process.
“I think the most important thing (for students) to know is that UIS has a very good policy and practice in terms of admissions. And that our admission process is one of integrity,” he said.
