Oh, yeah, that's right. I heard about the drastic lowering of standards and requirements.
Let's not forget that Chicago is almost certainly offering special help to 'at-risk' students (read "affirmative action"), too, which is reprehensible. While I was in school, black students were taught in separate classes by the same professors a second time (after our professors lectured to the entire section), so that they would know where to focus on the exams. I found out about this when a black student in my section told me he could not join my study group because he sheepishly admitted he 'had to go to class,' which he knew I didn't attend and was not allowed to attend, though we were in the same section and took all the same classes--but this special tutoring class, of course. Scholar-athletes (a laughable term) are often given the same consideration.
If there was no drop in standards and requirements, it would be largely because the academically underqualified are given extra consideration. However, there is VERIFIABLY a drop in standards and requirements, and this is shown in the inflation of grades nationwide and the high dropout/low graduation rate of the underqualified students accepted to highly rated colleges and universities. They simply are not ready for the silver platter handed them because liberals wanted them given a place at the table instead of making them earn it. And they leave as a result.