[ottbmare]

more than 800 undergraduate applicants received special consideration from 2005 to 2009 because "they had powerful patrons, including elected officials, trustees and donors."

Huh? I thought all you had to do to get into the U of I was to finish high school or have a GED in hand. If these kids had to petition official, trustees, and donors, they were wasting their time or they must have been real problem children.

[STARWISE]

""A review of Ayers' curriculum vitae shows a rapid path through the educational system after he came out of hiding in 1979 for his involvement in bombings of U.S. government buildings with the domestic terrorist group Weatherman.

Charges were dropped after the Carter Justice Department charged the two FBI agents with illegal surveillance. Enrolling at the nation's premier training academy for progressive teachers, Columbia University's Teachers College, Ayers soon earned both an M.Ed. and Ed.D. in Curriculum and Teaching (1987).

"A Freedom of Information request for his tenure review process produced only blank forms with a cover letter stating that such information cannot be released 'unless the disclosure is consented to in writing by the individual.'

But were the standards for hiring and promotion relaxed a bit for the son of a prominent Chicago businessman who headed Commonwealth Edison and sat on the board of the Chicago Tribune?"