Cliff Kincaid
President, America’s Survival, Inc.

www.usasurvival.org
www.stopglobaltaxes.org

443-964-8208    Kincaid@comcast.net

August 1, 2009

Governor Pat Quinn
Office of the Governor
James R. Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph, 16-100
Chicago, IL 60601

Dear Governor Quinn:

Congratulations on trying to get to the bottom of the admissions scandal at the University of Illinois. We are following the investigation by the Illinois Admissions Review Commission with great interest. However, it’s not just student admissions which should be scrutinized. There is no reason to believe that students were the only beneficiaries of what the Chicago Tribune has called a “secret” or “shadow” admissions system.

The paper has reported that:

“A Tribune investigation found that more than 800 undergraduate applicants received special consideration from 2005 to 2009 because they had powerful patrons, including elected officials, trustees and donors. Dozens more law and graduate school applicants also got preferential treatment.”

A commissioner investigating the scandal reports that “It was a completely independent system that operated without regard to academic record or academic potential, but just based on who you know.”

However, before this commission completes its work and issues its recommendations, we urge you to ask the state panel to examine the circumstances behind the hiring of Bill Ayers at the University of Illinois.

In this context, Professor Mary Grabar has completed an analysis of the work and history of Professor Bill Ayers. She reports:

“A review of Ayers’ curriculum vitae shows a rapid path through the educational system after he come 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?  Tenure requires proof of scholarship and publication in one’s field, and the only book that Ayers had to show was a loosely constructed story of six anonymous preschool teachers, with none of the rigorous evaluation and data normally required in the field. 

“But an examination of his writings and syllabi reveal that Ayers continued in this vein, using his platform as a professor to promote the idea of education as the “motor force of revolution” and himself as the hero at the forefront.  They reveal an educational philosophy that contradicts the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards posted on the university’s website.  The question remains: how many others could have made such a seamless rise from fugitive to distinguished professor while flaunting all standards?”

We ask that you immediately authorize an investigation of this controversy and report the findings to the people.

We eagerly await your response.

Yours Truly,