Affirmative action

I do not think those words mean what Richard Herman thinks they mean.

In e-mails released by the university and in news reports since May, it became clear that Herman played a key role in what the university called its Category I list — a list of student with political connections whose applications for places at the flagship Urbana-Champaign campus were closely tracked. Some of those applicants were admitted over more qualified ones.

In some e-mails, Herman pushed for the admission of underqualified applicants to the university's law school and agreed to provide scholarship money in exchange.