Admission scandal probe costs $1 million

• Tweet

CHICAGO, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- An admissions data scandal at its Law School may end up costing the University of Illinois $1 million to investigate, a university spokesman said.

Spokesman Thomas Hardy said it was critical that the school perform an exhaustive, independent review to verify all the data and fully understand what happened, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

The university hired law firm Jones Day and data analysis firm Duff & Phelps to investigate Law School admissions data from the past 10 years.

The move followed a tip in August that erroneous information had been reported about the Class of 2014, a group the college said was "the most academically distinguished" in the school's history.

The firms, along with the university's legal council and ethics office, released a 114-page report Monday confirming the law school "reported and/or publicly disseminated" inflated grades and test scores for the class of 2008 and the classes of 2010 through 2014.

"Numbers were altered specifically and strategically to meet class profile goals and college ranking targets," said chief legal counsel Scott Rice.

Paul Pless, the law school admissions dean who resigned Friday, manipulated the class profile in six of the last seven years, university officials said.