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applicants initially denied admission to the University of Texas enrolled, thanks to a backdoor program for the wealthy and politically connected administered by former president Bill Powers. More than 200 of those applicants were admitted despite have their applications cancelled by the Admissions Office. The total is more than 10 times the 73 applicants widely reported from an investigation paid for by the university and conducted by Kroll Associates. Kroll withheld the full findings from its 107-page final report. Watchdog.org produced the final number by reassembling a key Kroll database tracking “holds,” or applicants rejected by the admissions office but granted favored status by Powers’ office from 2009 to 2014. Kroll arrived at its published tally by establishing an arbitrary cutoff point for grades and SAT scores that had nothing to do with finding the total number of admissions rejections Powers overrode, which was the original purpose of the investigation. The university kept the numbers in the database secret from the public and from regents who have asked to review the Kroll investigation records. “The reach of this scandal is breathtaking,” said Maribeth Vander Weele, one of the investigators in a similar admissions scandal at the University of Illinois. “The collapse of ethics in two major institutions – the Law School and the Legislature – will be felt for years to come.” read more: http://watchdog.org/228880/kroll-powers-breathtaking

The latest salvo in a long-standing fight over leadership at the University of Texas at Austin could lead to the ouster of the flagship campus' popular president within the next week. UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa asked President Bill Powers this week to resign by the end of Friday or face firing at Thursday's board meeting, sources with knowledge of the situation said. Read more: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/UT-Austin-president-asked-to-resign-or-be-fired-5600796.php