Name: Dianne Feinstein’s husband named in UC admissions scandal, says he wrote recommendation letters for connected applicants ‘a bunch of times'
Brand: sfchronicle.com
SKU: sfchronicle-com-69
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Dianne Feinstein’s husband named in UC admissions scandal, says he wrote recommendation letters for connected applicants ‘a bunch of times'

preview

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateU.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband finds himself in the middle of the latest University of California admissions scandal, accused in a state audit of improperly using his clout to help an applicant get into the elite public system. But Richard Blum, a UC regent, told The Chronicle he’s done nothing wrong and has been writing letters on behalf of many friends and family for years.“I did it a bunch of times,” Blum said, adding that he has never considered it a problem to write recommendation letters directly to chancellors and bypassing the traditional admissions process. However, a policy prohibiting such influence has been in place throughout Blum’s 18-year tenure on the Board of Regents.Blum’s name emerged Thursday after California’s independent auditor released a showing that UC Berkeley improperly admitted at least 55 underqualified, often wealthy, students based on insider connections over a six-year period.In one case, a regent unidentified in the audit sent an “inappropriate letter of support” directly to the UC Berkeley chancellor on behalf of a student with only a 26% chance of winning a spot off the wait list, despite the policy prohibiting efforts by regents to influence admissions decisions by going around the regular process. The applicant was admitted.More for youThe state auditor’s office has confirmed that Blum was that regent. Through a spokeswoman, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ declined to comment until the campus has independently investigated the auditor’s findings.Blum’s admission, and the state’s audit, come a year after a college scandal rattled the nation’s confidence in the fairness of admissions. Dubbed “Varsity Blues” by federal investigators, the sting operation ensnared dozens of wealthy parents, including famous actors Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. The parents paid a bogus college admissions counselor, William “Rick” Singer, about $25 million between 2011 and 2018 to illegally get their children into elite colleges, including UCLA.Singer bribed college officials and coaches on the parents’ behalf, or hired fake applicants to take SAT tests for their kids, as happened with an applicant to UC Berkeley, who enrolled in 2014. Singer has cooperated with federal investigators and pleaded guilty, as have many parents.The California audit focused on the kind of insider dealing that many state residents long assumed was happening in UC admissions. In Blum's case it involved letters to chancellors on behalf of friends and family, to give them a leg up. In the case cited by the auditor, it was the reason the applicant was admitted.Blum, a financier, told The Chronicle on Thursday that he’s been writing such letters for years and “no one ever told me it was wrong.” He said he has sent letters of recommendation about friends and family to chancellors at multiple UC campuses since becoming a regent in 2002. “Wherever they were applying. Wherever they wanted to get in.” He recalled sending letters specifically to the chancellors at UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Irvine, but added: “almost everywhere.”Blum’s actions don’t involve the kind of illegal activity that came to light in the Varsity Blues scandal. But the idea that influential people use their clout to help applicants get around the usual process can undermine confidence that the public university has a fair admissions system.That’s why the regents have , which says regents “should not seek to influence inappropriately the outcome of admissions decisions beyond sending letters of recommendation, where appropriate, through the regular admissions process and officers.”Yet,“I did it a bunch of times,” Blum said. “Usually friends. My cousin’s brother wanted to get into Davis. They’d send me a letter and tell me why it’s a good kid, and I’ll send it on to the chancellor. Been doing it forever.“I was never told there was a policy that said I had to give (the letters) to the Office of Admissions.”Regents Chair John Pérez issued a statement Thursday saying the “UC Board of Regents takes these matters very seriously, and any violations will be promptly and appropriately addressed.”He said that UC’s ethics and audit compliance office is reviewing the information “to determine whether the alleged conduct violates” the regents policy, in place since 1996.Feinstein’s office declined to comment.In an interview, Blum said: “I’m not convinced I’ve done anything wrong. It all sounds kind of boring to me.”Over the years, he said, he would write a one-page recommendation to a chancellor or pass along a letter from the applicant.Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California.“Sometimes I did both,” he said. “I would pass their letter along, and sometimes I’d rewrite their letter.”Blum’s acknowledged use of influence to help friends and family is strikingly similar to widespread abuses that rocked another elite public school, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 11 years ago.Blum told The Chronicle he remembered that scandal, exposed in a 2009 Chicago Tribune series called “Clout Goes to College.” The newspaper revealed that about 800 underqualified students won admission to the prestigious campus only after powerful people intervened.Another reason Blum remembered the Chicago scandal is that Linda Katehi, one of the administrators in charge of admissions at the Illinois university, when the series went to press.“I remember that,” Blum said. But any similarity to what he was doing “never crossed my mind.”Katehi, who was not named in the Tribune’s reporting, went on to have a rocky, seven-year tenure at UC Davis before .As of Thursday morning, Blum said no one from UC had contacted him about the audit finding or his admission that he has written to chancellors about applicants numerous times over the years.Asked what he thought would happen next, the regent replied, “Well, I can’t do that anymore.”Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateU.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband finds himself in the middle of the latest University of California admissions scandal, accused in a state audit of improperly using his clout to help an applicant get into the elite public system. But Richard Blum, a UC regent, told The Chronicle he’s done nothing wrong and has been writing letters on behalf of many friends and family for years.“I did it a bunch of times,” Blum said, adding that he has never considered it a problem to write recommendation letters directly to chancellors and...

public

Nanette Asimov

Delivering the Bay Area’s best journalism every day. Subscribe and support the newsroom: http://SFChronicle.com/subscribe

Dianne Feinstein’s husband named in UC admissions scandal, says he wrote recommendation letters for connected applicants ‘a bunch of times'

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS