The suggestion that a school policy – forbidding administrators from discussing admissions with political rainmakers – will prevent those conversations from taking place (& so ‘unfair’ admissions) seems pitiably naive. If university officials lack the sand to tell Senator Shagbag “No, I won’t grease the admission skids for the dim-witted whelp of your second-largest campaign contributor,” they’re not going to have what it takes to refuse the Senator’s call outright (& a mountain of policies won’t help).

Besides, the art of the deal dictates that the ostensible “reason the Senator called” is the sugar, not the medicine. The university official’s secretary is going to chirp over the intercom: “Senator Shagbag’s on line one. He says he needs your input on the appropriations bill his committee’s working on.” And what university official is going to refuse THAT call?