CHICAGO – National education experts testified Monday they were shocked by the scale of admissions interference at the University of Illinois and said universities need a "clear policy" to prohibit such outside influence.

University alumni, donors, and "the rich and famous" have always attempted to act on behalf of the admission of individual students, said Joyce Smith, who has been working in admissions since 1976. "That's not news," said the chief executive officer of the National Association of College Admission Counseling.

But Smith said she was stunned at the creation of the University of Illinois' Category I and its "magnitude." It "just feels so inappropriate," she said.

Stephen Portch, a former university administrator who conducts training for governing boards nationwide, said he was surprised by the "sheer volume and formality of a system" that tracked hundreds of admissions inquiries on behalf of politically connected students applying to the UI over the past five years.

Documents showed trustees and legislators made admissions inquiries on behalf of friends, donors or politicians. Under pressure, UI administrators sometimes overruled admissions decisions in those cases, leading 33 students to get into the UI this year who would otherwise have been rejected, testimony has shown.

Commissioners questioned the two witnesses Monday about what the penalty should be for those involved in applying "undue influence," including whether they violated any ethics or conflict of interest rules.

More and more universities are developing their own conflict-of-interest policies, but they deal mostly with trustees trying to influence university actions for financial gain, not admissions, said Portch, chancellor emeritus of the University of Georgia and former senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin. The "good ones" make board members sign ethical and conflict-of-interest statements, he said, but he didn't recall seeing one on admissions.

"I think this is a wake-up call to us in higher education," Portch said.

The National Association of College Admission Counseling offers ethics training for its members, which include admissions counselors, but university leaders and board members also need training in those areas, Smith said.

Like other UI employees, trustees undergo annual ethics training and abide by the state ethics laws. The university also gives trustees a copy of the general code of conduct developed by the Association of Governing Boards, but it doesn't specifically mention admissions, said board Secretary Michele Thompson.

Trustees are also given an ethics handbook developed by the university's ethics office, based at the UI Springfield campus, she said.

Commissioner Maribeth Vander Weele asked what the repercussions should be for those who are given ethics materials even if no policy on admissions influence is in place.

Portch said board members should realize that trying to influence admissions of particular students is inappropriate.

"That's not why they were put on the board," Portch said.