The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign decided last spring to increase its enrollment of non-Illinois students, noting that the Urbana-Champaign campus has the lowest proportion of out-of-state students among the Big Ten universities, with 11 percent. Out-of-state applicants have ACT scores up to a point and a half higher than in-state students, noted the chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus, Richard H. Herman, and he said having better students would translate into better faculty and more federal-research dollars, an important measure of quality. However, this policy has struck a nerve with the public. The public perceived that out-of-state students are taking slots away from students in the state. This article takes a closer look at the backlash received by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign after their controversial enrollment proposal.