What Happens to the Scandal Kids Now?
Words and Illustrations by Sarah Logan
As college students, we areall familiar with the stress and anxiety that comes with the college admissionsprocess. We have all tried to solidify a spot in a reputable college for thebetterment of our future. In today’s America, getting a college education is apriority for many young students. Without a college education, many people feelleft behind.
Most recently, a college admissions scandal has been circling the news. Well-known actress Lori Loughlin has just been called out for bribing the college admissions board of the University of Southern California. Loughlin paid $500,000 to get her daughter Olivia Jade into the prolific college.
Sophia Grace Macy, the daughter of Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy - two other well-known actors - has also been involved in this scandal. Although, in comparison to Jade’s situation, her injustice derives from an earlier stage in the college admissions process. Lauren Weiler, a journalist from Entertainment Cheat Sheet, states that Huffman offered $15,000 to those who could help Sophia significantly boost her SAT scores. Weiler’s sources say that it is unclear if she knew that her SAT score was being purposefully manipulated.
After this information surfaced, many wondered what would happen to the students involved in this unfortunate circumstance. Some students at CCNY had their own opinions about the injustice of the situation and what they believe should happen to the students after the scandal.
Hadja Fatoumata Doumbouya, a senior studying civil engineering stated, “it is true that everything that happened is unfair to many students who wished they had enough resources, but for those who are already on track to university, it might be even worse to not give them fair chances.”
LikeDoumbouya, many other students felt similarly, and suggested sending some morecompassion to the students who are being affected. Afeera Ansar, an undeclared freshmansaid, “I actually feel really bad for Olivia Jade because she told her parentsshe had no interest in going to college, but they forced her anyway.” Like bothAnsar and Doumbouya, Mahabub Alam, a junior majoring in childhood educationwith a concentration in math stated, “Everyone has a voice and the right to beheard before we force our own subjective judgments unto them.” While it may beinconvenient that Jade and Macy are experiencing this, students do agree thatthis does not justify their actions.
As for the remedy to this problem, CCNY’s students came up with some solutions. Doumbouya continued on to note, “I am not asking the university to turn a blind eye to all the bribery and mischief. I think that those students should be reassessed on their performance by a final test of entry to evaluate their intelligence because at the end of the day, the parents are the ones to blame for allowing such practices to be associated with their families.”
Mostof the blame is being put onto the parents of the students, legally. TamzidRahman, a freshman biomedical engineer stated, “What I believe is that Loughlindid something that is truly devastating as a parent and a role model for herfollowers and fans. She cheated the system and let her daughter go to a privatecollege. She could have donated money to the school to build a library,computer lab, or auditorium. Celebrity parents have the choice of eitherdonating to the school so it can invest in better services or allow their childto apply and compete with the other pool of applicants.” He believes that the“case should be heard again, and the parents are just bad parents that havemade poor decisions.”
MaryErina Driscoll, the dean of the School of Education at CCNY expresses heropinions on the controversy from an administrative perspective. When asked abouther understanding of what is going to happen to the students who are involvedin the controversy, she replied, “What will happen to the student in each casewill be decided by the institutions involved, and my understanding is that theyare all undertaking individual investigations.”
Althoughit may seem that the parents are mostly to blame, Driscoll points out that thissimply is not the case. She said, “If a student knowingly commits fraud bylying on an application or misrepresenting themselves during the applicationprocess, or by ‘playing along’ with a fraud perpetrated by others - includingtheir parents - it is within the college’s right to resign their offer ofadmission and/or remove them as members of the school community. Even if thestudents were not aware of their parent’s actions, misrepresenting themselveseven for a short period of time as athletes in sports they did not playcompetitively indicates they were complicit.”
