The “Operation Varsity Blues” scandal hit the news a little less than a year ago. Since then I've been struggling to write about the matter. While I want to share my thoughts I also want to contribute something original.
So while it's tempting to join in the schadenfreude I chose to take a different track.
For this entry I also did something I normally don’t do with my blogging. I talked to my freshman daughter and not surprisingly she had some strong thoughts on the matter. Undoubtedly this is due to her experience over the past 12-16 months applying to schools. Based on her GPA and ACT scores (and the latter didn’t just magically jump significantly the second time she took the test), together with her 4H leadership experience, community service and forensics/debate titles meant several schools were more than happy to grant her admission.
Something to emphasize--she handled the admissions process herself.
She did the applications. She communicated with the schools.
Isn't that as it should be? Daughter headed up the process, not her mother or father.
If these OVB parents did all the work, when will these young people learn how to manage for themselves? And if the students DID know about the skullduggery, then yes, toss them out.
Again, I won't dwell on the above any further. My "different track" here is...integrity.
I recall a workplace conversation many years ago (around 2003 if my memory holds) which speaks clearly to this topic.
The agency where I worked housed me in the same building with a program staffed by several individuals, one of whom was a nurse. This was no twenty-something, rather she was a good 15 years older than me. As she talked about her high school years this individual disclosed a piece of information that caught my attention. While discussing the menial-level jobs high school students typically have, this nurse shared how she earned an income during that time:
“I wrote papers for other students.”
My response involved disdain for how she, or anyone, could so overtly contribute to academic fraud. Her answer? “I was a businesswoman. My fellow students would pay for this service and I was willing to provide it.”
I think I was so aghast I just didn’t have effective comebacks in the moment. Yet now I can think of follow-up queries such as: what would you think if your child, or stepchildren, engaged in this type of action or even worse, bought “papers” from a fellow student instead of doing the work themselves?
What if I had the chance to ask her those today? For good measure I might add: “As a nurse, how would you feel about taking direction from a physician who cheated his/her way through school?”
Back to the present. Will any of these young people experience remorse later over the spectre of cheating to gain admission to USC or the like? Will seeing their family members going to jail and suffering other consequences make any impact?
But I do know this: My own child will have no such struggle. Nor do my wife and I have concerns about facing any fraud charges and as a bonus, can take pride in our child not only being accepted to, but completing a demanding academic program.
Sometimes there's no better sleeping pill than a clear conscience.
And shame on you, nurse Susan.
