Posted on 03/13/2019 1:36:28 PM PDT by Steely Tom
Only Professor Dershowitz's words here:
Nobody can diminish the importance of this, involving as it does, some of the major, major universities in the country. Look every individual who's charged should be presumed innocent. We have to wait and hear the evidence, but this involves the most elite universities, coaches, the SAT, the ACT, this is really one of the great scandals of the twenty-first century. Having said that, I think it's just the tip of the iceberg. Remember, this doesn't involve the super- super-rich. The super-super-rich buy buildings for the university. They donate hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. They don't have to worry about their kids getting in.
This involves the very rich, the people who can't quite afford to give a building, but can afford to spend five or six million dollars, and once this investigation is complete, we will see that although this person, Singer, if the allegations are true, went over any possible line, and did clearly commit crimes and apparently he's pleading guilty, that in some respects this is a matter of degree, that we will see other mini-scandals, involving contributions to universities, coaches who are prepared to stretch the rules…
Look, at bottom, you know the fault of this lies in the fact that we've abolished grades at universities, in many parts of the country, nobody fails anymore cause if we went back to the situation that occurred when I started teaching at Harvard, almost sixty years ago, this couldn't work, because these students would fail out. It didn't pay for them to come into a college because they wouldn't make it through if they didn't have the academic resources to make it.
But today, nobody fails, and today, nobody gets bad grades, nobody even gets C's, and in many universities they've abolished grades, so there's no way of testing whether they are qualified or competent once they get into college, many just sail through, because of the way universities have decided to treat their students.
So, I think we will see this as the tip of a very, very deep iceberg.
Look, I don't believe there should be special slots for athletes. Colleges are not supposed to be about athletics. Athletics are supposed to be collateral, but today kids who aren't qualified, or minimally qualified, get in because they're a good quarterback or a good soccer player. That's the beginning of the problem, now this case doesn't involve that, this case involves overt cheating, and particularly on the SATs, and bribery, and so it crosses a line, but I think once this investigation unfolds, we'll see that there's more to this than just the really bad at one end of this spectrum, that it's a continuum.
This is RICO, racketeering, it involves an enterprise, obviously the Singer company is the enterprise, and through the enterprise they committed these crimes of bribery, of fraud, of cheating. And RICO carries a very, very significant criminal sentence. It also has civil liability, and we're going to see this thing spread.
Questions are whether the kids who got in should have their diplomas revoked, what if they got A-plusses, and what if they did very, very well. It involves obviously the coaches, each of whom is presumed innocent, some of whom took the money for themselves, according to this indictment, some of whom shared the money with the university. The real question is how high up in the university does this go, and how high up in the SAT and ACT does this go.
You know, I hope it doesn't bring about the result of abolishing the SAT or abolishing the ACT, that would be a terrible mistake, it would mean that kids get into a university based on who their parents are, their personalities, collateral factors like race and other issues. We still need standardized testing, but now we've seen this standardized testing being corrupted itself, so this is a major, major scandal, it involves every aspect of admissions to universities.
I hope I'm right, by saying Harvard isn't involved, because at least at the moment, the university that I taught at for fifty years doesn't seem to be involved though the university I went to, Yale Law School, does seem involved.
It's just such a tragedy. It's a tragedy for kids who didn't get into college because other kids cheated their way into college. It's a tragedy for innocent people at these universities, who will now be suspect, and so we have to carefully look at the evidence and make sure that the presumption of innocence remains, but that if there is evidence of guilt, the guilty are punished.
How do those companies get around the Griggs vs Duke Power ruling?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co.
That’s the ruling that made the BS degree the ticket to s job. It ruined a lot of in-house training programs.
This will be old news by next week. Fines will be paid but new schemes will be put in place. Nothing to see here, move along now.
Everything that comes out of AOC’s mouth all makes sense to me now. No grades? We have graduated a bunch of idiots and AOC is the poster child.
The only thing I disagree with him is about athletics... Universities should be about preparing for careers, and athletes are the absolute best at what they do, preparing for a professional career. As with all careers, only a few get to the top spots with the big money, but that is besides the point.
Some companies ask each applicant to write a program before they'll even grant an interview. And now the big thing today is this:
https://skillcrush.com/2016/03/29/rock-your-next-whiteboard-test/
Disagree!
Colleges & universities should NOT be a farm system for professional football & basketball!
Let them spend the money & make the investment for a farm system. Then these athletes can prepare for their professional careers in a professional environment. Most of the athletes in the current system could care less about being students. They shouldn’t be forced to participate in the current hypocritical charade that their students.
Maybe it hasn’t been challenged! Maybe lawyers have figured out in some cases a way around Griggs vs Duke, etc.
How do we think things are going to work out when government takes complete control of our medical care?
In this situation, people have pleased guilty to things that are not crimes.
How is this really any different than Harvard’s legacy admissions policy where every Kennedy that ever lived got in or even affirmative action where those of lower merit get in based upon their skin color?
It’s all just whoring. It seems people are upset because it was a few soccer coaches being bribed instead of the universities themselves getting a new building in exchange for admitting the spawn of the rich.
The testing is pretty much industry-wide, at least according to what I’ve been reading and hearing.
There’s nothing wrong with testing a prospective employee, especially for a technical career. Companies found that colleges don’t always prepare students well enough for these jobs.
The Dersh is still an clear-minded guy who communicates well.
Any guesses as to whether these Hollywood airheads have voted for or against the affirmative-action candidates on their ballots?
Companies administering tests? Oh, no, I think that is verboten!
Buying a new building to get your kid in is not the same as what happened here. The coaches sold access that was not theirs to sell, it is the institution’s to sell.
The price increased to a new building 40 or 50 years ago. I bet this is just one scam they caught. This has been going on for years. You either pay someone to fix it or you check the Native American box.
I wish I new this crap back when I needed a defense for my poor academic performance. Think my mom will allow an appeal on such an old case?
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