Well, she attended a Catholic high school that is highly-regarded and, IIRC, won a scholarship to Tulane. I would *hope* that Tulane would not pass her along as an affirmative-action token... but she *was* the only black female on that campus at the time. That's the story I've heard, anyway - so I leave it up to you to decide whether she's as smart as everyone seems to believe. This is a person, after all, who didn't think to make sure her own mother had flood insurance - in New Orleans. Maybe she's just "book smart".
Maybe Lisa Jackson is just "book smart" or maybe she's just smart in the ways of Democrat politics. I wonder if children regularly check their parents insurance situation, doubtful.
Engineering studies require courses in hard mathematics and hard sciences. A Conspiracy of all those Profs to pass someone with highest marks seems near impossible.
Nevertheless, the policy Jackson pushes is wrong on technical merit, wrong on legal authority, and wrong on economics. Wrong, wrong, wrong unless her goals are aligned with ELF, ALF, Ted Kaczynski's anti-technology uni-bomber manifesto, Greenpeace, EarthFirst, and the rest of the eco-wackos.