Prosecutors asked for a year and a day. The Judge handed out 4 months, $95,000 fine and 500 hours of community service, plus a period of supervised release.
At least 4 months is a significant amount of jail time.
This is the guy that faked photos of his son in water polo gear in a swimming pool to get him into USC. The son was subsequently expelled from USC once the fraud was uncovered and all his earned credits were invalidated.
While a plea bargain was involved here, it was a much more open plea bargain, as prosecutors in this case were significantly more hard nosed than prosecutors in the first case.
I do believe charges should have been pursued against the son as well, as he actively and willingly participated in the deception, but that is not likely to happen.
Looks like his report date is December 3 and I would imagine he will serve his time at the minimum security camp in Victorville, California.
He lucked out in a way as his sentence will fall during December, January, February and March, a rather comfortable time of year in California, particularly as the facility is not air conditioned and he will be required to be working outside much of the time.
My day is made. Safiel linked to a source called “Boing Boing”.
I want to have sympathy for the kid, because Dad was arranging all this, but I’m not that far removed from the college application process.
My daughter would have been horrified had I tried to force her to pose in fake sports photos and then getting recruited in a sport she had never played. That kid KNEW he was cheating. Entitled little â– â– â– â– â–
I sent three kids through college, both sons to Penn State and my daughter to the University of Pennsylvania. Penn State has a 50% admissions rate and both of them easily got in on their academics and test scores. University of Pennsylvania has a brutal 9% admissions rate, Columbia and Princeton have an even more brutal 7% admissions rate. My daughter got admissions offers from all three and three other non-Ivy schools, ultimately going to the University of Pennsylvania. No legacy benefits or sports benefits for her at any of the institutions. She got in solely on her merits.
If she had been squeezed out by one of these â– â– â– â– â– â– bags, I would likely be in jail for the act of violence I would have committed against the parents.
First defendant to avoid prison in this scandal, however, it should be noted that this parent was far less wealthy and relatively less culpable than the other defendants. He must perform 250 hours of community service and pay a $9,500.00 fine.
I’m not particularly happy that the kid’s life has been ruined.
I’m not even very angry at the parents.
I’m very dismayed (but not suprised) that the parents and kids seem to be bearing the brunt of the legal action, but that the colleges (and their staff) are getting off relatively unscathed.
It was they who decided that prowess in water polo was a factor in deciding academic acceptability. It was they who, over the years, have decided to keep students admitted for water polo prowess, but not expel them when it was discovered they can’t swim.
It’s disappointing that this scandal hasn’t resulted in a hard look at college athletics and its proper roll at a university. Sports at the club level is one kind of student activity, but the spectacles we saw on TV today, what do they have to do with higher education? Does Ohio state winning the national championship increase a graduate’s knowledge by one wit? Does it increase the value of research done on campus?
Is the NCAA a farm system for the NFL or the NBA? Is that a proper use of public funds labeled “for education”?
All the outrage is pointed at the wealthy parents. (Who will continue to use their wealth to give their kids an advantage.) But none is pointed at what academia has allowed the colleges to become.
As I said above, all three of my children went to selective universities, my daughter to the extremely selective University of Pennsylvania. Schools like that have a finite amount of slots for incoming freshman and that means that one student’s admission is another student’s denial.
Each one of those kids that got admitted fraudulently denied a deserving child a slot at a selective university. It is not a victim-less crime. Real kids got hurt by being denied a spot at a college to which they otherwise would have attended.
As I said above, had my own daughter gotten denied because of one of these *****, there would have been violence on my part. She studied, worked her ass off, took the SAT and ACT honestly and made the cut.
As for the kids involved, while I don’t wish them evil, they should be denied the fruits of cheating and expelled from any institution to which they were fraudulently admitted. In most cases, the kids were unfit for admission to any highly selective institution and only to a moderately selective institution at best. A couple of the kids clearly were little more than community college or non flagship public university material. And that is where they should be attending.
As for the parents, I am highly pissed, as their actions denied deserving students admission to selective institutions. They need to be vigorously prosecuted and brought to justice.
As for the institutions, the particularly individuals involved need to also be vigorously prosecuted. Reforms are needed so this can never happen again.
I would like to see athletic scholarships phased out over time. I would like to see a ban on any legacy admissions and a ban on any affirmative action in admissions. My daughter did not apply to Harvard, but had she done so, she (being Asian because of her mother) would have been negatively impacted by Harvard 's affirmative action, which reduces Asian admissions. Your academic portfolio should be all that counts.
I would also like to see a regulation banning the immediate family of any donor to the University from applying in a 5 year window following the donation and extra scrutiny of any family members of a donor from any length of time, make sure no quid pro quos are going on.
Its not the parents or the kids who set up the motivation for this.
I’m asking “did they get their money’s worth”? Is admission to an elite university really that much better than to another school?
Yes, a graduate of MIT will know more engineering than a grad from Central State U? That I can see.
But will a Communications major from Harvard know more than a Communications major from Central State U?
Alternately, when a company is hiring, would the choose a Harvard grad over a Central State grad. Why?
Perhaps my STEM snobbery is showing, but does a grad from an elite school know that much more than a grad from a lesser school? Or is it only an issue of branding,
Did the parents (not the ones who are on trial but those who used this method for the last 10 years and got away with it). Did those parents get their money’s worth?
Instead of looking for villians, why aren’t we looking at societies view of higher education? (Does one really need a Bachelor’s in Hotel Mangement to be a boss at a fancy hotel? Why does a company hire a college grad for a management position rather than promote a non-managment level employee from within. Why/how has collge become a paywall to the middle class?)
Her BoP entry has not been fully updated yet, but she surrendered just before noon today to begin serving her 14 day sentence at FCI Dublin. She will likely serve at the minimum prison camp adjacent to the main low security facility.
