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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 19, 1995)
EDITORIAL Colleges subject to applicant lies These days, it isn't essential to have a flawless tran script and a 10-page resume to get admitted to the best colleges In America, All you really Deed, it seems, is an A-plus in Deception 101. Two recent examples of applications fraud at Harvard and Yale demonstrate how a student with a questionable record can get into a top-notch school — although they both also go to show how even the best-laid deception plans can go astray. The first incident to gain national press attention was tlx* case of a V. plus community college student from Gal ifornla who forged his high school and college tran scripts and concocted glowing letters of recommenda tion from non-existent faculty members to gel into Yale. He was caught, reportedly, when one of his professors decided his work was way below Yale quality and start ed .isking questions although the student had man aged a H average at Yale and was only a few terms away from his degree when he was discovered. The second case involves a student whoso acceptance to Harvard was rescinded after it was learned, through an anonymous tip. that she had beaten her mother to death with a lead crystal candlestick Harvard admis sions officials say that when she failed to mention her probation on the application, she defrauded the univer sity. Both of these cases illustrate the ease with which application deception can he achieved, particularly at the ”l>est" colleges with the largest number of applicants .md !he niu-.i inflated requirements But they also shed light on the fallings of the applications process, in two very different ways. First, the Yale case shows that a selection process with too much dependence on numbers and grades fails, on occasion, to find the best students Although this guy "didn't belong” in Yale, according to his real credentials, he apparently was good enough to get above average grades one e he was there. And the Harvard vase raises questions about the type of information requested on college applications. Yes, it would seem, she deceived the university, but what business is it of theirs whether she was on probation? Why is sik h information relevant, and if it is so impor tant, how s ome the university relies on the good word of the applicant alone to find out about it? After all, if it weren't for somebody in the student s hometown send ing In newspaper clippings of the murder. Harvard would've been none tie* wiser, ilm identally, the student has been accepted at Columbia.) Admissions officers at Yale and Harvard claim that they catc h most applic atlon fraud, and we’ll have to take their word on that But these incidents provide a glimpse of some of the things that are wrong at the nation's best schools — and provide another reason to question whethei they should reall) be t onsldered the “best " after ail. Oregon Daily »0 00« JIM VUGCNt OMOOM »f«» th« { Vmytvt OdN*r f a put.*-Wad d*#y iH^OuQh f '=3*| r>« v ♦>,.-.> y** Wd tomdfty Urtd Th^Klfty cl - wj t?*s wnmf fr, »*■* O<*>.•■' CW, (*■**«*; PU>fcW»r^j Co . tfK irt OwvafWty of (**QOn. 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Soon " *«*,«”t** VTtv Mar,! * ' <n J*r©r*i '>* • v ' K •* »V«*.‘, IV .* VV .1 * 1 tn /*/<■» Genersi Manege* •!, R**f Advertising Director M.vt nV*’e Production Men »g*r >,i- fiw« Him AiJwImng * o A ■ *>. Amt* Bcr-gne* Merco Ovr-.^ To * ^ * Nu-e • ■ •' •' . M.VJ. ..« •- M» ' - •■ Ml "*• T-..r, Clessiffced Oobky Mtv N*M Manager K>*« Dav*s > - So*r Ostitbuttorv John Long, f erorv Hafce*. ; GreNsn- Sar^yson Business: K#’y C4't'»:"T, S^iwvxv Jody Connery Production Mil-® MiCoob PmxAa.^v* Covdla^jr Sha»~ a Abel* Te«lGeu«n*y fVad Joss W > McConts ’or K >,.» <J. 1 eyton v«e Newsroom 5511 Display Advertising 346J712 Busmess OffVce 346-SSt2 OsssWWd Advertising 346-043 ROBERT MC NAMARA SAfS TMF. VIETNAM WAR WAS A MISTAKE, I TOO flAP WK DIIK T WRITE ms memoir^ IN' 1<X/K I ■ OPINION Some candidates just don’t cut it Primp A. J. Font am I t's ASl JO nkidion season once again. so as a good opinion writer should. I'm going to endorse one of the tit kets for the ASl!() Executive In order to do this, however. I ll start at what nun s««em like an odd place the Student Senate Joseph Lyons, currently a stu dent senator, is a candidate in the race for Msit 2. in which he is run ning against three other people List week. presumably in order to decrease his competition, Lyons petitioned the Elections Hoard to combine the candidates for seals 1 and 2, as has been done in the past, making the eh* lion a su-person contest. He pro posed that the top two vote recip ients would each he rewarded one of the seats That means the odds for a candidate winning would In? 1 in 3, rather than seat 2 s current odds of l in 3 The board called the Constitu tion Court for a decision The i ourt rejected tht* decision, bee auxe each seat has a different term length After this defeat. Senator Lyons appealed with a motion to combine the race for seats 2 and 3 — the same as he had proposed for seats 1 and 2. The court refected his appeal Lyons has also posted notices for a write-in campaign for him self in seat t, so he is a marked candidate in seat 2 and a write in for 1 This means that if his motion had been accepted, he would have been a t andidate for not only two. but three seats lust to add an additional ele ment of intrigue to these shenani gans, Senator Lyons had some celebrity cosigners for his first petition ASUO Executive can didates Student Senator Chris Kantrowitz and Niki Scott This sort of Little Kockian elbow-rubbing may bu accepted in the Clinton White House, but we certainK should not allow it here in Eugene If you feel that such gerrymandering is inappro priate in proper elec loral proc e dure. make sure that you let Lyons, Kantrowitz and Scott know it at the ballot box. Now. on to the Executive Because of their involvement with the aforementioned Lyons affair, I cannot find a moral jus tification to endorse the kantrowitz/Scott ticket, no mat ter what the merits of their plat form. On to bigger and better things One of the most interesting tii kets to watch has been Nat Famam and Eli Elder's Neither of them has been part of the ASUQ in the past, and they are positioning themselves as the "outsider ticket Although they stress the importance of the campus’ relationship with the outside community. an admirable topic, some elements of their platform are problemat ic They stress the importance of low rent for students, and in the April 13 issue of the Fniero/f/, said they want to set up "a dis trict where rents are more rea sonable. “ I don't know what this i-nt.nK nor have I discovered the answer in any subsequent cam paign literature. Off-campus housing prices are beyond the si ope of the ASUG Executive, and for a ticket to express its importance so greatly without proposing a cohesive course of action uulii ates a lack of realis tic planning Another ticket m the outsider league is Doctor (and Student Senator) Justin Good and Rev. Thom S< hoenborns. two of the malcontents from The Common tator. These two have some big ideas, which include building a micro-hrewerev in the EMU as a fund-raising activity and bull dozing Deady and Viilard Halls Yeah, whatever dudes One candidate who hopes she i an reach a more informed stu dent body is Kenya Euvert l.uvert is the current student assistant for the Black Student Union and has served the cam pus population in a number of other capacities. To her < redit, she has stressed one of the most important problems facing this campus students who don't understand the issues that affect their lives However, one drawlrai k to her campaign is her lack of a run ning mate l.uvert told the Emur old last week that if elected, she would have a vice president appointed by a selection com mittee The ASUO vice presi dent should have ideas and views that coalesce with the ASUO president's to make for an effective Kxecutive, which is why they run together as a sin gle platform. This leaves l.uvert's ticket only half-corn plete. Last, hut not least, is the tit k et of Jennifer Williamson and Zachary Kelton, which 1 whole heartedly endorse. Their platform is well defined. not only mentioning the standard issues that every t andidate discusses, such as financial aid and open commu nication between students and the ASUO, hut new ones as well. Most importantly, they plan to emphasize teaching, rather than reseats h. in our faculty by focus ing on evaluations, professorial reviews and tenure awarding. When 1 decided to give them this endorsement. Williamson and kelton assured me they'd "be willing to break tradition if it's In the best interests of the students," That will be a great change from two years of status quo stagnation, which none of the other tic kets tan offer. When all of thu factors are weighed, no ticket can match Williamson and kelton's Primo A I Fontana is a colum rust for the Kmerald ■ LETTERS POLICY The Orrgnn Daily Emerald will attempt to print all letters containing comments on topics of interest to the University community. 1 he Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or st \ le
