<p>This pontificating on this God forsaken mess is nauseating. Unless someone has worked closely with the CMC Office of Admission they have no clue on what is most important to it. The reference to Wesleyans fairly deep curriculum in topics bearing on this grossly unethical act by the CMC Dean is self serving grave dancing. To suggest that the Dean was allowed to quietly resign is ludicrous when nothing about his resignation was quiet for CMC or for him. It’s absurd to call for a thorough house-cleaning (aka fire a bunch of people) and cite CMCs moral lapse when every shred of evidence found to date shows it was the action of one individual with the position and means to hide his fraud. And if CMC doesnt clean house the caretakers of the liberal arts mission will have deemed that CMC has a profound flaw in its culture that can be equated to the massive cover ups of the most horrific sexual abuse scandal of our time? What absolutely sanctimonious drivel.</p>
<p>“Most of the highly selective liberal arts colleges–Wesleyan, for sure–offer a fairly deep curriculum in topics bearing on this grossly unethical act by the CMC Dean of Admissions.”</p>
<p>Does Wesleyan offer a deep curriculum in ethics regarding financial malfeasance , misappropriating alumni funds and other forms of financial chicanery. You may remember this headline, “Wesleyan University has brought a lawsuit against former Vice President of Investments and Chief Investment Officer Thomas Kannam and nearly twenty other defendants, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, civil theft, breach of contract, fraud, statutory forgery, and unjust enrichment, among other charges.” Furthermore, it took more than a month before it notified its donors, alumni and students. President Roth notified the university community with vaguely-worded email, " In a vague campus-wide email today, President Roth announced that Kannam, the Vice President of Investments and Chief Investment Officer, “has left Wesleyan University to pursue other opportunities.” Transparency and full disclosure did not seem to be a high priority in this case. It seems like the Wesleyan curriculum did not prevent a very high level University employee from engaging in unethical behavior and allowing this individual to quietly resign.</p>
<p>Regarding my prior post, I would hope your saintly Wesleyan University is undergoing a “thorough house cleaning (aka firing a bunch of people)” starting with your President who was less than forthcoming (actually blatantly dishonest) with the stonewalling and misleading email. People who live in glass houses… Of course, it is all spelled out in the Wesleyan curriculum in that course titled, “Hypocrisy and Arrogance Knows No Bounds”.</p>
<p>BTW, if you would like, I am sure I can find other examples of Wesleyan incidents that breach that fairly deep curriculum of academic probity.</p>
<p>^^Sorry, if the news didn’t reach the West Coast, but, the university sued Kannam in court; the Connecticut AG’s office joined the suit. The New York Times, Bloomberg News, the Associated Press, all carried stories about it. He wasn’t just allowed to “quietly resign”. </p>
<p>The difference, of course, is that while Kannam was allegedly falsifying records for his own personal gain, the senior official at Claremont-McKenna appears to have been motivated by the misguided idea that he was benefitting Claremont-McKenna itself. It’s reasonable to ask, whether he acted alone and if not, what was in the drinking water at Claremont that would have led them to make such a massive mistake in judgment?</p>
<p>Parent57 makes a good point, here. Scratch the surface, and one will no doubt find dirty laundry at just about any particular school one would care to name. Dig deeper and you’d probably find really serious stuff in half the cases. The same is true of individuals, I’m sure. </p>
<p>The CMC scandal is fundamentally different in at least one critical way, however, involving, as it does, academic dishonesty by an academic institution, the very same kind of cheating that would (rightly) suffice to expel any of its own students guilty of the same breach. </p>
<p>What, then, should happen to such an institution, if the penalty the institution itself prescribes for the same behavior on the part of its own students is expulsion?</p>
<p>It’s a hard question. A philosophical one, with very direct and real implications in the real world, as CMC and those concerned are now witnessing. It’s the kind of question students at schools like CMC and Wesleyan and others grapple with in the abstract every semester. But now this question is no longer abstract. It’s real, with LOTS of money tied up in the correct answer to it.</p>
<p>We are all hypocrites, unfortunately, and try to hide skeletons in private closets. It’s very easy to point fingers and complain about the mote in another’s eye while ignoring the beam in one’s own eye. I certainly fall into that camp. None of us lives up to our own ideals. Part of the human condition. </p>
<p>So what do you do when a school that expels students for cheating is found to be guilty of cheating?</p>
<p>JW, so the drinking water is different in Middletown where a high level Wesleyan administrator actually breaks state laws and engages in fraud and other sundry acts. Yeah, releasing an inaccurate and dissembling email to the Wesleyan community was fine because this was about personal gain. Very logical.</p>
<p>Vos HAS been expelled, of course, and rightly so. I suppose that is the answer, at this point, anyway.</p>
<p>Clearly, as johnwesley points out, the issue becomes much more complicated if more than one administrator are found to have been involved, in which case the administrative culture at CMC would begin to acrue responsibility for the scandal.</p>
<p>In addition, as johnwesley has already mentioned, false reporting of numbers to federal agencies may also be criminal. Seems entirely possible.</p>
<p>We’ll have to wait and see. So far, it’s one guy in the leadership of “the leadership LAC” who deliberately falsified 75% of CMC’s SAT data points in order to benefit the school’s ranking. That’s bad enough, certainly.</p>
<p>I disagree with Xiggi, in that I think USNews will have to recalculate their rankings in order to maintain some semblance of honesty and trustworthiness themselves. Their most popular annual issue is a huge cash cow for them, and to do otherwise would be to kill the cow that gives the Golden Milk. (Sorry for the clumsy metaphor. Best I can do at 4am.)</p>
<p>One possible scenario is that USNews does NOT recalculate their rankings, and then DOES lose credibility as a result, curing with a large dose of public cynicism the nation’s notorious college ranking neurosis.</p>
<p>Maybe that’s the best outcome we can hope for out of all this.</p>
<p>You know, there’s a lot I could say, here, but, in the interest of allowing this thread to become a teaching moment, I’m going to let Chris have the last word; I thought his analysis (@post#180) was very generous.</p>
<p>Forgive my cynicism, chrisrb, but are you rooting for CMC to possibly fall 3 places because, let’s see, oh yeah that’s where Wesleyan is.</p>
<p>Parent57: you got me. I’ll admit to it. </p>
<p>Sure, I’m as trivially competitive as the next person, and yes I’m jealous that CMC has ranked higher than Wes in USNews … though this is not the case at 50TopColleges, which endeavors to come up with a combined ranking based on the six top college ratings scales:</p>
<p>[50</a> Top Colleges](<a href=“http://50topcolleges.com/Rankings.html]50”>http://50topcolleges.com/Rankings.html)</p>
<p>I’m actually quite sad about this whole CMC thing. It will probably shed a dark light on all the 5-Cs, by association, unfortunately. My own daughter (going to Wesleyan next fall) and I visited Claremont twice, and loved all the schools. What a great place! Johnwesley, seriously, you must take a trip there, and check it out.</p>
<p>What a shame that this whole thing has happened.</p>
<p>Now, Parent57, can you acknowledge a hardened and perhaps unhelpful bias favoring CMC and denial of the seriousness of what’s just transpired? Or at least a clear tendency to downplay it? </p>
<p>Since we’re coming clean, here, I thought maybe you’d like to join me. :)</p>
<p>^^For the record, Chris, I thought you were posting as your DS/DD! :p</p>
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<p>To be clear, I do WANT Robert Morse to recalculate the entire rankings. Just as I would like his outfit to ferret out the rampant manipulation of data he is largerly ignored. Just as I would like to read what has been done to the so-called experts of Clemson, Miami, Wisconsin, and other schools who clearly manipulated their peer assessments to gain advantages. The same “expert” judgment that has been decried by dozens of college presidents who reported a combination of organized cheating and lack of knowledge. </p>
<p>As someone who was observed the workings of the USNews for close to a decade, I can tell you that they cannot regain or preserve something they never had! During this decade, I have often spoken in support of the USNews, but mostly on the basis of it being the very best we possibly can have. And, when compared to the absolute garbage produced by the Princeton Review, or the Mother Teresa rankings at the Washington Monthly, or Richard Vedder’s “CRAP” at Forbes, the USNews is the best in the genre. But by being the best, it also shows the abysmal state of that cottage industry. Simply stated, pretending that the USNews does not accept the data at face value is a fat lie. Morse’s skeleton staff does not have the resourcess to audit the data presented by the school, and if history is any indication no interest to “check” the accuracy of reported numbers, and this even after being alerted of the existence of serious and continuing misrepresentations. The USnews created a very valuable product by presenting data in an easy to follow format. However, their claims of integrity are as hollow as their claims of relying on scientific methods. </p>
<p>As far as the current problem, my position is simple. I want CMC to go the bottom of this sordid affair. I want this for a simple reason: it might stop the stream of veiled and hypocritical indictments (a la Morganhil and others) of a systemic and malicious set of problems at CMC. I also want the USNews to clearly show why this “recalculation” has the most trivial impact on the full rankings. </p>
<p>Contrary to what you intimate, I would welcome a complete recalculation of the data of the past 8 years. Just as I welcome the wholesale changes in reporting from a great number of official at schools that have joked about their inability to survive any kind of audit of their admission numbers. Is there any doubt that the fall of Dick Vos on his own sword generated a stir among his peers who might not have treated the accuracy of admission results with the attention it needed? I would wager that officials at most schools ranked on the first two pages of the USNews are worried. And if they are not, most Trustees are. </p>
<p>However, I deal in facts and not wishful thinking. As I wrote, the USNews will not republish the data beyond a mere blog entry. It is unfortunate that this will not happen as it is obvious that it might be the only thing that would stop the claims of CMC having benefitted greatly from its deception. Alas, that is total wishful thinking on my part. The reality is that students and parents from schools that are and have been threatened by the success of a neighbor or a school on a different coast will continue to adopt a hypocritical and sanctimonious attitude and jump on this case with the glee and abandon a pack of rabid wolves on a baby moose. Truth and accuracy will never be of paramount importance to the envious. Self-interest is!</p>
<p>Why is so hard to wait for the results of the internal investigation at CMC and wait for the revised data at the USNews? Why is it so hard to refrain to make wholesale judgments about an entire administration, or intimate the problem reflects a deeply ingrained culture of deception and lack of ethics? </p>
<p>After all, should people conclude that the theft of cutlery at Wesleyan’s dining halls is a sign of the lacking ethics of an entire student body? Are all students thieves because $19,000 of mugs and forks have vanished from the drawers of Bon Appetit?</p>
<p>In the end, if truth and transparency are important to you … we are on the same team.</p>
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<p>No, but, the entire incident involving dining hall cutlery at Wesleyan does serve to remind me that we come by our “sanctimoniousness” honestly. Note that among the tags at the bottom of the student-run blog (which you obviously read), are such encomniums as “entitled”, “lazy”, and “stealing”. Wesleyan is nothing if not self-critical. I was hoping to see some glimpse of that on this forum.<br>
<a href=“http://wesleying.org/2011/11/21/the-rundown-on-dishware-theft-at-usdan/[/url]”>http://wesleying.org/2011/11/21/the-rundown-on-dishware-theft-at-usdan/</a></p>
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<p>I am not sure what you hope to accomplish by adding this type of comment. And, for the record, I do not read the student blogs at Wesleyan any more than I would read similar “sources of information” from CMC.</p>
<p>^^Let me guess: you’re in the habit of reading the Bon Appetit daily events schedule for pleasure?</p>
<p>“Why is so hard to wait for the results of the internal investigation at CMC and wait for the revised data at the USNews?”</p>
<p>Xiggi, time can be more/less important according to one’s situation. For those who are right now deciding to apply and/or in the application process, having a legitimate interest on the resoultion of this issue in a timely manner is to be expected.</p>
<p>@performersmom “Last, and I am guessing that this is what fca 719 may have been getting at: the culture and values of the school are now is question- it is now more dishonest than previously assumed.”</p>
<p>Thanks for understanding. For some people this is important. </p>
<p>And it seems to me, the Common App ask applicants for questions such as “Have you ever been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at any educational institution you have attended from the 9th grade (or the international equivalent)
forward, whether related to academic misconduct or behavioral misconduct, that resulted in a disciplinary action? These actions could include, but are not limited
to: probation, suspension, removal, dismissal, or expulsion from the institution.”</p>
<p>One can assume that some schools may make decisions based on the answer to this (and the crime/felony) question. Isn’t reasonable to expect that applicants may make decisions based on whether the school misbehaved in the past?</p>
<p>Oh come on FCA, stop pretending with your pious BS about desiring a quick resolution because of your crocodile tears of concern for future applicants. The deadline for the application period for the 2012-2013 year, if you truly thought about it, transpired last month. Let’s see it has been less than a week and you’re already critical about the CMC administration because you don’t have a resolution. You can be sanctimonious if you want, but at least try to be honest with your intentions.</p>
<p>Parent57: I haven’t yet received an RSVP to my invitation … (post #184). I really hope you can come to the party!</p>
<p>“Contrary to what you intimate, I would welcome a complete recalculation of the data of the past 8 years.”</p>
<p>Xiggi: I wasn’t trying to “intimate” anything about your position. I’ve merely been responding in disagreement to your prediction, which is that USNews will not recalculate its rankings based on the rankings fraud committed at CMC. You think they won’t recalculate the rankings. I think they will. That’s all. Unfortunately, I’m quite sure it makes no difference to USNews what either Xiggi or chrisrb think on the matter … although, just maybe, it might make a difference if enough people demand such a recount.</p>
<p>“Why is so hard to wait for the results of the internal investigation at CMC and wait for the revised data at the USNews? Why is it so hard to refrain to make wholesale judgments about an entire administration, or intimate the problem reflects a deeply ingrained culture of deception and lack of ethics?”</p>
<p>I agree … although I think fca719 makes a good point about the need for a quick resolution of the matter and the right of applicants to CMC to feel ****ed off at having to be honest while CMC lies and puts them in what could be a difficult and unpleasant situation. We should base opinions on facts, not “what ifs.” The facts we already have, though, are pretty bad.</p>
<p>We know that Vos deliberately falsified the vast majority (75%) of student SAT scores he reported on behalf of CMC (it was not mere “category reshuffling” or other less onerous manipulation of data) in order to cheat the USNews rankings. We’ll be getting more facts as time goes on to indicate how far the corruption had or hadn’t spread at CMC.</p>
<p>I also disagree with another of your predictions, Xiggi, that this scandal will not likely produce a downgrade in CMC’s position in the USNews rankings. The lower SAT scores themselves may have only slight effect, but they will have some effect, nevertheless. In addition, I think it’s highly likely that CMC’s peer assessment scores will take a hit (perhaps a big one) over the next several years because of the scandal; given that USNews gives this measure a large 22.5% weighting, even a moderately lower score here could be quite damaging to CMC’s ranking. In addition, I think there’s a real likelihood that high school counselors are going to downgrade their assessment of CMC, which would hurt further. Also, alumni giving, another factor in the USN rankings, could be negatively effected. Add this all up, and, it seems to me, CMC could quite easily see a significant downward slide in USN rankings in coming years, until it’s reputation is restored and these negative ranking pressures go away.</p>
<p>In my opinion, were this to take place, given only what we already know, such a downward slide would be well deserved. This isn’t about whether or not CMC is evil. All human beings are evil, and good, and the same goes for institutions; sometimes one aspect gets expressed, other times the other aspect gets expressed. But of course actions do have consequences, and fraud rightly leads to a tainted reputation and all the attending negative ramifications. (At the risk of dating myself … it’s called Karma.)</p>
<p>Deeply sorry and saddened and worried as I would be if it were to happen, the same would hold true if Wesleyan was on the hot seat. Choose the action, and one also chooses the consequence. Cheating is risky. Sometimes one gets caught. Then one pays the price.</p>