<p>the scanner, and the printer. Welcome to 2006 Freshmen Peer Advising - My name is Kaavya Viswanathan. I'll be happy to introduce you to our three biggest allies: Xerox, Omniscape, and Adobe Acrobat. Please remember that your use of this fancy equipment should be completely unintentional and unconscious. If you have any questions, please contact me. I have a great database of alumnis/attorneys. Follow me to the library where we house a few million pilfering targets. </p>
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Although her plagiarism-plagued novel “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life” no longer graces bookstore window displays, life goes on for Kaavya Viswanathan ’08. The on-the-go life of an ambitious Harvard student, that is. </p>
<p>During the summer, Viswanathan will be working at 85 Broads, a network founded in 1999 for female Goldman Sachs employees. The organization has since expanded to reach out to women attending business school and college. </p>
<p>And when she returns to school in the fall, she will be interacting with freshmen as a peer advising fellow. Viswanathan was selected as one of about 190 fellows out of nearly 500 applicants, and she attended a dinner at Fenway Park’s EMC Club last month for fellows, according to several attendees. The fellows will reach out to freshmen over the summer and on move-in day, and they will assume some of the responsibilities of the former Prefect Program.
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<p>From faculty to students, they sure know how to reward cheats in Cambridge. What were they really thinking?</p>
<p>On one hand, I'm sure Ms. Viswanathan is personable and well-spoken. Perhaps Harvard also hopes she will use her "unfortunate experience" to counsel entering freshmen against the pitfalls of plagiarism. </p>
<p>On the other hand, it's clear that the Harvard administrators who select peer advisors are either woefully ignorant of Ms. Viswanathan's plagiarism or, more likely, have an ethical blindspot that prevents them from viewing her selection as a problem.</p>
<p>I guess that schools can just look past any honor code violation that DOESN'T involve on campus activities. Is this right?</p>
<p>Everyone is entitled to make mistakes in this world, but holding this girl up as a paragon of anything before she somehow makes 'right' is simply foolish. I'm sorry, but exactly what penalty did she suffer (aside from financial consequences)? What restitution has she made?</p>
<p>Given the access to internet and information that potential employers and grad schools have, presumably her indiscretion will be known, viewed, as is the case with bad Facebook postings- right. Or, does the H name trump all? Or is all publicity good?</p>
<p>Yes, it is simply amazing. There is a new Dean of Advising (hired away from Princeton) and the selection of peer advisors was made at the height of the Kayvaa publicity; there is no way that the Dean and others would not have known. One has to wonder what she said to get herself selected and one has to wonder what the Dean and others thought of the image her selection conveyed.</p>
<p>Gee, she'll be a good addition to Harvard advising: complement the groundkeepers and others who advise?</p>
<p>Marite, can you refresh our recollection regarding who the advisors are at H? and how the process works? I seem to recall a house component, too? Formal or informal?</p>
<p>"Gee, she'll be a good addition to Harvard advising: complement the groundkeepers and others who advise?"</p>
<p>Harvard bashing at its very best. How nice when people have the need to put down something they know nothing about.</p>
<p>"One has to wonder what she said to get herself selected and one has to wonder what the Dean and others thought of the image her selection conveyed."</p>
<p>Freshman advising is the weakest component at Harvard. Only a fraction of freshmen have faculty advisors; others are advised by members of the staff-some of whom can indeed be heads of departments such as buildings and grounds (though not the ground-keepers, I would imagine). Some advisors are the proctors (Resident advisors) who are often graduate students. My S had a proctor as his advisor. The proctors are good about the more administrative stuff and organizing social events, less good about academic issues (and the reverse must be true about faculty advisors). In addition, there were prefects: upperclassmen who did not live in freshman dorms but were available to talk to freshmen. How much contact they had with freshmen varied greatly. The peer advisors are supposed to replace the prefects, be better trained, more consistently available, etc...
I do believe that the Houses have better advising, with specific resident tutors for specific interests (e.g. pre-law, pre-med) as well as House Masters, Resident deans, etc...
Kayvaa was selected to be a peer advisor for incoming freshmen. She may be a terrific advisor, but one has to consider the perception as well as the reality.</p>
<p>I don't either; but I do not know how many upperclassmen applied for the positions, so I don't know whether there were "thousands of potential role models."</p>
<p>It says in the quote above that 190 people were selected from 500 applicants, so I assume that at least one person of the 310 not chosen would have been qualified.</p>
<p>You have to wonder how those among the 310 not chosen felt about being told that she was more qualified than them. I think sometimes there's a "give everyone a second chance" mindset that in turn slights those who haven't squandered a first chance.</p>
<p>It's hard to know why the 310 were not chosen. It could be because their academic performance was not strong enough, they could not deveote the time they should to the work, they showed they were not as familiar with Harvard as they should be, etc...</p>
<p>Sometimes it's good to have an ordinary Harvard student be an advisor--picking the most brilliant, hardworking students doesn't guarantee that you have the best peer advisors. The important features of a good peer advisor are people skills and integrity. You have to be able to relate to people and not alienate them. Kaavya was the worst choice ever!</p>
<p>I agree that Kayvaa was a terrible choice. I do not think that peer advisors were selected because they were brilliant. There are plenty of students whose knowledge of Harvard is quite limited even after 3 years because they are so immersed in their own little world. They'd make terrible advisors.</p>
<p>As amazing as the adult 'decision making' surrounding this girl is, I find it fascinating to think about her nature....What does it say about someone that they can 1. lie, 2. get caught in a the lie, 3. become notorious for the lie and for getting caught-- and then turn around and apply to be an Advisor!! This girl has magnificent cognitive mechanisims for self justification, a bit scary in fact. I would guess a lot of 20 year olds in her position might actually lay low and not do anything to draw attention to themselves for at least..a semester. Someone out there surely has an excellent psychoanalytical explanation for this.</p>
<p>Getting back to the adults....sometimes I think that adults just enjoy the proximate glory of wonder kids so much they fail to realize that they are just kids, and that limits and rules are part of life that everyone needs to learn about.</p>
<p>Was I bashing, or closer to the truth? Before you accuse someone of not knowing what they're talking about, you might want to check your own information. It appears you are the one who does not know?</p>