In light of recent allegations of reputable and big name universities accepting sizable donations in exchange for admittance, I thought this would be an adequate topic for this week’s Affirmative Action blog. Two actresses have been under fire for cheating to get their daughters accepted into universities, Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin. For those of you who don’t recognize these names, Felicity played Lynette Scavo in Desperate Housewives and Lori was of course Aunt Becky on Full House.  

Huffman has been charged for paying $15,000 to William “Rick” Singer’s fake charity, Key Worldwide Foundation, to have someone else to take her daughter’s SAT. She took it in December 2017 and reportedly scored 400 points higher than the previous time. While Huffman is married to William H. Macy, a prominent actor most recently famous for playing the role of Frank in the show Shameless, only Huffman is being charged because of lack of evidence showing Macy is culpable. In October, the FBI recorded phone conversations and reported Macy and Huffman talking to Singer about their younger daughter taking the SAT in two days to get a better score. Ultimately, they decided against this idea but it goes to show just how far these parents are willing to go to secure their children’s future, whether they have earned it or not.  

Lori Loughlin has a bit of a different story. She and her husband reportedly “donated” $500,000 to the University of Southern California to get their two daughters recruited as rowers. Neither of them actually row, which posed further suspicion. Loughlin’s husband is Mossimo Giannulli, the creator of the fashion brand Mossimo. They had to falsify crew resumes for them, when an action was required, Mossimo took a picture of their daughter on a stationary erg machine in their house. The guidance counselor at the girls’ high school did not buy into their rowing profiles. Loughlin and Giannulli have both been charged for this case, in typical cases it is rare to see both spouses charged for the same offense.

This cheating ring is not exclusive to these two actresses, 50 people have been charged in what is being called “Operation Varsity Blues”. These 50 people include 2 SAT/ACT administers, an exam proctor, a college administrator, coaches, and 33 parents. The list of parents ranges from actors, to CEO’s, and fashion designers. These parents have paid either Singer or another SAT coach to have someone else take the test and then they pay the schools to get their children recruited as athletes, regardless of their talent or skill. For obvious reasons this takes away opportunities from students who are rightfully qualified to attend these top tier universities. “For every student admitted through fraud, an honest, genuinely talented student was rejected.”(Winton).  This also shows that colleges place more emphasis on what’s inside a parent’s bank account rather than promoting diversity and inclusion on campus.

It’s sad to say, but this is not a new phenomenon. Wealthy parents have been essentially paying for their kids to get into elite universities for years and this is just coming to light. These payments can range anywhere from $200,000 up to $6.2 million. That’s more money than most make in a year and can be more than buying a house. If their children’s education is so important, then why did they not encourage studying and getting them there on their own? This brings me to question the prosperity of the students in these universities who got there because of their mommy or daddy’s checkbook. Among the schools which have been highlighted for involvement in the cheating scandals include USC, Stanford, Yale, and Georgetown. All schools with reputations of being academically rigorous, so how well can these students do in said challenging environments? My theory is if they were not prepared enough in high school to get into these universities, they most likely will flop under the pressure. Personally, as a parent I would be very upset if I paid so much money to get my child into an amazing school only for them to fail out. However, one could argue that if they have enough money to bribe the school, they have enough to get a tutor or cheat throughout college.  

Sources:

Winton, Richard. “Why Wasn’t William H. Macy Charged in College Cheating Scandal that Targeted Wife Felicity Huffman?” LA Times, 13 Mar. 2019, www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-college-cheating-william-h-macy-felicity-huffman-charges-20190313-story.html.  

Levenson, Eric, and Mark Morales. “Wealthy Parents, Actresses, Coaches, Among Those Charged in Massive College Cheating Admission Scandal, Federal Prosecutors Say.” CNN, 13 Mar. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/03/12/us/college-admission-cheating-scheme/index.html.

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