Earlier this month, Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, announced charges against dozens of parents and coaches involved in a scheme to cheat to get the children of those parents into selective colleges across the country.
The alleged methods include bribing officials and coaches at eight universities to help secure spots for the children as recruited athletes. Some parents and agents even went so far as to falsify athletic achievements to help make sure those applicants were granted admission.
Prosecutors say parents paid a total of $25 million to secure spots for their kids at top schools across the country, including Yale, Georgetown, Stanford, the University of Southern California and UCLA. Prosecutors dubbed the investigation "Operation Varsity Blues."
We speak with Andrew Flag el, vice president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and Anthony Jack, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of "The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students."
"People love to say that lower-income students, black and Latino students, first-generation students are overmatching – they're going to schools that are too big for their britches,” Jack said. “Who's overmatching when you had every single advantage and you still had to cheat to get in?"
Then we talk about a new college at MIT that is making waves.
Starting this fall, there will be a College of Computing at MIT, which some see as a shift in how higher education values technical fields. We'll sit down with computer scientist Maria Klawe, the president of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif.
Finally, we'll preview next month's show, where we'll explore how the student occupation of a campus building at Brandeis University helped change the landscape of higher education.
On Campus Radio airs the last Sunday of each month at 8 p.m., only on 89.7 WGBH.
