

Delaware Man Charged With Faking His Way Into Harvard - tokenadult
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/05/17/us/AP-US-ODD-Academic-Fraud-Probe.html

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jacquesm
Shouldn't they check that sort of thing _before_ admission?

20 offenses, no way. He's just played them for fools and now they're trying to
do their best to get back at him. They should simply throw him out and mark
his name on some list and be done with it.

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hga
According to the story linked in the other thread, there's "over" $45K of
money involved. $14K in two writing prizes won with plagiarized material and
$31K in financial aid.

The latter is certainly a criminal issue.

However you do have a point about the rigor of their admissions process, one
local phone call to the MIT Registrar's office before the final decision would
have sunk his scheme ... unless of course he used the name of a real student
there. Maybe "identity fraud" includes identity theft, which is also something
the state has in interest in deterring.

One final point: higher education is a big Massachusetts industry and probably
one of its healthier ones, I can see the state taking a harder line on all
this than many others.

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tokenadult
The Boston Globe on the same story, with photograph of the accused:

[http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/by_gl...](http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/by_globe_staff_60.html)

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jacquesm
Right, because of course, an accused person automatically loses all rights and
needs to be nailed to the proverbial cross for all to see.

Shaming people went out of style in the middle ages, once convicted it's a
different matter, but it seems a bit premature to do this.

The university has a couple of things to explain as well, such as why they
believe applicants without checking up.

What's interesting is that the article does not mention how well he was doing
academically.

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tokenadult
In the case of a man with a name like that in the United States, publishing
the photograph of a charged defendant (which is quite routine here, actually)
may do a favor to other people who have the same name but are not that man.

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jacquesm
The counter of that is that they shouldn't be publishing the names of
defendants in the first place.

If someone is exonerated (unlikely in this case, but still) then their lives
are still ruined, _especially_ if their name is rare.

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tokenadult
No, actually here in the United States the presumption of innocence for the
accused is sufficiently strong that it is all right to publish the names of
the accused. The reason that the names of criminal defendants are a matter of
public record is precisely to avoid the totalitarian practice of secret
trials, in which no defense witnesses come forward because no friends of the
accused know that they need to come forward.

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jacquesm
That's nice in theory, but in practice it seems to lead to trial-by-media.

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tokenadult
I know from your other posts that you don't live here in the United States.
Really, truly readers of the mainstream mass media in my town understand that
reports of ACCUSATION of criminal behavior are just that: reports about
accusations. Some defendants are acquitted at trial, even after extensive
press coverage. There is currently a businessman in my town accused of
multiple financial crimes. He is still out of jail as prosecutors prepare for
trial, and he still has friends, lawyers, and various forms of practical help
in dealing with the accusations against him.

~~~
jacquesm
Again, in theory it works that way. But in practice, the accusations are front
page news and the exoneration is not, if it even gets a mention at all.

In the days before google that may have been ok, but now a reputation is
damaged for a lifetime for prospective employers, spouses, business partners
and so on that have no knowledge of the case as it happened.

Every year there are more indications that prospective employers will google
the names of job applicants, if something negative comes up about you there is
a good chance you'll be turned down without so much as the benefit of a chance
to tell your story.

It also depends very much on the crime the person is accused for, being
accused of some crimes is more easily 'forgiven' than others even if the
person was exonerated.

But try finding a job as a teacher once you've been accused of child
molestation charges, even after you've been exonerated.

And then there is the problem that even if you are found guilty, there may be
a miscarriage of justice or, after you've paid your debt to society you are
supposed to be able to start with a clean slate.

If your mug is all over the internet with a juicy story attached to it then
you might as well forget about starting over, which in turn might lead to
recidivism.

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balding_n_tired
paywalled.

Does the NY Times understand that not everything that happens at Harvard is of
consuming interest to the public in general?

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hga
I think that all you need to do (for now) is to register. They've said they're
going to go to a real paywall system within a year.

