Lehmanities' Jaded in Aftermath of College Bribery Scandal

Lori Loughlin, Mossimo Giannulli and Felicity Huffman, parents involved in the infamous college admission scandal. (Photo Credit: CNN)

By Sally Barrilla

Nine months after the college admissions scandal broke, 50 parents have been charged with bribery. This includes notorious actresses, Lori Loughlin, known as the iconic Aunt Becky of “Full House” and “Fuller House,” and Felicity Huffman from “Christmas with the Kranks” and “Cake.” But while Ivy League schools Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown and Dartmouth have weathered their bad press, Lehman students remain skeptical of the system it has exposed.

“The revelation was necessary and these celebrities should certainly pay the price, but it shouldn’t be much of a surprise since poor people usually get the short end of the stick,” said 56-year-old English major Thomas Behnke. “Even though the percentage of rich people has increased with more people of color from 20 years ago, it’s completely unfair.”

“It's pathetic how Lori Loughlin [is] basically letting the world know her daughter is incapable of getting into college on her own and she’s proving that money can speak volumes more than hard work,” said Lehman senior English major, Davidia Boykins. “Other students work hard, and just because she's rich doesn't give her the right to try to make her daughter be above other students. There are parents working three jobs or more trying to put their children through school all the way to college, and she's trying to financially bombard her daughter into a college.”

The sums of the bribes reveal the steepness of U.S. income inequality. Former chief executive of PIMCO, Douglas Hodge, recently admitted giving admissions staff $500 million dollars to enroll his children in the University of Southern California, where Loughlin and spouse, fashion designer, Mossimo Giannulli, tried enrolling their daughters and lied about them joining the schools’ athletic team, according to New York Times.

Fox News reported that “Aunt Becky” faces a possible sentence of sixty years due to numerous charges that continue to rise.

Huffman, on the contrary, confessed paying to change her daughter’s Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) answers and was given only fourteen days in jail.

Some Lehman students think this scandal will cause many students of color and low income to be vulnerable to harsher college admission policies.

Some of the colleges where parents paid to admit their children. (Photo Credit: Crisis Magazine)

 “Potential students can be overlooked for not having the same resources the college scandal parents had to support their children,” said English Honors student, Yenick Gonzalez.

Others disagreed. “I don’t think it creates much of an impact on students of color unless they went to those schools where that whole incident occurred,” said 28-year-old English major, Marissa Morales.

“I want to say this whole mess is outrageous, but I do believe this is an issue that has been known to people for a long time, and people just sealed their lips and turned the other cheek,” said junior, Kathryn Fornier, a studio art major with a minor in psychology. “I would like to think that this blatant exposure and public shaming of illegal and unjust activity will make waves and positively affect the lives of potential, hardworking, young students, especially those from families of color who are just trying their best to get an education and support themselves and their families.”