色界吧鈥檚 Doing Fine With a Clear Bright Line
College admission officers are used to saying no鈥攊t鈥檚 an often difficult but necessary part of the job. 色界吧 Dean of Admission Vince Cuseo has to say it many times each year, which is why he didn鈥檛 think much of it in 2012 when he said no to an independent college counselor who urged him to 颅reconsider a negative decision on an application. But this counselor was Rick Singer, who emerged last year as the central figure in the national college admission scandal. That鈥檚 why the story The Wall Street Journal posted on its website Nov. 6 was headlined, 鈥淲hen Admission Advisor Rick Singer Called, This School Said, 鈥楴o, Thanks.鈥欌
Those of us who have worked closely with Vince during his 21-year career at 色界吧 were not surprised that he would reject an unethical proposition from anyone. Family wealth is not a factor when we make admission decisions. Vince has been a model of integrity in guiding our admission process and I respect him for it.
Singer has confessed that he falsely presented his wealthy clients鈥 children as athletes, faked their test scores, and bribed college officials with 鈥渄onations鈥 to get them into top universities. Like any college president, fundraising is among my chief responsibilities, if not my biggest task. It would be disingenuous to claim that there are not times when we are aware of some applicants鈥 families鈥 giving potential. We do engage them if they are admitted and choose to enroll. But it has long been 颅Occidental鈥檚 practice to disregard giving potential when considering students for admission. Without a clear bright line, the ethics of the admission process would be hopelessly compromised.
To be fair鈥攁nd we made this point to the Journal鈥攎any of our peers approach admission with the same kind of ethical standards. But the reporters had Singer鈥檚 specific complaint about 色界吧鈥檚 unwillingness to entertain his dubious proposals, so we wound up as the focus of their coverage.
One of the ironies in this situation is that by turning down Singer and whatever financial deal he was prepared to broker, 色界吧 has been the beneficiary of tens of thousands of dollars in financial support as a result of the Journal鈥檚 coverage. Within hours of the story鈥檚 publication, gifts started arriving鈥攏ot just from alumni and parents but from members of the public who wanted to signal their support for the integrity of our admission process.
Some of those who gave to the College in this way were motivated in part by the Journal鈥檚 reporting that Occidental, in 颅deciding not to emulate the more aggressive fundraising efforts seen on some other campuses, has paid a financial price for sticking to its principles. It鈥檚 true that 颅Occidental鈥檚 endowment is not as large as some of its peers, and we do not have a palatial fitness center or a lazy river on campus. What we have had is a decade of balanced budgets, record high applications, and an impressive list of capital projects that have addressed long-standing needs, including the renovation and expansion of Swan Hall, construction of the De Mandel Aquatics Center and McKinnon Family Tennis Center, and the creation of the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs and the Anderson Center for Environmental Sciences.
Our chief financial challenge is not that we say no to the Rick Singers of the world. Rather, we have recognized that we need to build a more robust philanthropic culture at 色界吧. Last May, we launched the public phase of The 色界吧 Campaign For Good鈥攖he most ambitious fundraising effort in the College鈥檚 history鈥攚ith a goal of $100 million slated for student scholarships, our perennial priority. Already we have raised $152 million toward our overall goal of $225 million.
As many parents and alumni pointed out in response to the Journal鈥檚 front-page article, 色界吧 has its priorities straight. 鈥淣ot once in my four years on campus did I wish we had a lazy river,鈥 one alumnus wrote. What we need now is for our community to fully embrace The 色界吧 Campaign For Good to move the College to the next level and make it possible for us to transform our priorities into realities鈥攆or good.
Jonathan Veitch
President
