{"id":3746,"date":"2019-10-01T14:19:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T18:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=3746"},"modified":"2019-10-01T14:19:04","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T18:19:04","slug":"nacac19-beyond-operation-varsity-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2019\/10\/01\/nacac19-beyond-operation-varsity-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"#NACAC19: Beyond Operation Varsity Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
NACAC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Operation Varsity Blues uncovered a complex bribing and cheating scandal within the world of selective college admission.<\/p>\n

Although no admission professionals were implicated in the wrongdoing, the scandal’s visibility prompted many discussions among those in the field\u2014conversations that continued last week at NACAC\u2019s 75th<\/sup> National Conference in Louisville.<\/p>\n

A panel of nine NACAC members<\/a> explored the long-term implications for the admission profession and responded to some of the big questions raised in the wake of scandal. The wide-reaching discussion was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em><\/a> and was one of the conference\u2019s most well-attended sessions.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“At a minimum, the scandal and its aftermath have revealed that there’s a widespread lack of understanding about how students are recruited and admitted to college in the United States,\u201d Stefanie Niles, NACAC\u2019s immediate past-president, told conference attendees during the session\u2019s introduction. “And beyond the public’s perceptions, the scandal has raised some legitimate questions about the influence of wealth and privilege in the admission process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miss out on the conversation? Below are some highlights from the discussion.<\/p>\n

On perceptions of the process:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMystery creates mistrust, and in the absence of a narrative, the public creates their own.\u201d \u2014 Angel B. P\u00e9rez, vice president for enrollment and student success, Trinity College (CT)<\/em><\/p>\n

“When the public says they want (college admission) to more transparent, I think sometimes they just want a formula. As long as, of course, the formula works for them.” \u2014Jeffrey Selingo, panel moderator and author of a forthcoming book on college admission<\/em><\/p>\n

On changing student mindsets: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for students who have been raised to think that they are special to then be told by an outsider that they are not special\u2026So how do we change that conversation around \u2018where I\u2019m getting in\u2019 and \u2018why is this process fair or not fair\u2019 to \u2018what are the things that I\u2019m bringing to that university\u2019 and \u2018what are the things that I\u2019m going to do there?\u2019\u201d \u2014 Aliza Gilbert, college counselor, Highland Park High School (IL)<\/em><\/p>\n

On access and inclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“If we really want our institutions to achieve their mission of inclusiveness and diversity, we have to build relationships of trust in the communities where we want to recruit these students. And that means that we cannot simply be in those communities when we are looking for students…we have a responsibility to the communities within which we reside.” \u2014 Youlonda Copeland-Morgan, vice provost for enrollment management, University of California, Los Angeles<\/em><\/p>\n

On the concept of fairness: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis concept of fairness is really tricky, and it’s especially tricky when you’re trying to explain it to families who have never been dealt a fair hand in life. So how do you then look at those families who have never experienced fairness in education, in environment, in community, and then say: \u2018Trust me, this process is fair.\u2019…There is a certain level of mistrust that starts there when you’re asking them to believe in a concept that they’ve never seen before.\u201d \u2014 Sanjay Mitchell, director of college and alumni support, Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter School (DC)<\/em><\/p>\n

Did you attend the session? Share your biggest takeaways in the comment section below. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Recordings of the Beyond Operation Varsity Blues panel and all 2019 conference sessions are available for purchase through PlaybackNow. View package options<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Admitted writer\/editor Mary Stegmeir welcomes additional comments and story ideas at\u00a0<\/em>mstegmeir@nacacnet.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Operation Varsity Blues uncovered a complex bribing and cheating scandal within the world of selective college admission. Although no admission professionals were implicated in the wrongdoing, the scandal’s visibility prompted many discussions among those in the field\u2014conversations that continued last week at NACAC\u2019s 75th National Conference in Louisville. A panel of nine NACAC members explored … Continue reading #NACAC19: Beyond Operation Varsity Blues<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,10,8,19,6],"tags":[443],"class_list":["post-3746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-access","category-college-admission","category-college-admission-in-the-news","category-nacac-national-conference","category-nacac-news","tag-nacac19"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mary Stegmeir","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/mstegmeir\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-Yq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}