William "Rick" Singer is in the middle of the college admission scandals as he created a fake charity for rich parents to donate to.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
Coming to the public light on March 12, Georgetown University, Stanford University, the University of Southern California, Yale University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of San Diego, the University of Texas at Austin and more are unfolding as the forefront of a rampant college admission scandal involving parents illegally paying off college administration so their child can attend the prestigious schools.
We’ve all heard the cliché statement “parents will do anything for their kids,” but exactly at what cost? Variety reported, “among dozens of wealthy parents who allegedly paid $200,000 up to $6.5 million to falsify SAT and ACT scores.”
In addition, Forbes reported, “the allegations include bribing coaches and administrators to designate applicants as recruited athletes, when they were not athletes, to gain admission to colleges and universities; and using a charitable organization to conceal bribery payments.”
In other words, these individuals, who were met with the financial means, bribed these various colleges and universities in order to have their children admitted at the expense of deception and improper qualification. In doing so, this has revealed the disparaging wealth gap between the fortunate and no so fortunate that has managed to thrive in this capitalist society.
Fortunately, scamming comes at a price to the 50 parents involved, including actress Lori Loughlin who played Aunt Becky on "Full House", and Felicity Huffman who played Lynette Scavo on "Desperate Housewives". However, this scandal initially became present as college admission firm Newport Beach College Placement, managed by William “Rick” Singer, accepted money from wealthy parents to help their kids falsify results on college entrance exams in order to catapult their guaranteed admission into these prestigious universities.
However, that’s not the most disturbing revelation.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Singer had parents donate money to a fake charity he had organized in order to contribute to the scheme. That way, the parents had the benefit of deducting the donation from their income taxes, according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Needless to say, Singer and the other culprits are being charged within the $25 million convoluted scandal. While the culprits of this scandal and victim may remain unclear, it's not difficult to differentiate the two.
As this scandal comes in the form of deception, it’s also masked with the intent to discourage, manipulate and undermine the prime individuals who have fallen victim to this unfair admission process. This process, which requires costly, unless waived, application fees, may have resulted in individuals being wait listed or perhaps denied, whereas kids of the wealthy are given guaranteed admission due to fraudulent actions, is disheartening.
Though this scandal has incited a dark hole within the educational system it’s nothing new. Forbes stated, “the alleged scheme has been ongoing for years, dating to 2011. Officials from the Justice Department and FBI investigated the case for more than a year.”
Therefore, these universities and colleges need to be held accountable for profiting and benefiting off this situation. More so, the lack of willingness to prevent these occurrences is unacceptable and should no longer be tolerated, but instead criticized for.
