HONESTY IN ADMISSIONS: Though I admire Alan Wolfe, I have to disagree with his most recent post on Open University. Wolfe argues that Marilee Jones, the admissions director at MIT who was recently exposed for having lied on her resume about having attained a college degree when she first applied for a job there, should not have had to resign. Wolfe argues, "We are as a country too much given to the absurd idea of zero tolerance." While I'm sympathetic to Wolfe's sentiment that a simple apology for youthful mistakes ought to often suffice in public life, I think the nature of Jones' lie, and her job, make her actions inexcusable.
Jones is, after all, in the business of assessing the applications of ambitious people that often contain unverified claims of extra-curricular activities and so forth. The temptation to lie on your college applications is considerable, and so for a college to allow its admissions director to do so would send the message that it is OK for applicants to do the same. Moreover, she did not lie about, say, an unrelated drug possession arrest. She lied about her academic credentials. At an academic institution that strikes me as a pretty severe violation.
Elite institutions like MIT set a tone among high school seniors that applying to college is a stressful competition among kids with stellar resumes. By letting Jones go I think MIT is sending the right message, that character matters more than your supposed credentials.
--Ben Adler
