In an interesting twist on the whole David Lucien Callahan grade manipulation mess from my last post, I stumbled on another David Callahan who writes about cheating amongst students and similar topics: http://www.cheatingculture.com/aboutdavidcallahanhtm/
Amusing coincidence.
I recently stumbled across the story of a couple of students at Ohio’s Miami University who installed a keylogger on a public computer and used it to steal the passwords of faculty members which they used to change their own grades and those of various fraternity brothers.
Business Week a good article on the case.
Miami University Phi Deltas Beckley Munson Parker of Weston, Connecticut and David Lucien Callahan of Cambridge, Massachusetts were apparently studying business and finance (at Miami’s Farmer School of Business) when the pressure of their rigorous academic schedule (or fraternity drinking/hazing activities) got the better of them and they decided that the only way to keep their grades up was to steal faculty passwords and change their grades. Considering that they had access to the fraternity test bank to copy from before finals (which they may have helped to fill with their hacking), they must have been pretty desperate. Or just really lazy.
After being expelled from Miami University, Journal News reports that David Callahan was sentenced to a 180-day suspended jail sentence, a $3,000 fine and ordered to pay restitution of $1,610. Beckley Parker got two years probation and was ordered to pay $6,000 in fines.
Hopefully they have learned their lesson, but at least it seems like they haven’t lost interest in business. After being expelled from Miami University, David Callahan seems to have continued his business and finance studies at University of Massachusetts Boston College of Management. He was even involved in the Umass Boston student managed fund.
It is getting more and more fashionable to knock the Ivies these days. A New Republic article that has been making a bit of a splash (at least in my social media circles) is the latest example.
As a parent (or independent high school student), you are faced with a disturbing mix of social pressure to get a college degree, skyrocketing tuition costs, and possibly worst of all the increasing doubt over whether your degree will even help you get a job. The problem partly stems from the fact that our higher education system was set up to educate the elite. Even though we like to imagine that class doesn’t exist in the US, it is increasingly clear that it does. This traps many students in a situation where they have to get a degree they can’t afford that is badly suited to the job market they will face. The alternative? Be shut out of the job market all together.
This is sad. Not only does it trap many students in an impossible situation, it corrupts the ideals and true value of a liberal arts education.
Latest OECD rankings show US teens trailing their global peers in financial literacy. BBC Article. China does particularly well. Hmm.
But why? You would think that with access to credit cards and a relatively stable banking system, the US should be doing quite well on this front. Maybe even though US teens have access to these things, they are sheltered from the real implications by their parents much longer than their global peers.
If you are curious, check out the test these finding are based on here.
Thoughts on US Education 