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Matthew Traum

MIT Admissions Dean Misrepresents Credentials: How Many More Cheaters Are Out There?

Marilee Jones, the erstwhile dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has resigned after it was discovered that she misrepresented her academic degrees. Additional coverage of Jones’ resignation can be found under the headline, “MIT dean of admissions resigns for falsifying resume” at the Boston.com. While this situation does not directly relate to alternative energy, I thought it very important to post here due to MIT’s commitment to solving the energy crisis (see my post: “Now Blogging from the “Enertech” Capital of the World”).

I am an MIT graduate student, and I have been working myself sick for the past six years to complete a doctor of philosophy in mechanical engineering. Throughout this process, I have bemoaned that many of my colleagues gave up and quit – and they were rewarded for doing so. Quitters learn the easy way is the best way when they get high-paying jobs for dropping out. Rewards for quitting teach that cheating gets one farther than honestly completing a difficult task. Unfortunately, real value in our society is predicated on perceptions and not on deeds.

The generation in power, the Baby Boomers, continue their Illuminati ways by coddling and promoting cheating for their own benefit while telling younger generations that we have to work harder to live up to expectations. I have already illuminated how I feel about the generation gap in my post “ASHRAE Rap Video Insults Young Recruits’ Intelligence”.

Marilee Jones wrote an article especially critical of the younger generation, which appeared in the September 2001 MIT faculty newsletter under the title “New Kids on the Block: Observations on the Newest Generation of MIT Students”. One of her claims was that the new generation of students needs to understand the rules.

We can’t assume that they actually know what is considered cheating these days. It is possible that they do not realize that pulling something off of the Web and not citing the source is a bad thing… Remember that most adults in their lives cave in to them easily, so they will push back hard. Stand firm through all of their excuses and whining.

How are we, the generation that gets by on “excuses and whining”, supposed to play by the rules when the geezers who wrote the rule book don’t follow their own guidelines?

To you Boomers who cheated your way to the top: run and hide. My generation, the people you’ve spent your lifetimes exploiting to attain your ridiculously high standard of living, is coming after you. We are going to expose you for the frauds that you are. RUN AND HIDE.