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Messages sent between sports offices and USC admissions
highlight a truism in college admissions: money talks.
The emails, which were made public Tuesday when a lawyer of a father accused of the college admissions scandal filed them in court, highlight how the university puts kids looking for donors and other influential families for special consideration in the application process.
Emails, for example, include the "special" candidate wish list that a senior sports department official sent each spring to the head of the school's admissions office. In e-mails, as well as in the internal spreadsheets included in the documents, students were often identified by the amount their parents gave or were expected to give to the school. Influential people at USC who were demanding admission to a student were also mentioned, and in some cases a parent's profession was listed.
In
a spreadsheet attached to one of the e-mails, which included about 200 "special interest" candidates submitted by the Sports Department between 2012 and 2015, a score for a student indicating "25,000 checks and more, plus late. " pledge. "Several others were mentioned simply as" donor ".
A lawyer for Robert Zangrillo, a Miami financier, filed the internal messages as part of his defense against charges. Zangrillo has made payments to the admitted brain-admissions plan, William "Rick" Singer, and a Singer associate at USC to sneak his school daughter.
At trial, lawyer Martin Weinberg said that far from being a crime, Zangrillo's efforts were perfectly in line with how the USC deals with admissions for VIP families.
Weinberg summoned to appear
USC for information on all students that the university has reported in recent years as what the school qualifies as "special interest" and donations given by their families. USC opposes the subpoena, calling it a "fishing dispatch" in court filings, going far beyond the Zangrillo case. Weinberg in turn filed the emails on Tuesday, hoping to persuade a judge to order USC to comply with its request for documents.
Weinberg wrote in a court record that, if given, the records would prove the existence of a university program at USC … where past donations, future pledges, or waiting for future gifts based on The conviction of the university in one The resources of the parents profoundly affect the chances of admission of a potential student, as well as various factors other than the grades and test results, including the recommendations made by influential persons, past or present, on behalf of the latter. "
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the USC said the school did not hide the fact that it allowed officials on its campus to flag candidates for special attention, but that the Admissions office alone decided on students admitted to the selective university.
Zangrillo's filing appears to be part of a legal and public relations strategy aimed at diverting attention from the criminal fraud for which he was indicted by a federal grand jury USC remains convinced that the court will suit with us that it is not necessary that he produce the information and documents requested by the defendant. "
The emails clearly show that USC officials discussed potential donations from the applicants' parents. But we do not know exactly what role it played in decisions.
The USC admissions office official said in court that admissions decisions were not influenced by donations.
The legal battle has only increased control over USC, which is at the center of the vast scandal of college admissions. In March, Boston's federal prosecutors unveiled charges against dozens of parents – including actresses, techies, and energy brokers – accusing them of hiring Singer to bribe and cheat their kids in colleges elite. Singer's lawyer declined to comment.
Although Singer has had a foothold on many campuses, USC stands out: Four members of the school's sports department and 19 USC parents were charged.
According to prosecutors, to ensure that his daughter, Amber, is admitted to the USC, Zangrillo paid $ 200,000 to Singer, a college admissions consultant at Newport Beach, and $ 50,000 to an account controlled by Donna Heinel, one of the USC's largest athletic administrators. Zangrillo pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.
The singer is the recognized pivot from a sprawling plan, almost ten years to set college entrance exams for the children of its wealthy clients and present them under a false pretext to universities as recruited athletes. He pleaded guilty to four crimes in March and cooperated with Massachusetts federal prosecutors who discovered his scam. Heinel, who pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, was fired from his post when she was arrested.
Heinel, who liaised between the sports department and the school's admissions office, wrote several e-mails released Tuesday. Other e-mails were written by USC development agents, who develop relationships with wealthy families in the hope of persuading them to make important donations to the school .
In an exchange in 2014, Heinel informed several development agents that the son of a wealthy family had been admitted to school as a water polo player. Development officers then discussed the amount of money that the family could expect, one of them saying that they were "a high-level prospect with a potential $ 1-5 million ", probably referring to a $ 1-5 million donation.
After the family does not seem to have donated, Heinel proposes to make sure that "the admissions get approved" for the boy to go to the USC. A development worker refuses the agent, writing, "Really shit, do not shoot, we are going to make them feel guilty".
Nina Marino, Heinel's lawyer, said in a statement that the emails highlighted "an aspect of the USC admission that was directly related to donations."
Heinel, she said, "did not create this system" and did a job consistent with the expectations of the sports directors she worked under.
In a spreadsheet maintained by the Department of Sports and Admissions, there was a candidate who,
despite a much lower average than what is usually required to be admitted to USC, we come from a family that committed $ 3 million to the men's golf program. He was identified as "VIP" and had the blessing of Pat Haden, the sporting director of the time.
In the "thoughts" category of another student, a director simply wrote "$ 15 million".
And the son of a "well-known ortho surgeon" got the status of "VIP" despite a weighted average of less than 2.88 and an equally inadequate score on his entrance exam.
There was another "VIP" candidate apparently perceived as such a blessing for the university that, instead of highlighting a particular advantage of the university, classified in codes, his candidacy was simply reported as "any known code of man . "
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