When you’re sending your kid off to a highly rated private university, with tuition and all expenses totaling over $100,000 for typical students paying full rate, you probably have some expectations. These expectations might include your kid studying for exams, getting good grades, learning how to critically think, making good friends, and getting life experiences that can set the foundation for a successful future. This might include a job after graduation, or maybe admission to graduate school.
Oh, one more thing. Don’t forget that your kid might get in a senior year scandal based on a detailed powerpoint presentation.
I can only imagine what the family of the now famous Duke University graduate had to feel. An education costing a ton of money, for this?
For those who don’t know the story, simply Google “Duke University PowerPoint Scandal”, or something along those lines. You can read the details at a few of those links.
Here’s the problem: what was may have been intended to be a “joke” presentation for her girlfriends ended up being distributed outside this circle of friends and ultimately became widely distributed. Eventually, this reached the blogoshpere and now it’s being reported on and discussed all of the web and media.
Oops.
We know stuff like that happens, whether we like it or not. I can’t imagine any parent liking this, knowing that big money is being spent on a kid’s future. You can only hope that you have raised a kid to make smart decisions.
The aftermath? She’s now famous, though many might think there would be better things to be famous for
Worse, she may have (one would think) caused some level of embarrassment her family. Additionally, and equally important, she may have embarrassed others based how she “rated” others in detail in her PowerPoint. If you’re one of the few guys she raved about, your reputation may be enhanced:) That said, it might still be completely embarrassing for their families. Or maybe not, who knows. We don’t know for sure, but I would think some want to crawl under a rock.
Not ideal.
I have seen commentary online that goes so far as to practically describe this as “liberating” for women. In other words, men do things like this so why should people look at her differently because she’s a woman? Almost like, “You GO Girl!”. Hmmmm….is that going to really help out in real life? This isn’t specific to her of course. We all know about celebrities who commit some transgressions and paid a very big price for it, in a high-profile way.
The lesson here, the way I see it, is that such actions don’t really benefit the people who engage in them. Actions have consequences, and extreme risk-taking can lead to big problems. Good theatre and entertainment for some, but painful for others. Seems like the college investment of time and money shouldn’t result in problems like this. I sincerely hope for the very best for this person. Duke grads are smart, and people can learn from situations and make good decisions going forward.
What do you think about this issue?
Do you think the Duke grad has put some things at risk, or am I just being old-fashioned about this?
Do you you think how people will view this or similar issues is based on gender, or do universal standards apply here.
Quote from babble “This Karen Owen scandal is yet another example of how email and the internet can do damage with information that was only intended for a small audience.”
Be careful with everything sent out!
Roshawn – Yes, do indeed be careful with everything sent out! Absolutely agree.
Something similar happend when I was in college with a youtube video. Basically the story is that a jilted lover had a sex video of him and his freshman girlfriend. She dumped him after he visited her during the first weekend of school leaving him on the streets of DC. So he exacted his revenge by starting off his video like one of those mastercard commercials. The perfect revenge: priceless leading into a very consentual sex video… ending with all of her contact info. Pretty bad, but luckily for her, blogs were not quite as prevelent 10ish years ago as they are now. I could not imagine being in that situation… probably because I am not stupid enough to be…
It will be interesting to see how this turns out. From what I understand, she wrote her thesis on this topic also, and is also possibly going to get book/movie deals. She may either be a flash in the pan or may end up like Oprah.
Overall, I would be crushed if this was my daughter. Duke is a difficult school to get into, and it is kind of strange that KO turned this into a sexcapade. (Hopefully she got an education along the way.) It was actually quite cruel of her to publish this info, I cannot imagine the amount of embarrassment her conquests are experiencing. (Well, at least the poorly rated ones.)
On the other hand, maybe any income from this will pay for any student loans she has!
I don’t feel bad for her at all, but I really feel sorry her family and those poor guys…even the well-rated ones may not have appreciated her being so open about it. I also think that people who keep little black books with stars to indicate “apptitude” are gross too. It’s just skanky in general – men and women alike.
I wouldn’t want my business out there, but such is the culture these days. When I was in college we shared with roommates and kept the salacious details to ourselves…okay, maybe not, but still – powerpoint or photos. She’ll get her 15 minutes of fame and parlay it into some book and movie deal then slink away into obscurity. All-in-all, still embarrassing to these young men. They did not know what they signed up for.
I guess being discreet and “don’t kiss and tell” might be considered outdated by this young lady and her cohorts. I don’t understand folks who view this in a positive light, I would not approve of this type of exhibitionism from my kids. If that’s old-fashioned thinking, that’s ok, too.