Former University of Pennsylvania admissions officer Nadirah Farah Foley is no longer employed after she mocked applicants' admissions essays on her Facebook page, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported. In late 2012, the Admissions Office was alerted of a series of posts that included parts of applicants' essays as well as jarring commentary. Although details surrounding Foley's departure remain uncertain, her name has been removed from the admissions website. Foley's LinkedIn page also indicates that she left the University at the end of 2012, shortly after the university was made aware of the incident. The case provokes questions about the place of social media in college admissions. While the University does not have a written policy explicitly focusing on admissions confidentiality, the Office of the Provost is establishing policies to address applicant privacy.
Jewish students at Cornell University condemned the distribution of anti-Israel materials by the University's Students for Justice in Palestine, The Cornell Daily Sun reported. Last week, the group left more than 20 anti-Israel posters as a reaction to a Hillel event that invited Israeli soldiers to speak on campus. The posters alleged that "exclusively Jewish" soldiers had committed war crimes and that they should not be invited to campus. Pro-Israel students expressed disappointment in the incident, yet members of Students for Justice in Palestine said they felt required to respond to an event they perceived as insulting to the Palestinian people.
Germany's education minister Annette Schavan stepped down in February after allegations of plagiarized passages in her doctoral thesis at the Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Schavan's resignation follows other high-profile accusations of academic fraud by federal ministers, as well as national and local political figures. Education experts said these plagiarism incidents reflect negatively on the German higher education system. While university officials took steps to ensure fewer plagiarism episodes among doctoral candidates, they criticize the German higher education system for not reinforcing academic integrity. Schavan's scandal comes roughly a month after Germany's former defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who stepped down after it was revealed that he plagiarized his doctoral thesis, canceled his lecture at Dartmouth following criticism from students and faculty.
