Lay Off, Dean Hess!

There's a bit of hubbub in the comment section over at The Forum and at the Freakonomics blog regarding whether or not Dean Hess was prepared to help Steven Levitt get a student into Claremont McKenna. The full details are captured here.

Here's one comment that pretty much sums up the dislike.

On another note, shouldn't we be concerned that our Dean showed at least mild interest in aiding a woman gain admission to CMC due to her connections to Levitt?

It's important to dispel these rumors before they get out of hand. First off, we don't know that it is Dean Hess, but let's assume for the sake of argument that it is.

So what?

All it demonstrates is that Hess is active in looking into the requests on behalf of students. He didn't say he would get the fictitious girl in question in, only that he wanted to know if she had applied early-action or was going through the January admissions process.

For all we know, Hess could have been sticking a file or something saying that this prospective girl -- again, there's no girl, it was a misunderstanding -- was recommended by Levitt. Or he could have just been looking into who the girl in question was.

It's no different from when famous people send letters of recommendation to colleges on behalf of students that they know or for whom they have worked. In fact, I'd wager that it's better to accept letters on behalf of students from academics, who tend to be somewhat insular and hang around other academics, than for the school to admit people based, say, upon race or who their parents happen to be. You're more likely to get a serious student that way.

Still, I have to wonder about the stupidity of Steven Levitt. You generally don't blog about these things! Doesn't he know that? Or does he disrespect the blogger code?