Haverford Student Declares Radical Change in Admissions Policy By Impersonating School President

If you ever get a Gmail-sent message from a powerful authority figure making an groundbreaking announcement, be suspicious. Last week, a Haverford student created a fake gmail account for Interim President Joanne Creighton (creighton.joanne@gmail.com) to announce that school would be offering need-blind admissions consideration and financial aid to undocumented immigrants, an issue that has been roiling on campus for the last year. From the body of the email, which he attempted to send to the entire faculty.

For the past few months, we have been considering how to rectify this conflict between our values and our policies.  Therefore with my approval, Jess Lord has directed the staff of the Admissions Office to extend the same fair, need-blind admissions consideration to undocumented applicants as is currently granted to documented applicants.  Jess Lord has said that undocumented admits will receive at least the same financial aid packages as U.S. citizen admits…

This is progress that we should all be proud of, but there is more work to be done to both move us forward and to repair the harm inflicted.  That’s why I am now apologizing on behalf of Haverford to the undocumented American community for our history of discrimination and exclusion.

On Friday, the emailer, a sophomore on leave called Ed Menefee, outed himself, pushing back against the notion that his email was an act of fraud, as the university (which abides by a strict honor code) charged. He also said at at least one professor bought it. Here was his paragraph de resistance.

On Monday, The World As It Is and The World As It Should Be met for a brief second and said hello. They took a good look at each other and the World As It Should Be said, “It pains me to look at you- so ugly, hateful, and unfair you are. Why don’t you accept me? Let’s be one in the same.” But The World As It Is decided this was not to be and yelled out, “You are a fraud! How dare you show yourself?! I am The World As It Is, and we are indefinitely separate and different!”

Another dead giveaway, if you’re sending a fake email from a university president: Don’t put two spaces after a period. [Technically Philly]