David Jovani Vanegas claimed to be a sophomore transfer student at Rice University. In reality he had never managed to get into Rice.
Last September, Vanegas started attending classes. He also ate in the university's cafeterias, hung out with other students, and occasionally crashed in people's dorms when he was too tired to go back to his off-campus lodgings. Vanegas appears to have been relatively friendly towards students, but didn't seem to form many lasting relationships. Hardly surprising, really.
It was Vanegas' friend Daniel Rasheed that turned him in to the police. He says he wasn't expecting such repercussions.
On September 13th 2006, Vanegas was arrested.
On the day of Vanegas's arrest, criminal trespass charges were filed against him (but later dismissed). Within the next few weeks, campus administrators alleged that Vanegas had taken close to $3,700 worth of food from Rice cafeterias. On September 28, the district attorney's office filed felony charges for aggregate theft. Bail was set at $2,000.
The reason he gave for his fake studies? He didn't get into the university, but it would have broken his mother's heart for him not to attend.
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And then you get me who was accepted everywhere I applied, but I am going to community college, because upon visiting the colleges, they sucked (and the good one I can only afford three years xD)
oh yeah.
Another well-known phenomenon is the college hangovers. In university towns like New Haven, Austin, or Cambridge, you find lots of people who've already graduated but can't bear to leave, so they stick around, driving cabs, washing dishes, or whatever, for years and years.
I worked at WFUV, the campus radio station, did props for the theater group, was an editor for one of the student newspapers and was involved in a few other activities, without the university making a dime off me. I even had the keys to two offices on opposite sides of the campus.
Most of my friends knew my odd status. I had a strict policy: I would not lie about being a non-student. If someone asked me straight out if I was a Fordham student, I would admit that I wasn't. If they didn't ask, hey, I couldn't help what they assumed, now could I?
I did finally apply for admission. I gave the admission office the names of all the students I knew who ran various clubs and activities as references. They didn't exactly know what to make of me. The lady in the office said, "I'm confused. How were you able to be part of all these groups?"
I said, "Well, who has more time to attend meetings than someone who doesn't have classes to go to?" She had to concede that I had a point.
Yeah, they let me in but I only lasted three semesters. I guess I was a better NON-student than a student.
There'a a kid in my dorm who routinely goes to half a quarter of classes, registers for the next quarter, and drops all of his current classes. Then he hangs around campus for the next month and a half until the next quarter starts. The college can't do anything about it because he's still paying and he's still registered for classes. Your (and Vangas's) way sounds smarter, although apparently less legal.
"Your (and Vangas's) way sounds smarter, although apparently less legal."
Honestly, I never thought that was I was doing was illgal. I thought it might be against University rules, but I checked the handbook. It said (and I quote from memory here), "Fordham activities are for students, faculty and members of the Fordham community."
I figured that I had them there in two different ways.
1: I was a member of the "Fordham community" by virtue of hanging around the campus all the time and being involved in campus activities (a little recursive, perhaps).
2: I lived less than a mile from the campus and therefore was in their "community."
(NOTE TO INTERPOL: my name is Garcia Juan Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Pedro Vicente Miguel Smith III, and I live in Santiago, Chile)
I remember I found the plot wildly unrealistic...
Really? You are willing to pay thousands of dollars to send your teenager to a place where just ANYONE can walk on & take part in things? The students coming in are screened. Strangers in off the streets have no info on file that can be referenced later, if there is criminal activity.
Joe College-Student commits a crime. The police find out he's a student at U College. When they contact the office, they can say, "Joe should be in Uderwater Basket Weaving 101 right now. He is also housed in the Benefactor Dorm building." Now, being a registered student isn't going to cut down on crime - it just makes the PEOPLE easier to keep track of. So, you know your child is socializing with people that the school has screened & were willing to allow into the school population.
Letting any nut onto the campus means that your child is now exposed to scammers, killers, rapists, and yes, even "normal" people too ashamed/stupid/silly/moronic to simply tell the truth.
With the cost of education these days - I would be looking for my money's worth. That school better be doing things to PROTECT my child.
Um, what kind of screening do you think the universities do?
Maybe things have changed since I was a student, but my schools looked at my grades and test scores and finances, but I don't think they ever checked to see if I was an ax murderer or an embezzler or a food thief. They did ask for letters of recommendation, but I don't think they ever investigated whether those letters were written by real people.
So they really had no way of knowing if those 3 Nobel prizes I mentioned were real or not ...
Even when I became a graduate teaching assistant, I only remember having to sign a pledge not to abuse human research subjects or laboratory animals (something we didn't have many opportunities to do anyway in the School of Arts and Humanities).
"Letting any nut onto the campus means that your child is now exposed to scammers, killers, rapists, and yes, even "normal" people too ashamed/stupid/silly/moronic to simply tell the truth."
Hey, I was one of those nuts!
The fact is that you simply cannot protect every citizen from every possible threat. Not if you want to live in a free society, anyway.
When you walk down the street in a big city, do you know the history of every person who passes you by? The moment you put your feet on the floor in the morning, you're taking some risk. That's the nature of life.
Personally, I think there's more potential for danger emanating from those who "only want to protect us" than there is from the strangers on the street.
"There was a movie some years ago where Michael Fox just walked into the building of some big firm, found himself an empty office, and took it from there.
I remember I found the plot wildly unrealistic..."
Back in the late 70's, I did some A.V. work at Pepsi World Headquarters just outside NYC. The friend I worked with and I used to joke that we could probably find a vacant office, put a sign on the door reading, "Youth Marketing Services" (I was in my 20's back then) and set up shop without being caught for a while.
I honestly believe that, with a little luck, that kind of thing could be pulled off in a LOT of large office complexes. Bureaucracies tend to believe what they see. As my friend Alan Abel says, "A serious demeanor implies serious intent."
I'm not saying they run background checks...you either have to REALLY have the right info - or be able to VERY CLEVERLY fake real stuff. Why cleverly fake so that YOU have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to hang out someplace??
"Hey, I was one of those nuts!"
YEAH! I know. 😉
"The fact is that you simply cannot protect every citizen from every possible threat. Not if you want to live in a free society, anyway."
College ISN'T free. You pay for it. When you pay for something - you want results. You want to see the fruits of your labor. When I send a child away to be educated - that is what I expect to be done. I want the school to provide the services that they have promised. Safety on college campuses is becoming a bigger & bigger issue (to parents anyway). They want to know that there will be reprecussions when people try to manipulate the system to get something for nothing. They want their child to be safe. Just like autos - people spend thousands to be sure their family is "safe" inside of little aluminum coffins on wheels. Airbags, crumple zones, restraints. You pay for safety all the time. You expect results.
"College ISN'T free. You pay for it."
I was using the word "free" as in "freedom," not as in "devoid of financial cost."
"'Hey, I was one of those nuts!'
YEAH! I know. [wink] "
Honestly, although I'm sure my presence might not have been welcomed by the administration of Fordham University, I honestly believe I was a net asset to the school. I did a lot of stuff for Fordham while hanging around there.
I know. I was being facecious.
The case of Vanegas is a perfect example -- he couldn't get in on the merits so why should he be allowed to use everyone else's time and resources through self-help?
Maybe it's different in other countries where, for example, any high school or Gymnasium student is entitled to attend a college and colleges are not arrayed along a spectrum of intellectual rigor, but in the U.S. that is not the case.
"Which is all fine & good...but for everyone one of you...there are a hundred people trying to get onto campus to do HARM."
How do you know that?
Because people are nuts. Statistics. The population around a school is dense. Thousands of people packed into a few square miles. The numbers of murders/rapes/robberies that occur on or near school campuses. That's not including the newest scams. "Give me your bank info & I'll send you student aid information." They're open to a lot b/c of the communal lifestyle.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0093936/ - Also, that is the Michael J. Fox movie.
"How do you know that?"
Because people are nuts. Statistics."
In other words, you don't know. It's FUN to make up things, isn't it?
Maegan, yes, there is crime in the U.S. but the actual crime rate has been going down for over a decade now, something that TV news doesn't exactly emphasize. Scare tactics = ratings.
I'm old enough to remember a time in America when "unusual" didn't automatically equal "dangerous." I plead guilty to the former, but not to the latter. Not everything that breaks the rules is a threat to you.
In the words of the late Frank Zappa, "Without deviation from the norm, progress is impossible."
I think a populace that is fearful of everything and everyone it tends to lead to fascism. I'm far more worried about the attempt to put a camera at ever intersection (as the mayor of Chicago recently promised to try to do in his city) than I am about the statistically remote possibility of being murdered.
In my experience, most of the facilities at colleges that cost money (such as food, exercize equipment, etc.) require college ID to use. I'm kind of confused on how Vanegas was even able to get in the dining hall. Also, my college at least requires an ID swipe to get into the residential buildings, so people from the outside can't just walk into dorms.
College campuses are pretty much public places. People from the town use ours to walk their dogs, ride bikes, skateboard, etc. There's a difference between hanging out and freeloading, but it's a fine line and I think it depends on the administrators of the club/class/college. Those things are paid for by student's tuitions, so I can see how it gets complicated.
Being fearful & being cautious are different.
Last I heard putting a camera in an intersection didn't cause harm to my physical body. I'm still more concerned with the (even remote) possibility that I could be killed by a nut - who probably never paid to go to college. :p
"Last I heard putting a camera in an intersection didn't cause harm to my physical body."
That isn't the "harm" to which I was referring. You can't have a "free" society with the government spying on you every minute.