[amluto]

> Dean Caldera also runs a side consulting business offering “individualized college admissions assistance” for upwards of $4,000 an applicant.

Regardless of whether this is related to an above average suicide rate, this looks bad. I’m quite surprised the administration tolerates it.

edit: I’ll add that I have personal experience with a (former) university staffer who was (a) corrupt, (b) egregiously failing to do their job, and (c) otherwise behaving, on the job, in a manner that was likely criminal and also could have exposed the university to substantial liability and bad PR if anyone had pressed the point. I’m not about to discuss details on HN, but one might conclude that, when a given employee is a bad apple, that they may well be problematic in ways that extend beyond that ways that are obvious to their bosses.

There was not, to my knowledge, an established way for students to blow the whistle on staff with whom they interacted. If there had been, then the situation could hopefully have been somewhat improved.

[Animats]

That's a conflict of interest and grounds for termination. If you worked for a company, and had a side business to teach suppliers how to sell to that company, you'd be fired.

[covermydonkey]

At my Big Corp (tm) we just let someone go because he offered a service to coach vendors on 1) How to get on our supplier list and 2) our internal criteria for vendor selection. He also charged for the service and as IT Ops head had a great deal of say over how this worked internally.