Why Is a College-Admissions Code of Ethics Such a Big Deal?

Posted by The Chronicle of Higher Education

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The news seemed to stun an entire profession. On Tuesday, admissions officials and college counselors learned that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the organization that represents them has violated federal antitrust law. At issue: the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s new 15-page ethics code.

This week the department requested information from several members of a committee that recently helped revamp the association’s “Code of Ethics and Professional Practices,” an extensive list of rules and standards that govern the admissions process. After receiving a “civil investigative demand” for documents from the department, one committee member told The Chronicle she was so shaken she had to sit down right away. Another member said he was baffled because the notes he had to turn over “are pretty boring.” As news of the investigation spread, many people in the field express their dismay on social media. “This is bonkers,” one admissions director tweeted, “BONKERS.”

Why, in a nation full of problems, is law-enforcement’s top dog sniffing around an admissions association’s long-winded ethics code? No immediate answer came from the Justice Department, which declined a request for comment. So did Joyce E. Smith, NACAC’s chief executive officer. In a message to members on Tuesday, the association said it knows “little about the scope and intent of the inquiry.”

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