SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - University of San Diego students had mixed feelings regarding their university's involvement in a national scandal.
The complaint states Robert Flaxman paid $250,000 to get his son in the "side door" "through [the USD varsity coach] and [USD varsity sport]".
Most students said they didn't know his son, an Industrial Systems Engineer Major. They did have opinions on the act itself.
Former soccer athlete Lexi Phillips, who is a Sophomore, said it was like a slap in the face, "colleges, when you're applying, definitely ask if you're an athlete or not because they recognize how much work it is and so people who haven't been doing that and saying 'oh well I've been doing that' just to get into an elite school definitely isn't fair and isn't fair for someone who's been trying even harder to get in and they take their spot."
Other students like Missica Derhalli, who is a Freshman, say it makes them sick, "I really can't believe that we would be doing something like that. I picked this college particularly because I felt like it was a good, holistic place for me to be and I was going to be getting a truly good education."
"Just knowing that there are people who aren't putting in effort and I spent 13 years of my education just working so hard and these people aren't working at all and it's just it's very disheartening," Missica added. She volunteered more than 1,000 hours helping special needs children and has a merit scholarship.
On the other side of the spectrum, some students weren't surprised at all. "This is basically like a smaller version of my high school and I saw this stuff like this happening there so this is all somewhat normal for me as bad as that sounds," Sophomore Jacob Asher said.
When 10News asked the university who the varsity coach involved in the scandal was, they said they couldn't tell us, and that they're being as transparent as they can be.
They sent this statement out yesterday:
"The University of San Diego has been cooperating with the United States Department of Justice’s investigation involving an alleged criminal conspiracy to facilitate cheating on college entrance exams and admission into colleges and universities.
We have no reason to believe that any members of our admissions team, our administration or staff, or our current coaching staff were aware of or involved in the alleged wrongdoing. We believe the federal government agrees with this assessment."
