玛丽莉·琼斯在奥尔巴尼长大,从小就知道为他人服务是必要的。她的父亲经常教育五个子女帮助邻近的老年人拿生活用品,下雪时铲除道路积雪。据她描述,她已故的父亲是个非常严厉的人,动不动就发脾气。父母经常告诉她不要问太多的问题。她觉得自己是在封闭的环境中长大的。
1969年,她考入圣罗斯学院,一个坐落在奥尔巴尼的罗马天主教学院。在学校里,她和在家里一样有一种失落感。但她没有以酗酒和嗑药来逃避这一切,相反,她开始了工作:打扫办公室,推销手提包,在医院为病人连心电图仪。1973年,她毕业了,获得了生物学学位,但她却闷闷不乐,心绪不宁。
1978年,琼斯女士来到了马萨诸塞州的坎布里奇市,同行的还有她的丈夫史蒂芬,一位麻省理工学院的研究生。一天,她看到一则招聘广告,招聘麻省理工学院招生办主任助理。她说,她只记得当时自己穿了一件黛安·冯·芙丝汀宝牌的裹身裙和一双凉拖就去面试了,而对于面试本身却没留下多少印象。她也不曾记起她曾填写过一个表格,说自己上过联合学院和伦斯勒理工学院。麻省理工学院的官员回忆说,琼斯女士受聘之后,又在自己的履历里添加了一个奥尔巴尼医学院的学位。
在这些混沌模糊、扑朔迷离的时刻背后,隐藏着一个难解之谜。为什么琼斯女士不愿说自己实际上是毕业于圣罗斯学院呢?这一点,也许她自己永远都不会明白。她说也许是因为她担心圣罗斯学院的名号在麻省理工学院会让人看不上眼。或者,是因为她对自己没有信心。
“我当时真是昏了头了,”她说,“我真是非常非常恼火。也许各种原因都有。当时就是脑子一热,就好像——那好吧,我就试试这个好了。我就是没法做自己。我还不够优秀,不敢做自己。”
This Monsterbehind the Door 藏在 门后的怪兽
By all accounts, Ms. Jones was good at her job, which she began in 1979. Her first assignment was to schedule speaking engagements at high schools, where female graduates of MIT would talk to young women about the importance of studying mathematics and science. Later Ms. Jones was responsible for recruiting women, as well as for outreach to international students. She enlisted more MIT students and alumni12) in recruitment and created a dynamic weekend campus-visit program, one of the first of its kind.
Michael C. Behnke, who was MIT’s director of admissions from 1985 to 1997, says Ms. Jones deserves much of the credit for diversifying the undergraduate class. Mr. Behnke describes Ms. Jones as a “terrific” colleague.
For many years, Ms. Jones tried not to think about her falsified credentials or examine her reasons for lying. For one, they did not seem to relate to her day-to-day work. “I knew I was good at what I was doing, and I was satisfied with that,” she says. “But there was this monster behind the door, and I knew if I turned around and looked at that, I would have hit the wall. I had the monster barricaded13) in, and I thought, I’m not going to let you out.”
Then in 1997 Mr. Behnke announced that he was leaving MIT. Ms. Jones, then associate director, felt ice run down her spine14). She wanted the job, but what would happen if she submitted herself to the vetting15) process? She describes the dilemma as a “moral moment”, when she could have chosen to correct the record. Instead, she applied for the job.
The hiring process took months. When Ms. Jones finally got the job and the new title of dean, she was relieved, but that feeling did not linger. Soon thereafter she started having arrhythmias16) and waking up with chest pains.
The worry grew worse as her name became more familiar. Over the years Ms. Jones became a sought-after17) speaker. Her message was that everyone involved in admissions needed to chill out for the sake of education, not to mention their sanity18).
In 2006 that message arrived in a book called Less Stress, More Success: A New Approach to Guiding Your Teen Through College Admissions and Beyond, which Ms. Jones wrote with Kenneth R. Ginsburg. It was a hit. Full of advice for students and parents, the book included a passage about integrity. “Holding integrity is sometimes very hard to do because the temptation may be to cheat or cut corners19),” it says. “But just remember that ‘what goes around comes around,’ meaning that life has a funny way of giving back what you put out.”
不管怎样,1979年,琼斯女士开始工作了,而且干得很不错。她的第一个任务是安排麻省理工学院的女研究生到中学里作演讲,给年轻女子讲述学习数学和科学的重要性。后来,琼斯女士又负责招收女学生,以及向国外招收国际留学生。在招生的过程中,她争取到了更多的麻省理工学生和校友的支持和帮助,她还发起了一个充满活力的周末校园游活动——此类活动的“鼻祖”。
1985至1997年间,迈克尔·本克任麻省理工学院的招生办主任。他说,在本科班的多样化方面,琼斯女士功不可没。本克先生认为琼斯女士是个“很棒”的同事。
许多年来,琼斯女士尽量不去想她的虚假文凭问题,也不想去追究自己究竟为什么要撒谎。原因之一是这些问题和她的日常工作似乎没有什么关系。“我知道我目前的工作做得很好,对此我也非常满意,”她说,“但是,我的门后却藏着一头野兽,我知道如果我回头去看它,我一定会碰壁。我把这头怪兽封锁在里面,心想,我是不会放你出来的。”
1997年,本克先生宣布他将要离开麻省理工学院。那时还是招生办副主任的琼斯女士感到脊背直发凉。她想得到这个职位,但一旦进入审查程序,这将对她意味着什么呢?她将当时的这种两难处境描述为“考验道德的时刻”。那时,她本来还可以选择改正自己的简历,但是她没有,她选择了申请这一职位。
聘用程序持续了几个月。当琼斯女士最终获得这一职位和崭新的主任头衔时,她松了一口气,但这种感觉并不长久。此后不久,她开始出现心律失常的症状,醒来时常常感到胸口疼痛。
随着自己名气越来越大,琼斯女士也感到越来越焦虑。几年下来,人们开始请她到处作演讲。她常常说的一句话就是:为了教育,每个等待录取的学生不仅要保持健全的心智,更要学会放松心情。
2006年,这一观点被写进了一本书:《少一分压力,多一分成功:指导孩子进入大学校门、适应大学生活的新方法》。这本书由琼斯女士和肯尼思·R·金斯伯格合著。书一出版就大受读者欢迎。书中内容都是给学生和家长的忠告,其中有一段是专门谈论诚信的:“保持诚信有时非常困难,因为总会有一些诱惑促使你去欺骗,或者走捷径。但是要记住:‘种什么因,得什么果。’意思是说,你给了生活什么,生活就会以奇特的方式回馈你什么。”
A Second Act in New York 纽约 第二幕
Ms. Jones resigned in April 2007, the same day she admitted that the three degrees were bogus20). Soon Ms. Jones’s name was everywhere. Reporters descended upon her house, in Concord. Ms. Jones, who by then had separated from her husband, fled to Manhattan to stay with an old friend. She did not go outside for weeks. She slept constantly. “It was like a snake, molting,” she says.
Then in 2008, she moved to New York. Since then Ms. Jones has sought what she describes as a “reclamation”. She hired a public-relations consultant, Rose Marie Terenzio. Ms. Terenzio says she explained the first rule of making a comeback: “If you make a mistake, own up to21) it, apologize, try to fix it if you can. Then move forward.”
Ms. Terenzio connected Ms. Jones with Columbia University Medical Center’s Center for Survivor Wellness, which serves teenagers who have been treated for cancer. Since November 2008, Ms. Jones has volunteered there each Wednesday morning, meeting one-on-one with patients whose illnesses have interrupted their schooling. She has helped some of the students plan their next