Duke porn star and student loans

[blazindw]

Would that have been an NCAA violation?

It absolutely would have been. At the very least, they would have to pay retail value for it.

[throatybeard]

Starting in 2008, Duke's financial aid policy became more generous where if a family's annual income was 60k or less, everything was entirely free. All grants/scholarship, room/board included, no loans, no expected family contribution. Had to do work-study though.

Coming from a middle class family, I paid ~15k for my Duke degree.

Man, I wish I'd been around for that. My parents were making in the $40K area when I was a Ugrad, and we had to pay full ride because my grandfather left me a lump sum.

Said lump ($120K, or three years of my parents' salary) sum barely paid for four years in the 1990s. I'm not complaining--I'm very lucky, but I know a lot of people who are "richer" than my family, and they were on financial aid.

[Bostondevil]

I don't wish the young woman ill, but I really wish that Duke hadn't accepted her. I wish she was some other campus's headache right now.

[duke79]

I don't wish the young woman ill, but I really wish that Duke hadn't accepted her. I wish she was some other campus's headache right now.

Yea, no doubt a lot of the publicity she has gotten is because she is a Duke student. (and it would be the same if she were a student at Stanford, Yale, Northwestern, etc). I'm sure if she were a student at a community college in California, there would not be a frenzy of news about her porn career. Whether or not this "story" reflects poorly on Duke is probably open to debate. I certainly don't think this is the sort of publicity the university wants but my guess is that it will pass fairly quickly and life will go on for Duke.

[Edouble]

I think "Belle Knox" is a marketing genius. She's parlayed the story over the "Poor coed working her way through college" into national publicity. She's not only appeared on CNN, but she was a recent guest of The View -- No, I don't watch the View, but I do watch The Soup, which featured a clip from Belle's visit to The View ... Belle says she's been watching porn since she was 12 years old and Barbara Walters asked, "did you watch it with your parents?" That got a canned laugh from the fake Soup audience.

I suspect the exposure has turned Knox from a starlet working for scale into a porn headliner -- with a skyrocketing salary. She has a line of adult toys coming out in the next few months. She was marketing them in an interview talking about how if Duke's basketball team won it all, she would give all he players an item from her new porn line: "A pocket p***y."

http://www.tmz.com/2014/03/19/belle-...rn-star-video/

Would that have been an NCAA violation?

I suspect that SoCalDukeFan is right that her career will be brief ... but I also suspect that she will make a LOT of money before her career burns out.

Well she doesn't know much about basketball. If you win the national championship, you get all the real deal you can handle, I am pretty sure.

[Edouble]

Yea, no doubt a lot of the publicity she has gotten is because she is a Duke student. (and it would be the same if she were a student at Stanford, Yale, Northwestern, etc). I'm sure if she were a student at a community college in California, there would not be a frenzy of news about her porn career. Whether or not this "story" reflects poorly on Duke is probably open to debate. I certainly don't think this is the sort of publicity the university wants but my guess is that it will pass fairly quickly and life will go on for Duke.

Nah. I think Duke takes the cake. We are the school that had the Lax scandal and the sex power points. The cover of Rolling Stone magazine said "Sex at Duke". I think we're at the top of the mountain for academia sex publicity.

[weezie]

We're too sexy for our fill in the blank!

[duke79]

Nah. I think Duke takes the cake. We are the school that had the Lax scandal and the sex power points. The cover of Rolling Stone magazine said "Sex at Duke". I think we're at the top of the mountain for academia sex publicity.

LOL. Yea, you may be right. This story is just further fodder for the Duke haters of the world.

[alteran]

LOL. Yea, you may be right. This story is just further fodder for the Duke haters of the world.

It says a lot about Duke hate that being known as "the sex school" will just make Duke more unpopular.

[Mike Corey]

Well she doesn't know much about basketball. If you win the national championship, you get all the real deal you can handle, I am pretty sure.

To be fair, I suspect that even if Duke had gone 0-36 this year, the guys would not have had a hard time gathering the attraction of the campus.

(As a segue, I never understood how this wasn't more frequently true of female athletes. But that's a conversation for another thread.)

[Reilly]

... even if Duke had gone 0-36 this year, the guys would not have had a hard time gathering the attraction of the campus ...

I'm not so sure. Maybe times have changed from the bad old days. I really wish I had printed out and kept an interview of Grant Hill's that I read one time ... I've never been able to find it online since, but distinctly remember reading it, as does a friend of mine (and I was probably directed to it by DBR). Anyway, in the interview, Grant Hill -- you know, he of 3 national championship games in 4 years and Sports Illustrated covers, he of impeccable manners and good breeding and authenticity and above average piano skills, he who would go on to marry a gorgeous recording artist and now star on TV himself; yes, that Grant Hill -- talked about being at Crazy Zack's at North Myrtle for the post-academic-year Duke beach week, and trying to get up the nerve to talk to a gal who all the players on the team had noticed throughout the year, and he eventually did, but she shot him down in no time. Grant Hill. That comports with other stories I've heard or recall involving mere mortals. Why I find the powerpoint gal and now porn star gal stories as painting the public image of Duke sort of funny in a way.

[Mike Corey]

I'm not so sure. Maybe times have changed from the bad old days. I really wish I had printed out and kept an interview of Grant Hill's that I read one time ... I've never been able to find it online since, but distinctly remember reading it, as does a friend of mine (and I was probably directed to it by DBR). Anyway, in the interview, Grant Hill -- you know, he of 3 national championship games in 4 years and Sports Illustrated covers, he of impeccable manners and good breeding and authenticity and above average piano skills, he who would go on to marry a gorgeous recording artist and now star on TV himself; yes, that Grant Hill -- talked about being at Crazy Zack's at North Myrtle for the post-academic-year Duke beach week, and trying to get up the nerve to talk to a gal who all the players on the team had noticed throughout the year, and he eventually did, but she shot him down in no time. Grant Hill. That comports with other stories I've heard or recall involving mere mortals. Why I find the powerpoint gal and now porn star gal stories as painting the public image of Duke sort of funny in a way.

Respectfully, you and I are making different points. I've no doubt there were people immune from the allure of being with a Duke basketball player. But I'd suggest that just because there were some immune or uninterested, a point never arrived when all were.

[Olympic Fan]

Duke porn star Miriam Weeks (aka Belle Knox) has written a guest column in Time Magazine.

http://time.com/author/miriam-weeks/

Basically, she complains about the extremely high cost of college. She complains that her financial aid (which paid $13,000 of her $60,000) cost last year was cut by Duke. She'll have to come up with $62,000 to pay for her sophomore year. Ms. Weeks vows to continue at Duke -- and to continue to pay her bills by working in porn.

BTW: I thought it was an extremely well-written and professional column (whether you agree with her points or not). Don't know how much it was edited (or even ghost-written), but the finished product is Duke-quality work. Personally, I become more and more impressed by Ms. Weeks are her ability to manipulate the media to bolster her status in the porn world. She's not just another pretty young girl working in porn -- she's the "Duke student" working in porn and the subject of countless articles in Time, Rolling Stone, the NY Times ... plus an appearance on the The View..

[CameronBornAndBred]

Duke porn star Miriam Weeks (aka Belle Knox) has written a guest column in Time Magazine.

http://time.com/author/miriam-weeks/

Basically, she complains about the extremely high cost of college. She complains that her financial aid (which paid $13,000 of her $60,000) cost last year was cut by Duke. She'll have to come up with $62,000 to pay for her sophomore year. Ms. Weeks vows to continue at Duke -- and to continue to pay her bills by working in porn.

BTW: I thought it was an extremely well-written and professional column (whether you agree with her points or not). Don't know how much it was edited (or even ghost-written), but the finished product is Duke-quality work. Personally, I become more and more impressed by Ms. Weeks are her ability to manipulate the media to bolster her status in the porn world. She's not just another pretty young girl working in porn -- she's the "Duke student" working in porn and the subject of countless articles in Time, Rolling Stone, the NY Times ... plus an appearance on the The View..

Excellent quote here...

This year, even after student aid, I faced a $47,000 bill to attend Duke University. My turn to porn to close the gap was so famous, in part, due to my reasoning. Faced with either a degree from a less prestigious school or decades of crushing debt, a few hours of work on a porn set revealed itself to be the best way to avoid getting screwed.

[Bostondevil]

I'm not quite as impressed.

Does she make some good points? Yes. Is college tuition increasing at unsustainable rates? Of course. Will there be a breaking point? Yep. Do I think it's coming soon? Again, yes.

But the tone of the article is one giant whine. I can't help but believe that financially, she is going to be fine. I suspect TIME magazine paid her for the column, for example. Duke is the largest employer in Durham Country - has been for what feels like forever. Could administrative bloat be lessened? Yes, but it would mean firing a bunch of people with middle class jobs. Most of them probably are not young enough to supplement their incomes by doing porn on the side. Large scale firing of people by Duke University would hurt the local economy.

Is President Brodhead's $1 million salary obscene? Hell no. I view him as the CEO of Duke University - his salary is too low! (He should probably make as much money as Coach K. OK, maybe not Brodhead - but the next one maybe should. Gotta pay top money for top talent.)

Financial aid is basically directly linked to the size of a university's endowment. Duke's financial aid pool is less than some other schools because their endowment is smaller. Ms. Weeks should transfer to Harvard - they have a much bigger endowment (although Duke's Chapel is bigger).

But if it's her age that allows her to receive maximum compensation for her chosen part-time job - why not take a couple of years off, work full-time, and earn enough money to finish her degree without debt? Or, if she really would rather qualify for financial aid, take a less lucrative part-time job.

I do agree with her points that not everybody who currently goes to college should be there. We have made having a college education a bare minimum for many jobs that probably don't require them. But I find it disingenuous to blame that fact on "the government". Find me a Fortune 500 company that hires people without college degrees for entry level positions. Heck, my undergraduate part-time job was working as a bank teller. That job still exists but find me a bank that hires tellers without college degrees anymore.

She also doesn't mention that one of the big reasons for increased demand at American universities is the huge increase in international student applications over the last 20 years. I suspect she doesn't major in economics - supply has not gone up even though demand has (although, I would argue that many schools that used to be considered second tier are no longer quite so second tier). It's not the government's fault or even the universities for charging what the market will bear even if she as an individual feels unfairly treated. That the government supplies student loans in the hopes of giving everyone a fair shake at attaining a middle class life is not a bad thing. How we supply those loans and what financial burdens we place on our young people probably needs an overhaul. None of that means we should feel sorry for a young woman who makes too much money in the adult film industry to get money from Duke to attend school. And that is what she is asking us to do.

[bjornolf]

None of that means we should feel sorry for a young woman who makes too much money in the adult film industry to get money from Duke to attend school. And that is what she is asking us to do.

I didn't get the feeling she wanted us to be sorry for her. I just thought she was trying to justify her actions.

[Bostondevil]

I didn't get the feeling she wanted us to be sorry for her. I just thought she was trying to justify her actions.

Ok, fair enough.

But she did say this "And I will pay this all on my own; the financial aid office does not care that I am legally financially independent. They view it as my parent’s responsibility to foot the bill." That's true for every single student at Duke - not just her. Heck, it's true of every college student at every university. She would be denied financial aid regardless of where she went to school. It clearly states in the financial aid application that willingness to pay is not considered. If your parents are divorced and your dad hasn't spoken to your mom for 15 years, both incomes still count even if you have no chance of getting both parents to help with the costs. It's not just her. It might not be fair but if you took those restrictions away, it would be abused. Easily. Every kid would start declaring themselves financially independent as soon as they were accepted to college even the ones who don't have significant income. Well, maybe not every kid, there are still ethical people in the world - who would then be forced to subsidize the unethical. I don't think Ms. Weeks in unethical, but she is not being unfairly treated by the system as it now stands. And I think she thinks she is.

[Bostondevil]

She also says "Government must stop the flow of money to schools in order to get tuition rates under control again. That means being honest about the fact that not every child should go to college. Only 59% of full-time, first-time undergraduate students who began their pursuit of a bachelor’s degree at a 4-year degree-granting institution graduate in four years. That also means making students who can’t afford tuition out of pocket find funding in the private market, where lenders are too judicious to lend someone $150,000 to get a BA in underwater basketweaving."

I defy her to find a college that offers such a degree.

To prove her point that college tuition is too expensive I suspect a good portion of the 59% drop out for financial reasons and not academic ones. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the feeling from the quote that Ms. Weeks thinks otherwise. Am I wrong? Isn't she asking for college tuition to come down by decreasing demand? Isn't she saying that she shouldn't be penalized for being one of the smart ones and all these kids who don't have her level of talent should get out of the way because it's costing her too much money? Please point out to me the flaws in my reasoning because I've just made myself rather angry over the self-entitlement I see on display here.

[weezie]

Financial aid is basically directly linked to the size of a university's endowment. Duke's financial aid pool is less than some other schools because their endowment is smaller. Ms. Weeks should transfer to Harvard - they have a much bigger endowment (although Duke's Chapel is bigger).

Touche BD. But, my lame joking aside, why doesn't she transfer to Harvard? She began this whole whoopdedo by complaining about men treat women at Duke. Why not just splitsville and go hang out with her intellectual equals? Surely she's so incredibly and impressively intelligent that they'd love to have her. Plus, better direct flights to LAX out of BOS.

It might also ease the anguish that her parents have been subjected to during this sad little stink. "My daughter the Harvard Porn Star!"

[Bluedog]

She got offered a full ride to Vanderbilt and could have gone there for free. Her dad is a successful doctor who apparently just doesn't want to pay for her college. I'm fine with her decision as an adult to do what she wants to do, but I don't feel so bad for her...She certainly is using her Duke pedigree masterfully to advance her porn career, though - I'm sure her price per scene has skyrocketed since her name has gone public.