USC Says It Will Consider Revoking Degrees Of Those Who Cheated To Get In

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA)  --  Fallout from the college admissions scandal continues to matriculate down.

USC said that it is considering revoking the degrees of anyone found to have cheated their way into the school.

KCAL9's Laurie Perez went to the USC campus to gauge reaction.

She spoke to students who were mixed over whether that would be fair. Perez also spoke to CBS2/KCAL9 Legal Anaylyst Steve Meister who said it's not only fair, it should be done.

"If you're there by fraud, what right have your really to be there at all?," Meister says.

He believes the university has no choice but to take the degrees away from any alumni who are found to have gained entry through fraud.

He explains that colleges have broad discretion to protect the system by which degrees are awarded.

"If they don't do it," Meister says, "they undermine the integrity of any degree they award to anyone else."

TMZ is reporting that USC has at least eight suspicious cases where alums allegedly used the services of scam ring leader Rick Singer.

Some USC students Perez spoke to were surprisingly forgiving of possible scammers.

"I don't think they should take away their degree if they completed their course work and did it while they were at SC, but yeah, there should be some penalty," said Dexter Johnson.

"I think it depends on a case to case basis probably. I mean, there has to be some sort of consequences, can't go through the system the wrong way and have this rewarding, the same rewards," said Davis Engle.

One student suggested something akin to Major League Baseball's asterick -- you get to keep the degree but with a mark next to it.

"It kinda falls under the degrees of like Barry Bonds, you're gonna take his records away just cause he took steroids?," says Daeclan Myrick.

Meister is less charitable saying even the students who didn't know their parents were cheating to get them in should still lose their degrees.

"You give a second break to the kid who never should have gotten the first one at everyone else's expense and it has to stop," Meister says.

USC released a statement saying they have initiated a case-by-case review of current students and graduates who may be connected to the scandal and they will make informed decisions about those cases as the reviews are completed.