It is pertinent for you to read this document, if you have not done so. It provides context and evidence.
Brook has recently put out a statement on Babelfish, as well as a tiktok response video to the evidence of her plagiarism.
In her tiktok video, she claims that she should have been more careful throughout the process of crafting her essay and goes on to repeatedly stress that her essay was not monetised in any way and was not used for any academic assignment. After which she quickly iterates that the essay was written in a personal capacity and has nothing to do with her tutoring business.
These claims are questionable, as Brooke was offered her admission on March 17 2023, yet her plagiarised essay was published just a month later on 18 April 2023. By then, she had already held the status of, and publicly proclaimed herself to be, a UCLA-bound undergrad. It must be made clear that over 70% of her essay had been lifted from 13 external sources, uncredited. Her plagiarism was not a youthful bout of folly done many years ago, it was published just weeks prior, deliberately and painstakingly woven together from 5 books & 8 articles (some of which were from as recent as 2022-2023).
The Office of the Dean of Students on UCLA's website states that "with its status as a world-class research institution, it is critical that the University uphold the highest standards of integrity both inside and outside the classroom." Has Brooke shown any integrity outside the classroom? The fact of the matter is that though her plagiarism was done in a personal capacity, she still implicitly did it knowing that she held the status of a potential UCLA student and that in doing so she would be commodifying eating disorders and appropriating the personal experiences of other writers.
A netizen aptly commented that: "Brooke's blatant plagiarism in her personal essay is intertwined with her professional life and by extension, jeopardises the perception of her integrity in the academic context. She frequently uses her telegram and instagram channels to advertise for Classicle Club and propagate her competency in teaching GP (eg. by sharing screenshots of feedback from her students through google forms). This effectively blurs the line between the personal and professional aspects of her life. Given that she uses her personal social media accounts as platforms to build her reputation as a GP tutor, her personal essay is available to be scrutinised by the public as a testament to her writing abilities, especially since excellence in GP is premised on writing prowess. To plagiarise in her personal essay would thus not only be a disservice to the original authors, but also to potential students that are considering paying her as their tutor, based on their judgement of her writing skills that are not her own.
(For context, GP refers to General Paper, which is a compulsory English subject in the Singapore A-Levels that aims to develop students' critical thinking, analytical, and communication skills through the study of current affairs and global issues.)
By using her personal social media accounts to promote her tutoring services, she closely links whatever image she curates of herself online to her brand in academia. She conflates her online persona and her work in producing and teaching GP content, specifically when she publishes any pieces of "original" writing online. Due to her work as an essay writer and tutor, she should know that sharing her ED (eating disorder) essay would be representative of her writing ability and her values as a tutor. To some extent, it is a publicity move for her tutoring services. In this case, her ED essay overlaps in the personal and professional, and thus, academic spheres. Even if she insists her essay was not written as a GP tutor, I believe that her plagiarism in a personal essay is a breach of morals."
From this, it can be seen that her apology is disingenuous. It is very clear to the discerning eye that Brooke is not sorry that she plagiarised, she is sorry that she got caught.
Brooke has also plagiarised interview responses and tellonym replies in the past, which shows a clear pattern of behaviour. It would not be unreasonable to suspect that her admissions essay would have also been plagiarised in some way as well. Therefore, this petition still stands and we strongly encourage UCLA's admissions team to launch an investigation and rethink her admittance into UCLA.
Consider the fact that Brooke commodified having an eating disorder. Consider the fact that Brooke has had a history of deleting posts and escaping accountability. Consider the fact that even in Brooke's latest response video, where she claims to be open to feedback, she has still been found to be selectively deleting comments. [1] [2] Consider the fact that she had blatantly plagiarised and published an essay despite already being tied to UCLA, despite being a public figure, and despite her privileged social capital. Consider the fact that it is impossible to reform in such a short time frame, and that she may easily re-offend. And with that, consider the fact that due to strict visa regulations and enforcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, International Students are more vulnerable to disciplinary action due to Academic dishonesty issues. Brooke has shown herself to be a liability to UCLA.