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(Ruben asks: ) So basically what you are telling me is that the 100 ALB grads that graduate every year are a threat to the College's prestige?
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There are roughly a thousand, not 100, Extension School students pursuing ALB and ALM degrees at any given time. Both affiliations are easily (and often deliberately) confused with the College and other Harvard degree programs that differ critically from HES, especially in the admission standards. I cited the lower figure, 100 ALB graduates per year, to give a clear apples-to-apples comparison with the number of underqualified admits to Harvard College (athletes etc, most of whom were still admitted on a much more stringent standard than the ALB students).
However you wish to count the HES-affiliated population, the number and proportion of poseurs is not small, as we have seen earlier in this thread. Sakky, for instance, does not deny that the posing is rife at HES; he apparently takes it as a given and only claims that similar fudging happens elsewhere at Harvard. Your denials that the posing exists are completely unbelievable.
That Harvard prestige will be high whatever HES does, is beside the point.
It is is clearly in the interest of the non-HES students and alumni to limit the opportunity for the posing and deliberate confusion, particularly if HES plans to expand. Hence the resounding UC vote and the cold shoulder from the faculty to Shinagel's proposals. On the other side there is Harvard's interest in marketing HES, so it will be interesting to see what happens with this matter if dean Shinagel pursues his ambitions. The current solution is for Harvard to mislead applicants with its promotional literature for HES, take money from all sides, and hope that the issue goes away.