University of Pennsylvania Dean Faked PhD

[sorghum]

<p>University</a> of Pennsylvania Dean Faked PhD - Yahoo! News</p>

<p>There is just no possibility of getting away with that these days.</p>

[cobrat]

<p>Nothing new. Recalled hearing that a NYC health commissioner was forced to resign because he faked his MD degree when I was an elementary school kid in the '80s.</p>

[ucbalumnus]

<p>Lying about degrees earned seems like a rather stupid way to exaggerate a resume, since the earning of a degree is easily verified by asking the school.</p>

[VeryHappy]

<p>

But UPenn, having found out about the bogus claims earlier this year, decided to keep Lynch in a leadership role, school officials told the Inquirer. Lynch was kept on as an administrator after “appropriate sanctions” were enacted, according to the report.

</p>

<p>To me, that’s the part that’s shocking. Even after UPenn found out about it, they kept him on. It wasn’t until the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on it that the University “placed [him] on leave.”</p>

<p>Good grief.</p>

[Nrdsb4]

<p>

Neither of those claims is true, according to Columbia officials. Lynch did received a master’s degree in 2010, and has entered – but not yet completed – the doctoral program.</p>

<p>But UPenn, having found out about the bogus claims earlier this year, decided to keep Lynch in a leadership role, school officials told the Inquirer. Lynch was kept on as an administrator after “appropriate sanctions” were enacted, according to the report.</p>

<p>***“He mistakenly believed that it was complete,” ***University of Pennsylvania graduate school spokeswoman Kat Stein told the newspaper, referring to his doctoral degree.

</p>

<p>The school actually thought anyone would ever buy into the claim that someone could “mistakenly believe” they had completed a Ph.D degree? Sounds like the school is just as guilty of willful deception as Lynch.</p>

[VeryHappy]

<p>Exactly. One man’s dishonesty is one thing, but the University decided to overlook it. That’s shocking.</p>

[cbreeze]

<p>Do we really know the real story of what actually happened and how the decision of keeping him on was reached, if that was true?</p>

[latichever]

<p>Brings to mind a blast from the past, the MIT admissions dean with 28 years of service who resigned after it came out she had no degree at all. When she initially applied for an entry level position, she said she had a degree, although it was not required to be hired, so it wasn’t a big issue. As she worked her way up the ladder, her credentials were assumed, and never verified. After she raised her profile with a book tour someone questioned her credentials, and she had to resign.</p>

<p>The irony is that she had beem doing a great job, was a national leader in admissions–advocating that students put less stress on themselves, and had been given MIT’s highest award for administrators. </p>

<p>Also ironic is this quote from her book “Less Stess, More Success”:</p>

<p>“Holding integrity is sometimes very hard to do because the temptation may be to cheat or cut corners. But just remember that ‘what goes around comes around,’ meaning that life has a funny way of giving back what you put out.”</p>

<p>This sad story, as well as others such as UPENN, poses the question about how important college is for certain kinds of jobs–ones for which intelligence and experience outweigh academic credentials. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/27mit.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/27mit.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[ellemenope]

<p>

Doug Lynch, vice dean of the graduate school of education, … claimed to have received a master’s degree and a doctorate from Columbia University in 2005 and 2007, respectively.</p>

<p>Neither of those claims is true, according to Columbia officials. Lynch did received a master’s degree in 2010, and has entered – but not yet completed – the doctoral program.

</p>

<p>Hard to believe that one could be THIS mistaken…</p>

[cartera45]

<p>Credentials are highly overrated. Honesty is not.</p>

[jvtDad]

<p>Good grief! This is a mocking to all UPenn students who have gotten “F” for plagiarizing or some other violation of academic integrity.</p>

[MD_Mom_1]

<p>I had to get official transcripts for my community college job. Hard to believe an Ivy would not require it.</p>

[jym626]

<p>Ironically I posted a thread about this on the Penn forum yesterday and… surprise… not a single response. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1331508-dont-lie-your-vitae-penn-vice-dean-resigns.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-pennsylvania/1331508-dont-lie-your-vitae-penn-vice-dean-resigns.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[kayf]

<p>Unbeleivable. As a Penn alumn I am furious. Thanks for the heads up.</p>

[parentofpeople]

<p>jym626 there is not much action on the Penn forum in general and most of it is from students trying to figure out what classes to take and what dorm to live in.</p>

[jym626]

<p>Guess I shoulda posted here. Thought about it, but thought Penn folks would have been interested. Thanks for the clarification.</p>

[sunmachine]

<p>I read a story two years ago about a Williams prof that had been hired, IIRC, with fake credentials and under an assumed name. The story said he had great connections in DC, and had been successful in placing Williams students in internships there.</p>

[charlieschm]

<p>Yes, this story was particularly bad because it was so far from the truth. He claimed a PhD at the time he didn’t even have his masters. … and he was a top administrator working on doctoral programs for Penn.</p>

[NJSue]

<p>What is wrong with Penn administration? Every college I’ve ever worked for or applied to required an official transcript. At my middling-rank employer, contract letters are voided if stamped official transcripts are not supplied by a deadline. Recently, Penn also had a problem where a professor died over the summer and no one thought to reassign or cancel his class. It was on the schedule and students showed up on the first day. Sloppy.</p>