In a competitive job market, resume lies have become more and more commonplace. A recent study by the Society of Human Resource Managers revealed that 53% of people have lied on their resume, and 70% of college students would create a resume fib if it meant landing their dream job. It’s not hard to imagine that resume fibs have reached academia as well, but when it comes to researchers, presidents, and faculty, resume falsehoods become a high stakes game involving returned grants, trustee votes, and even lawsuits reaching into the millions. We’ve found 10 incredible stories of academics who lied to get ahead, and what happened when the truth was revealed.
- Kean University’s controversial president
Kean University president Dawood Farahi has been a controversial figure in academia recently, with several resume questions coming out from the Kean Teachers Federation. Specifically, Dr. Farahi claimed that he had published articles in peer-reviewed journals, but those journals said they’d never even seen them. Other issues include conflicting dates, as well as inconsistencies in the titles and topics in his doctoral dissertation. Dr. Farahi offered little to no explanation for the resume issues, aside from the possibility that university staffers may have made mistakes when typing up his biography. Many in the Kean community have called for Farahi to be fired from his position as president, but the university’s board of trustees ultimately backed him, allowing Farahi to keep his job, at least for now. Students, professors, and others in the community have expressed their displeasure at the board’s decision, and some have even called for the board to be thrown out along with Dr. Farahi. - Yale sued for fake degree
When universities hire professors, it’s often a major investment, not just in the individual professor, but in projects and other ventures that the new hire may be involved in. Dongguk University in South Korea made an impressive investment in Shin Jeong-ah, who was hired after Yale confirmed that he had earned a doctorate at the American university. But after Jeong-ah embezzled museum funds and even had a scandalous affair with a South Korean presidential aide, it was uncovered that he had never earned the Yale doctorate at all. As a result, Dongguk lost millions in government grants, alumni donations, and even the cost of building a law school, which sits unapproved by the government due to the scandal. The university has gone after Yale for incorrectly confirming Jeong-ah’s doctorate degree, filing a lawsuit that has been going on since 2008. Yale has since apologized for the error, but has continued to fight the $50 million lawsuit set against them. - Notre Dame coach hired, then fired
George O’Leary’s resume has a very brief (but accurate) entry on his resume as head coach at Notre Dame: the football leader was fired just five days after he was hired when it was revealed that he’d lied on his resume. O’Leary represented that he’d earned a master’s degree from New York University-Stony Brook, and although he was a student, he did not actually receive a degree from the school. He also claimed that he’d earned three letters playing football in New Hampshire, while the school said he never even played a game. Already an award-winning coach from Georgia Tech, many wondered why O’Leary even needed to bother with padding his resume. But the coach shared that he’d fluffed up his experience many years earlier, and simply hadn’t gone back to fix the inaccuracies. O’Leary’s fibbing was an embarrassing moment for not just the coach, but Notre Dame football, but both parties have moved on successfully from the incident. Most recently, O’Leary led the University of Central Florida Knights to a BCS-ranked season and a Liberty Bowl victory in 2010, the team’s most successful season in history. - Yale football coach is no Rhodes Scholar
We’re a little puzzled by former Yale football head coach Tom Williams’ claim that he was once a Rhodes Scholar. You certainly don’t have to be a Rhodes Scholar to coach college football, but perhaps Williams felt like he needed to pad his academic resume to fit in at prestigious Yale. Whatever the reason, Williams was busted for lying about being a Rhodes Scholar candidate after the New York Times asked Rhodes to check in on his claim. They revealed that no one with the name Williams had even applied in the years that the former coach claimed he was a candidate. But Williams’ lies went further, claiming that he was a 49ers free agent in 1993, when the team’s accounting office could find absolutely no record of him on the roster. Although Williams continues to back up his stories, he quickly and quietly resigned from his position with Yale in late 2011. - Faking your way into Harvard
Adam Wheeler’s story sounds something like a movie, in which a young student fooled the admissions office at Harvard into granting him admission and threw thousands of dollars at him for financial aid. Wheeler lied about just about everything he submitted to Harvard, claiming that he attended MIT and Phillips Academy with near-perfect grades, co-authored books, delivered lectures, and taught courses, when he actually had done none of those things. Wheeler even submitted a perfect 1600 on the SATs when his real scores were actually 1160 and 1220. Although it seems Wheeler is of slightly above-average intelligence at best, he was somehow smart enough to make his fake documents look like real ones, fooling Harvard admissions staffers. In all, Wheeler was charged with 20 counts of larceny, identity fraud, falsifying endorsement, and pretending to hold a degree, with more than $45,000 in financial aid stolen. Wheeler was discovered after a Harvard professor noticed that he’d plagiarized nearly the entire essay he submitted for review as a Rhodes scholar, and further investigation revealed that virtually everything about Wheeler had been fake.
- Texas A&M’s fake Navy SEAL
Texas A&M University has a large ROTC program representing every branch of the military, so we’re sure that when Alexander Kemos submitted a resume with a doctoral degree from Tufts University and experience as a Navy SEAL, administrators were excited to pluck him out of the business world and welcome him to campus. Unfortunately, Kemos’ credentials are just not real. He was able to slip through, as applicants for administration jobs require only a criminal background check, where faculty positions include academic credential screening. Kemos made it to one of the top A&M spots as the senior vice president for administration, the number 3 administrator on campus, before questions into his background were brought up. When approached, Kemos admitted to “several misrepresentations” in both his academic career and military service. After his misdeeds were revealed, Kemos resigned from his position at Texas A&M in order to “spend more time with his family.” - A 28-year lie at MIT
We’re quite impressed by former MIT dean Marilee Jones, who kept up her resume lie for an amazing 28 years. Jones joined MIT in 1979 to help recruit women to the university, and in her original resume, apparently “misrepresented her academic degrees to the institute.” But her resume fib wasn’t discovered until 28 years later, long after Jones had risen to the rank of the dean of admissions, keeping her misrepresented degrees on her resume in each new position with the institute. Jones says, “I misrepresented my academic degrees when I first applied to MIT 28 years ago and did not have the courage to correct my resume when I applied for my current job or at any time since.” When her lie was finally discovered, she resigned, but has moved on. Jones has continued to work as an admissions consultant for applicants as well as institutions including the Berklee College of Music. - Cancer researcher resigns over a massive collection of lies
In late 2010, Dr. Anil Potti, a Duke cancer researcher, found himself in hot water after he was investigated for research misconduct. It was revealed that Potti had misrepresented data and analysis, which led to the termination of clinical cancer trials he’d been working on. This investigation into his research was actually sparked by problems with his resume, after The Cancer Letter reported that he had falsified some details on his resume, including the misrepresented claim that he was a Rhodes Scholar. The fallout from Potti’s lies was massive, including the halting of payments on a five-year grant from the American Cancer Society; a total of $729,000 that Duke later reimbursed. - Poet laureate revealed as a fraud
We’re sure that Quincy Troupe was excited to accept his position as California’s first official poet laureate, but his appointment is actually what caused his undoing. During a background check for his confirmation hearing, it was revealed that Troupe did not earn a degree from Grambling College as he had claimed. In addition to losing his laureate post, Troupe was also dismissed from his job as a professor at UCSD, a position he’d had for 11 years. But he has maintained success outside of his official work, developing poetry books, screenplays, and other writing projects, as well as nationwide tours. - A president’s lie, a university’s secret
Former New Jersey City University president Carlos Hernandez retired from his post in 2011, but many years earlier, in 1998, state education officials were alerted to a lie on his resume. Hernandez claimed to have a master’s degree in philosophy from CUNY when he did not. He actually had a doctorate, but for some reason felt that he should represent a fake master’s as well. State education officials learned of this misrepresentation in 1998, but simply asked Hernandez to remove any reference to his fake degree from school records, a move that some in the university community feel is not sufficient, and have been working to expose to the public since the lie was revealed.
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