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MIT dean resigns when falsified credentials are revealed

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 27, 2007

To stressed-out parents and students, MIT admissions dean Marilee Jones was a rare voice of reason in the high-pressure world of college admissions. With colleges demanding kids who play sports, run student government and take the heaviest course load they can, Jones shouted back the opposite: Daydream, stay healthy and don't worry so much about building a resume just to impress an elite college.

Yet it turns out that Jones was susceptible to pressure herself. She falsely bolstered her credentials to get a job with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and over the course of her career she claimed to have earned degrees from three schools. MIT officials say now they have no evidence she ever graduated from college at all.

MIT announced Thursday that Jones had resigned after acknowledging that she had misrepresented her education when she started working at the university 28 years ago and had declined to correct multiple incorrect claims since then.

A senior MIT official said that by claiming degrees she had never earned, Jones could no longer lead an admissions office that occasionally rescinds the acceptance letters sent to applicants who are untruthful about their accomplishments.

It's "regrettable, ironic, sad, but that's where we are," said MIT chancellor Phil Clay.

Jones had become one of the most public voices urging parents, students and especially colleges themselves to "lower the flame" surrounding college admissions. She made the cause her own after growing alarmed at the increase in stress-related health problems among young people.

On Thursday, MIT released a statement from Jones in which she said she was "deeply sorry for this and for disappointing so many in the MIT community and beyond."

Clay said MIT was alerted to questions about Jones' credentials in a phone call, from someone he declined to identify, to another dean. An inquiry determined that Jones had at various points claimed degrees from Union College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Albany Medical College, all in New York, but in fact had no degrees from any of those institutions.

Jones was confronted on Monday, acknowledged the misrepresentations and accepted a request to resign, Clay said.

[Last modified April 27, 2007, 01:39:30]