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US Academy President Caught Embellishing Resume, Will Resign
An anonymous reader writes "The 233-year old American Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced that its longtime President and Chief Executive, Leslie Cohen Berlowitz, has agreed to resign effective at the end of this month following an investigation of charges of resume embellishment and other misconduct. Berlowitz falsely claimed to have received a doctorate from New York University, and has also been criticized for her behavior towards scholars and subordinates, and for her compensation package ($598,000 for 2012) relative to the size of the non-profit organization she led. The Academy, based in Cambridge MA, was founded during the American Revolutionary War and is one of the most prestigious honorary societies for the American intellectual elite, extending across math and science, arts and letters, business, law and public affairs. The active membership rolls contain people you've heard of; the incoming class list provides a more manageable glimpse of the society's breadth."
She is clearly a victim of the patriarchy's obsession with facts and evidence.
She FEELS she deserves the post.. so therefore she does.
She is so fucked. It doesn't matter so much that she lied for the Academy. But she lied on grant proposals. This could lead to a MASSIVE criminal penalty.
Ref:
18 USC Section 1001
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001
18 USC Section 1031
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1031
She is so fucked it isn't even funny. She might want to head to Russia and ask for asylum.
One of her publications is titled: Restoring Trust in American Business
We're not off to a good start on that.
As long as companies lie in the job description and promises of packages and benefits, I'll lie in my CV and my skills.
Turnabout is only fair!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Many of the people who rise to the tops of large organizations are backstabbing, loudmouthed, blowhards. They scheme and calculate their way to the top. This applies to almost all large organizations. A simple way around this is to add randomization. The idea is that for any promotion you have many many qualified candidates and then pick one at random. I very much doubt that there was only one qualified candidate for her job. Obviously the system they used picked one of the worst.
This random system then prevents people from spending all their time scheming to set up the ideal circumstances where all the other candidates have been pushed under a bus. Also then they don't owe any favors for their job.
There a number of politicians have been given the shaft because their Phds were based on theses that were mostly copy&paste from unattributed sources.
Of course, not having received a doctorate in the first place (rather than based on insufficiently independent work) is a bit more audacious.
Doesn't anybody check that? And in this kind of position?
She should forfeit her compensation package as a consequence of her falsifying her application.
The active membership rolls contain people you've heard of; the incoming class list provides a more manageable glimpse of the society's breadth."
I wonder how many of them have embellished their accomplishments, too? Seems pretty common in academia these days.
I should probably put in a footnote: Elitist colleges like this don't like having the truth rubbed in their faces. That's why she's getting dismissed -- she just proved their demands of needing a college degree are hollow and stupid. It's an embarassment of epic proportions. Not that I should have to say this if you can read between the lines, but increasingly, I have my doubts about the average slashdotter's ability to even read the lines, let alone between them... hence this post.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
* That's why she's getting dismissed
Bullshit ... but hey... let's play "make up excuses for the lying woman".
Never mind that if it was a man... you wouldn't have a fucking word to say.
* I have my doubts about the average slashdotter's ability to even read the lines, let alone between them... hence this post.
And then... let's use shaming language to try to shut everyone up. That girl training is coming along nicely. Keep practising.
"She will receive a one-time payment of $475,000 for retirement and other benefits, according to an academy statement, but no severance payment"
*That* should teach her a lesson and send a strong signal.
It's easy to get these guys, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, mixed up with with these guys, The American Association for the Advancement of Science. They're not the same. The latter are the ones that publish Science, the prestigious scientific journal. The former, I'm not sure who those guys are. Seems like I've heard controversy about this woman before.
Ah, Academia and the political arena. Two places where "resume embellishment" is not simply called "lying".
Berlowitz falsely claimed to have received a doctorate from New York University
I'm assuming she only lied on the grant applications since she was also the Vice President for Institutional Advancement at New York University. Presumably they would have noticed if she falsely claimed to have a doctorate from them.
I stole this Sig
First off CS Is not IT
There is to much theory and skill gaps in college education for tech / IT
The college system is some what stuck in the past as well.
Where you may have to say you have an AS / BS when you have an AA / BA to get past HR or just drop the Arts or Science part.
I don’t get your rant on student loans. She lied about having a doctoral degree. No one should be doing a doctoral degree on a student loan. Bachelors and Masters – sure. But, not for a doctoral degree. Not having money is not a reason for not having a doctorate.
> as HR passes over you repeatedly
This has nothing to do with glass ceiling at HR. In fact, HR does not handle doctorates well. They don't understand them for most part. They almost seem to count it as a liability. The only people who respect it are other people with doctorates since they know what it takes to get one and about how to put such candidates to use. This lady was NOT going through a HR filter. Few who make close to $600K do. She did not betray a faceless HR. She betrayed people who would most likely know her by name, for grants that cost millions of tax payer dollars.
Most of these studies in humanities don't get verifications. You trust the people who have done them because they have been trained for a decade in a culture of academic honesty. Now, all the studies she would have done in the past would need to be called into question since she might have faked data. Your defense of her is quite bizarre. This isn't a put-food-on-table, livelihood position.
> The conservatives have hated public education since it was first introduced
How did you manage to turn this into a partisan issue?
> she just proved their demands of needing a college degree are hollow and stupid.
She has college degrees alright, from good institutions too - a bachelors from NYU and a masters from Columbia. She did not have a doctoral degree from NYU that she claimed she had.
You clearly have not been in academia and you have no idea what you are talking about. Forgetting to cite things in a paper can get you into a world of trouble. Faking a doctorate, in grant applications no less, is pretty much an academic death sentence - in any country, at any level - not just US elite institutions.
> I have my doubts about the average slashdotter's ability to even read the lines, let alone between them... hence this post.
You clearly consider yourself far above this average that you seem to have computed. Why hang around here if we are not your intellectual equals? For the benefit of gracing us with your insights from above, oh elite mind?
The average slashdotter is fine. It is you who is seeing imaginary lines and projecting.
I agree with you on one point: the optics of the situation were very important. This was an honorary academy which doesn't produce goods and services (well they do, but that's a fairly irrelevant sidelight; they are primarily a "you've made it!" type organization). It would not do for that kind of organization to have a CEO who lied on her resume for the same kind of thing that led the Yahoo board to kick out their CEO (the guy before Marissa Mayer) for example.
Another factor was apparently that members were pissed off at her compensation. Not just at her, but also at the board for authorizing it (the Times story says that the chairman is leaving too).
And what about Yahoo? The guy they fired actually had a good track record from his previous jobs, and wasn't reported as being a jerk to subordinates. But a lot of Yahoo's branding is about having the best and the brightest, so a CEO who lied about his college degree couldn't stay. If it had been some SVP who hardly anybody knew outside the company, that might be different.
Back when 'verification' might have required pulling out your good quill and sealing wax, I can see how pulling a blatant con of this flavor might have made some sense, however unethical it is. Now, though, when it is trivial for just about anybody, never mind the people considering you for the job, to take a look at your CV and start asking annoying questions like "How did you get a degree in XYZ in 1994 at a university that didn't offer that degree until 2001?" and "Why does the registrar at Foo University have no idea who you are, when you got a PhD there?".
Honestly, I'm surprised that it still works at all, not that people get caught at it. I'm half surprised that some school (or Google, in collaboration with some school trying to buff it's "We aren't a plodding dinosaur doomed to extinction!" cred) hasn't introduced an API that would allow HR to programmatically parse your resume/CV and verify the truth or falsity of educational claims made concerning that school with a few properly formed HTTP requests... (An alternate implementation, more student-focused, would be having a service provided by the office of the registrar where the student could request a cryptographically signed 'pull' of their record, to present to anybody who they wish to prove it to.)
Too bad she wasn't the US President instead of just a US Academy President. If she were the US President then she could have just sealed her college records and no one would have known any better. Funny that the US Academy President position is better vetted than POTUS.
People get away with this because verification of all these facts costs time and money. Even companies that are actually hired to do background checks are often slacking and don't actually verify the copies of diplomas you send them.
Also, universities and such have a good reason to not make an API for 3rd parties to query their databases. First, they'd have to settle on an API with all educational facilities, at least nationwide, probably even globally. Second of all, they can charge for a nice sum of money for every request now. Making an API will make it cost more and return less per request, since then things will be standardized and fees will most likely be regulated to be cheap to use.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
people in the job market today face some unpalatable options: You can either forego the degree and slam into the glass ceiling in a mid-level position as HR passes over you repeatedly, or get it and wind up a bit farther ahead in your career but be financially worse off than your subordinates who aren't paying back hundreds to thousands of dollars a month to some corporation who will just keep jacking the rates up year after year so you're paying off mostly just the interest and doing very little to hit the principal of your student loan
As someone pointed out below, PhD programs don't usually require student loans. (Most actually pay you - not a ton, but if you're in your 20s and don't have children or family members to support, it is enough to lead a reasonably comfortable lifestyle and still have a little bit left at the end of the month, even in high-cost areas. Subsidized housing is often available too.) And every time I've read about someone lying on their resume about academic credentials, it's a false claim to have earned a PhD. People who reach the level where that matters usually don't have any problem getting jobs anyway, and they're rarely in debt.
For a split second I thought the Academy President was quite old indeed.
I just noticed his name on the incoming class list (!) Maybe he'll write a song about this.
In Obama' Americum Wezes all have da opportunity to do usezes wha usezes wanteni'ts no matterizes if'n usezes needses it.
WTF is with that? If you lie on your resume, you are terminated immediately and walked out the door. What a bunch of two faced hypocrites. When's the last time that any of you were asked to resign because you screwed up? There are rules for the 99% and then the 1% get politely wrist slapped - don't do that again and here's your pension package. This is what's wrong with business today. The top 1% can do anything they want without repercussions while the 99% pay.
Let's be honest... if you've been doing the job for many years, it's clear a college education isn't necessary to keep doing your job.
If we're going to be "honest", then I need to point out that she was fired because she lied about something material to her employment at AAAS.
This is the reality of the wealth inequity in America. The conservatives have hated public education since it was first introduced in the 1800s... and they've finally managed to find a way to destroy the American dream: Without higher education, there's no upward mobility. Without that, there's no middle class. It's game over.
So conservatives are responsible for federal subsidized student loans - which are the driver for higher education inflation in the US of the past few decades? Do tell.
I read below that there's a name collision with the acronym "AAAS".
Why not immediately? And resign?
I live in Socialist Europe where people are protected by all kinds of laws. If you would be caught that you lied about a doctorate, that would mean immediate termination of your job. No compensation and no right on unemployment benefits.
I am very much interested as to why she lied about that doctorate. For many jobs on that level they would ask 'doctorate or similar through experience'. As it is very unlikely that they hire a person at the age that has no experience, there would be no reason to lie about it.
If a job actually requires a doctorate, it will be checked before you begin. Not 100% foolproof, but if you then get caught, immediate termination and possible lawsuits (depending on the case) will follow. Or: Go directly to jail; do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
This had nothing to do with patriarchy or feminism. This has to do with the amoral standards of "elites" and other ascendancies in western society. Cynical fraud has become an accepted standard across our institutions, public and private.
May the Maths Be with you!
...except vipers actually do something.
Not just AAAS but academia in general is so top heavy with do-nothing administrators and professors who abuse the tenure gravy train.
Just look up salaries at your local state university. UC schools for example: https://ucannualwage.ucop.edu/wage/
If you earn less than $250k/year in academia then you are not even in the top 10% and are likely a peon supporting a master.
The pension plans at these places are frankly disgusting, often paying 75% of these massive salaries post-retirement until death.
But then it all comes down on the shoulders of graduate students, postdocs and technicians who are doing the real work. Besides, the ideas coming from the professors shouldn't bring compensation of this scale becasue the vast majority of this money is hard money support which is derived from tax dollars and student tuition not grant money (which is actually what is earned by professors' ideas).
Still not as bad as Jim Graves Campaign Manger Aaron Wells doing a 180 after Michelle hung up her hat.
A rare breed, a female Narcissist!
Clearly the white hegemony in the USA is once again trying to keep the jewish woman down. I know from watching a&E that woman can never lie cheat or steal. Women are pure as the driven snow. (Note: I am no way saying that snow being white is necessarily pure. I am just using the common expression for its own sake and would like to disavow any obvious racial undertones) Jews also fit into this category. Because I am as member of the liberal elite. I can identify a jew just by her jewish sounding name. I therefore demand that she be reinstated. I also demand that we hang and cut off the balls, of the balding white old man who dreamed up this conspiracy.
In the USA, we believe in equality for all, unless your one of those prejudiced white crackers; In that case you deserve to be roasted on the open spit like the misogynist pig that you are.
If you have skeletons, don't abuse your staff. There's nothing like hatred to make people start digging into your background and calling newspapers.
Which John Romero game had trolls in it? :)
Apropos the story itself, I don't see much wrong with a Academy of Arts CEO lying, if you do, your suspension of disbelief hasn't kicked in.
I dont doubel check the crednetials of people I've known for decades, even though the Internet makes that easier. She probably got established before the Internet.
Cito, either successfully compete with them or stop complaining about it. Anti-semetic speak, is for the most part, loser speak. Successful people with good grip on life could care less if another group of people are also successful. I applaud the Jews for their accomplishments and I and my posterity (I'm not Jewish) will do just as well if not better. When you consider that the number of useful, humanity benefiting patents (especially with regard to medical devices) coming out of Israel is, per capita, greater than any country in the world, the Jews don't need a secret conspiracy to be successful, they just have to be better educated and more determined than the people around them, and they are, by and large. You comment reminds of my roomate who plays Call of Duty all the time on Playstation, and complains about how un-fair and 'cheap' and 'dishonorable' all the other players are who use sniper guns to take him out from a distance. It sounds ridiculous and annoying. If he wants to win, then he better start emulating the people that are good at the game. If he just wants to have fun, then the least he can do is stop winning about how unfair it all is and take things like a man.
Yes, it's "conservatives" (whatever the hell that means these days) that are trying to deny poor minor students the benefits of a good education. Oh, wait, actually . . . http://www.city-journal.org/2013/23_3_snd-aims.html