US Academy President Caught Embellishing Resume, Will Resign 124
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."
Re:Dear God (Score:5, Insightful)
Didn't you read the summary? Her salary was $598,000 last year. Nobody with a salary that large gets any criminal penalty. (Actually, Jeffrey Skilling is a counterexample, but there are very few others.)
Re:Internal politicing (Score:4, Insightful)
I very much doubt that there was only one qualified candidate for her job. Obviously the system they used picked one of the worst.
I don't know about that... her position was "President of the US Academy." A presidential position in a large nonprofit is all about image, motivation and being able to bring in the money. My guess is that mo matter what her academic credentials were, she wouldn't have been able to keep that position for 17 years without excelling at the mentioned criteria. Most eggheads in any specialty who were really interested in the pursuit of knowledge would be dismal failures as presidents of such an organization. They require someone who inspires confidence (who we usually call a con artist).
Re:In crowd (Score:0, Insightful)
* 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.
Some punishment (Score:5, Insightful)
"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.
Re:In crowd (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Some punishment (Score:4, Insightful)
It's important that important people be shielded from consequences. Without exception, the Important People, and their talking heads, that I see on TV assure me that this is so.