New Job For President In Degree Flap

The Idaho Falls Institute of Arts and Technology is looking for a new president after questions were raised about the legitimacy of the doctorate of the first person hired as president.

The school said Thursday Ted Carpenter was reassigned to other administrative duties while the board looks for a new president. The new president will have a doctorate from an accredited university, board chairman Tom Setter said.

“None of us want anything else,” he said. “I did not do a proper search and we will do that.”

Carpenter was appointed president of the new four-year, private college in August after telling the board he earned a doctorate in environmental administration from the University of Berkley.

Board members said they weren’t aware that was an unaccredited correspondence college that Michigan higher education officials called “a diploma mill.” Some thought he meant the University of California at Berkeley.

Carpenter said Friday that he understood the action to be only a title change. But Setter said once the board finds a president, that person will be running the college.

As director of administration, Carpenter will be responsible for setting up faculty and curriculum and coordinating the activities of the school. He was hired at $50,000 per year as president. Setter said the board hasn’t decided his new pay.

Board members decided against firing Carpenter, Setter said, since his family has moved to Idaho Falls and he purchased a house. “There’s a lot of compassion on the board,” he said.

“My feeling was they recognize and appreciate what I’m doing,” Carpenter said. “I’m hired for my work, not for my ethnicity, or my degrees, or my education, but for my work.”

Carpenter said he plans to earn a doctorate from an accredited university as soon as possible, though he said he still believes his degree from the University of Berkley is legitimate.