MIT dean falsified résumé, resigns
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 loads 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 reportedly bolstered her credentials to get a job with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and over the course of her career claimed to have earned degrees from three schools. MIT officials say now they have no evidence she ever graduated from college at all.
The school announced Thursday that Jones had resigned after acknowledging she had misrepresented her education when she started working at the university 28 years ago, and 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 own accomplishments.
“We have to uphold the integrity of the institution, because that’s what we’ve been trying to sell, and she’s our chief spokesperson on that,” MIT Chancellor Phil Clay said.
On Thursday, MIT released a short statement from Jones in which she said she was “deeply sorry for this and for disappointing so many in the MIT community and beyond who supported me, believed in me, and who have given me extraordinary opportunities.”
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 Jones had claimed degrees from Union College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Albany Medical College, all in New York, but in fact had no degrees from any of those institutions. Clay said MIT was not aware of Jones having any undergraduate or graduate degree.