When Dartmouth announced Charles Harris as its new athletic director, the move initially seemed a tremendous coup for the school -- Harris was without a doubt among the most respected men in collegiate athletics. Over a 30-year career that has included 12 years as the athletic director at powerhouse Arizona State University and a recent stint as the Chairman of the NCAA Management Council (one of the most prestigious positions in college sports), Harris couldn't have amassed a better resume. Ironically, it was that resume that cost him his job at Dartmouth.
At one point, Harris claimed on a resume to have a Master's Degree in Journalism from the University of Michigan. Though he did enroll in this program, Harris in fact never completed the degree. A former employer passed this information along to Dartmouth, 24 years after Harris stated this resume was written. Harris promptly resigned as Dartmouth's new athletic director.
Harris' resignation came as the third major resume dispute to hit collegiate athletics in recent months. Last winter, administrators at the University of Notre Dame forced George O'Leary to resign as the school's head football coach after it was discovered that he had consistently lied about varsity letters and his degree from the University of New Hampshire. Then at the beginning of May, Vanderbilt University hired Tom Collen as the new women's basketball coach. The next day, he was forced to resign after university officials threatened to fire him, following claims from the University of Miami in Ohio that Collen had lied about holding two separate master's degrees from that institution. Vanderbilt quickly hired a new coach.
Yet Collen hadn't lied -- indeed, Miami's administration disclosed shortly thereafter that they had simply made a clerical error. The revelation came too late for Collen; he was not rehired. A spokesperson for Vanderbilt's athletic department expressed little sympathy, standing firmly by the school's actions.
Given this charged atmosphere, what alternative did Harris have but to resign? The incidents at Notre Dame and Vanderbilt, both widely publicized, set a clear precedent. Had Harris attempted to hold onto the Dartmouth position, it is unlikely his efforts would have survived the ensuing media storm.
Harris' offense does call into question the integrity of a man previously considered as one of the most respected individuals in collegiate athletics. In his resignation letter, Harris has attributed his error to "a youthful exuberance to manipulate the facts in a competitive job market." That claim may indeed be accurate; such actions may even be relatively common. But none of that fully justifies Harris' behavior. "Youthful exuberance" does not excuse lying. Harris's mistake was his own, and for that he has paid steeply.
Nonetheless, Harris' past exaggeration of his journalism credentials remains both more dated and notably less relevant than O'Leary's false claims of varsity football experience. The end result then, is a situation in which no one wins. Had the Dartmouth incident not come on the heels of the previous two, perhaps some bargain could have been reached preserving both Harris' reputation and job. But as it stands, Dartmouth is without an experienced and nationally recognized athletic director, and Charles Harris is left with time on his hands to ponder his "youthful exuberance."
