Saturday, June 08, 2002
Miami supports Collen's claim of 2 grad degrees
Too late for him to get back jobs at Vanderbilt, CSU
The Associated Press
OXFORD — The women's basketball coach forced to resign a day after being hired by Vanderbilt did earn two college degrees as he stated on a resume, Miami University said Friday.
Tom Collen, a 1983 Miami graduate, has been without a job since May2, and he asked the school last week to check into his academic credentials. Last month, Miami told Vanderbilt that Collen held only one master's degree in two subjects.
Upon further review, Miami officials found the registrar's office made a mistake on Collen's transcript when he graduated. The office incorrectly entered that he earned one master's degree in two areas of study, but the record should have reflected two separate degrees, Miami spokesman Richard Little said Friday.
“The records show Mr. Collen was a student in good standing and that he was not attempting to mislead anyone when reporting that he had two Miami graduate degrees,” Little said.
Miami publicized the correction in a news release hoping the misinformation does not affect Collen's future career.
“We've told him we're sorry he went through this,” Little said.
Collen had listed separate master's degrees in recreation and in health education on the resume originally submitted to Colorado State. He quit that job and was introduced as Vanderbilt's new coach May 1.
He resigned the next day under pressure after a newspaper reported he listed two Miami graduate degrees on his resume at Colorado State after giving Vanderbilt a resume with only one master's degree.
Mike Schoenfeld, Vanderbilt's vice chancellor for public relations, defended the school's decision Friday as being based on the information available at the time.
Vanderbilt had delayed hiring Collen for at least two days while checking through his academic credentials, and the coach gave officials the new resume.
What cost Collen his job were his statements that his resume had always been accurate. At the time, he blamed any confusion on the Colorado State sports information staff. After the newspaper story, Collen said he made an “honest mistake.”
Schoenfeld said Vanderbilt officials wish Collen the best, but they have their new coach in Melanie Balcomb, who previously coached the women's basketball team at Xavier, where she was 135-78 in seven seasons.
“We're going to be moving forward,” Schoenfeld said.
Colorado State hired a new coach last week.
The case came five months after George O'Leary, the former football coach at Georgia Tech, lost his job at Notre Dame within a week of his hiring. He falsely claimed on his resume that he had a master's degree in education and had earned three letters as a New Hampshire football player. He attended New Hampshire only two years and didn't play in any games. Last month, U.S. Olympic Committee president Sandra Baldwin resigned after admitting she lied about her academic credentials.
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Miami supports Collen's claim of 2 grad degrees
