College of Communication Dean John Schulz may avoid a full investigation into charges that he exaggerated parts of his resume, partly because his credentials were thoroughly examined when he first came to the university as a professor in 1995, according to Boston University Provost David Campbell.
Claims that Schulz exaggerated his education, military service and experience as a foreign correspondent, obtained by The Daily Free Press last month, “were looked at in detail when Dean Schulz was hired and vetted to Boston University’s satisfaction at the time,” Campbell said in an email Monday.
“Dean Schulz is a decorated war veteran, he has an Oxford PhD and he served with distinction as a [Voice of America] correspondent,” the email read. “So the university has not been remiss in this regard.”
Schulz claimed in a Boston Globe article that he had made a typo on his résumé when he listed himself as one of two students out of 19 in the social studies department of Oxford University to receive a PhD in 1981, one of main charges against him. He told the Globe that he was “one of only two or three out of perhaps 12 to get the degree in his particular field, international relations, a part of social studies.”
The Oxford website lists Schulz as one of eight successful PhD candidates in international relations in that particular year.
After the claims were reported in the Friday Globe article, Schulz called on the provost to investigate any allegations against him. Hours later, the journalism faculty also voted in favor of a formal resolution for an investigation, though the provost said he did not receive the resolution until Monday.
University policies, outlined in the Faculty Handbook, require the administration conduct an “inquiry” into claims against faculty to determine whether there are grounds for a formal investigation.
Campbell said that the current inquiry is a result of Shultz’s request, not the faculty resolution. The provost sent an email to the entire COM faculty, calling the resolution insufficient because it lacked specificity. In the email, obtained by The Daily Free Press, he asked journalism department chairman Robert Zelnick to compile specific allegations to guide the inquiry.
“I will take into account the specificity of the allegations, Dean Schulz’s response, and other facts and circumstances … If a formal inquiry or investigation is warranted, I will advise you of the process and timetable to be followed,” the email read.
The email detailed the provost’s concern with the publicity that COM has received because of the allegations against the dean, calling it “cause for some concern.”
Some faculty members who requested anonymity for fear of retribution expressed concerns that the guidelines the provost set for the faculty’s allegations were too narrow and would hamper a thorough investigation.
Schulz has also been criticized for allowing false claims about his exploits to stand uncorrected in news articles and on internet biographies. In his BU biography, the dean is described as having covered the Soviet War in Afghanistan, and critics have faulted him for failing to distinguish that he covered that war from a listening post in Pakistan, not on the front line. Schulz has said he did cover several wars on the ground, including the Vietnam war.
Schulz told The Daily Free Press he understood “how a journalist could possibly interpret this ambiguously, because I too hold to the sacredness of valid datelines.” He vowed to fix the language on the website in the coming days.
Boston University president Robert Brown declined to comment during the ongoing inquiry.