On December 9, 2001, when the University of Notre Dame decided to hire George O'Leary, the institution should have taken note of recent events at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. Just 17 days prior to Notre Dame's hiring of O'Leary to coach the Fighting Irish football team, Cheyney made an announcement similar to the one Notre Dame would find itself making soon after. On November 21, 2001, Cheyney announced that it placed Teta V. Banks, the interim provost and vice president for academic and student affairs, on leave pending verification of the degrees she claimed to have received on her resume.
Founded in 1837, Cheyney, located approximately an hour outside of Philadelphia, is one of the nation's historically black colleges and universities. In 1999, Cheyney sought to hire an individual to serve as dean of the Honors College. After interviews, coupled with an impressive resume which listed a doctoral degree from University of Oxford's Exeter College, Cheyney selected Banks to fill the position. Then, in February of 2000, she was made interim provost and vice president for academic and student affairs. After faculty members raised numerous questions about Bank's academic credentials, Cheyney asked Banks to provide proof that she had in fact received her doctoral degree from Oxford. When several months passed and Banks failed to provide the substantiation documents, Cheyney placed her on an unpaid academic leave. She subsequently submitted her letter of resignation. Oxford has no record of a "Teta V. Banks" ever receiving a degree.
As Cheyney investigated Banks, Notre Dame prepared to hire Georgia Institute of Technology head football coach O'Leary. Both Georgia Institute of Technology and Notre Dame's published resumes and profiles of O'Leary stated that in 1972 he earned a Master's degree in Education from New York University and that before he graduated in 1968 he played football at University of New Hampshire for three years. However, records at NYU indicate that he never received a degree. Likewise, a spokesperson for the UNH explained that although O'Leary did graduate (in 1969, not 1968), he was never on the football team's roster.
After a local paper in Manchester, New Hampshire, published an article stating that O'Leary never played at UNH, O'Leary resigned from the Notre Dame position. O'Leary explained that "many years ago, as a young married father, I sought to pursue my dream as a football coach. In seeking employment, I prepared a resume that contained inaccuracies regarding my completion of course work for a master's degree and also my level of participation in football at my alma mater. These statements were never stricken from my resume or biographical sketch in later years." Indeed O'Leary's inaccurate statements stem from his first college coaching position in 1980 at Syracuse University, when a 1986 biographical sketch claimed that he received three varsity letters at UNH. Between O'Leary's tenure at Syracuse University and his brief stint at Notre Dame, he held three other positions before someone independent of his employer exposed the inaccuracies.
These incidents were highly public and embarrassing for the people as well as the institutions involved. Due diligence investigations of resumes and curricula vitae is more valuable now than ever before.
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