DEAN OF ADMISSIONS -- AND COMMON SENSE -- FALLS TO RESUME CREATION
The dean of admissions at the ultra-prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology has resigned after admitting that she had falsified her resume for the past 28 years and covered up the fact that she did not have even an undergraduate degree, much less the advanced degrees she claimed.

Which, of course, begs the question -- do you really need a college degree to be the dean of admissions at MIT? Apparently not.

Marilee Jones was highly regarded in line of work, and MIT was obviously very happy with her, since the institution promoted her repeatedly since she started at the entry level in 1979. She is famous for urging success-obsessed students and their parents to calm down and get a grip. Which is ironic, since MIT is one of the most selective colleges in the world, and admission to it is widely regarded as a sure path to success.

Of course, how hard is it to be dean of admissions at an institution that rejects 88 percent of applicants? It isn't like she had to generate applications. They came flooding in. Her job as dean was to make sure that the institution had the best possible freshmen class, and no one is suggesting that she failed to carry out that task.

According to The New York Times, at MIT "Ms. Jones was widely admired, almost revered, for her humor, outspokenness and common sense." So when somebody ratted her out for resume inflation (resume creation, really), of course she had to be fired. Humor, outspokenness and common sense don't count against embarrassing a prestigious institution that will now face many questions about whether its student body was really as carefully chosen as everyone thought. Especially an institution that is a pillar of our credentials-obsessed society.

Still, one can only wish that the chancellor had had the nerve to announce that while Ms. Jones did a bad thing, she had earned her job and would be retained so she could continue to apply her "humor, outspokeness, and common sense." But that would make just too much sense.