A cautionary observe 4 days earlier than the pre-release of the brand new 2023 U.S. Information graduate faculty rankings: Philadelphia Inquirer, Temple’s Former Enterprise College Dean Was Sentenced to 14 Months in Rankings Scandal Fraud:
The previous dean of Temple College’s Fox College of Enterprise was sentenced to 14 months in federal jail Friday for orchestrating a fancy fraud scheme to propel his faculty to the highest of nationwide rankings and defraud its college students and donors primarily based on that unearned fame.
Moshe Porat — who led the varsity for greater than twenty years till he was fired for the misrepresentations in 2018 — didn’t apologize and even acknowledge the scholars harmed by his crimes as he addressed the choose moments earlier than his punishment was introduced. As an alternative, he pleaded with U.S. District Choose Gerald J. Pappert to maintain him out of jail so he might take care of his ailing spouse.
Pappert balked, calling Porat’s obsession with driving the Fox College of Enterprise to the No. 1 spot “maniacal” and marveled that he had spent a lot of Friday’s listening to smirking and muttering below his breath.
“He nonetheless doesn’t suppose he did something fallacious. He has by no means accepted any accountability,” the choose mentioned. “He blames everybody else.” …
[I]t might have been far worse. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of as much as 11 years and the choose shot down a authorities request to power Porat to pay $5.5 million to Temple in restitution.
Friday’s listening to closed a chapter on a scandal that has roiled Temple since its false rankings information first got here to mild in 2018 and has since price the college thousands and thousands in authorized settlements with state and federal investigators and former college students who sued, saying their levels had been devalued. …
Porat’s sentencing listening to got here three months after a federal jury concluded that he, together with two subordinates, had for years knowingly embellished the info they had been sending on Fox’s college students to the journal U.S. Information & World Report, permitting its on-line MBA program to realize its No. 1 rating for 4 straight years. …
He now holds the excellence of being the primary college administrator within the nation to be criminally prosecuted for mendacity within the high-stakes battle for faculty rankings dominance. …
For the reason that college disclosed the misrepresentations, Temple’s on-line MBA program has dropped to No. 100 in U.S. Information’s rankings. …
“Going ahead,” the choose mentioned, “if faculty directors focus much less on the right way to therapeutic massage and obtain numbers that may be plugged into calculations that may spit out rankings and extra on the standard of educational efficiency and bettering the scholar expertise, college students, households, and the colleges themselves might be higher off.”
Prior TaxProf Weblog protection:
- Rankings Scandal Unfolds At Temple Enterprise College (Jan. 29, 2018)
- Temple Enterprise College Dean Fired For Knowingly Submitting False Information To Inflate U.S. Information Rating Over A number of Years (July 10, 2018)
- After Temple Admitted That Its Enterprise College Misreported Information To Goose Its Rating, U.S. Information Calls for Certification Of Different Faculties’ Information (Together with Regulation College) (July 12, 2018)
- Temple’s Rating Scandal Spreads To Six Extra Packages; College Additionally Admits To Three Errors In The Information It Submitted For Its Undergraduate Faculty Rating (July 30, 2018)
- WSJ: Temple Rankings Scandal Spotlights MBA Grads’ Swelling Debt (Sept. 7, 2018)
- Temple Reaches $5.5 Million Settlement In U.S. Information Rankings Scandal (Dec. 24, 2018)
- Federal Choose Approves $5.5 Million Settlement In Temple U.S. Information Rankings Scandal (Jan. 31, 2019)
- Ousted Enterprise College Dean Recordsdata $25 Million Defamation Lawsuit Towards Temple For Unfairly Blaming Him In U.S. Information Rankings Scandal (Might 6, 2019)
- On-line MBA Rankings Scandal Prices Temple $17 Million; After Rating #1 In 2015-2018 With False Information, Enterprise College Now Ranks #88 (Dec. 6, 2020)
- Former Temple Dean Faces Felony Expenses For Submitting False Information To Inflate U.S. Information Rating (Mar. 29, 2021)
- Anatomy Of Temple Enterprise College Rankings Fraud (Apr. 20, 2021)
- Former Temple Dean Convicted In U.S. Information Rankings Scandal Fraud; AUSA Hopes Case Ship A Message To Directors At Different Faculties (Nov. 30, 2021)
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