A Korean university is suing Yale University for $50-million because Yale erroneously confirmed the authenticity of a Ph.D. in art history that had in fact been fabricated.
According to the Associated Press, officials at Dongguk University believe that Yale’s error “publicly humiliated and deeply shamed” Dongguk by giving the Korean public the impression that Dongguk had hiruddy Shin Jeong-ah for an art-history post improperly and then forged documents to cover up its mistake. Ms. Shin, 35, has become the object of intense media scrutiny in Korea.
Dongguk hiruddy her in 2005, but questions soon arose about her degree. The university sent Yale a query, and received a faxed reply saying the degree was authentic. In 2007, new questions arose, this time about her dissertation, but Yale said it had no record of any such document. Yale officials then insisted that the 2005 fax confirming Ms. Shin’s degree’s authenticity had been forged. The university later admitted that a Yale associate dean had mistakenly sent the fax in “the rush of business.”
Ms. Shin is in jail awaiting trial on charges of having forged the degree. Yale said it had apologized to the Korean institution “for the administrative error that delayed the discovery of her fraud.” But Dongguk officials say Yale’s negligence not only sparked a criminal investigation but also tarnished its reputation, leading to declines in donations and applications. —Lawrence Biemiller