Cleaning our Own House: De-frauding the halls of academe

As Certified Fraud Examiners, we learn that three factors, collectively referred to as the Fraud Triangle, may portend fraudulent behavior. According to the late Donald Cressey, when pressures/incentives, opportunity, and rationalization converge, the environment is ripe for fraud. Although many may presuppose that academe is above such behavior, history has shown otherwise. All types of organizations are susceptible to fraud - even colleges and universities.

According to articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education and other print media, universities are sometimes quite far from the bastions of ethics they preach in their volumes of policies and procedures. In fact, because of concerns about the effect of "bad press" on public relations and fundraising, higher education has frequently sought to negotiate "back-room deals" as opposed to rooting out the problem. Therefore, the cases that do reach the public eye could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Regrettably, it has become rather commonplace to hear about administrators being asked to step down from their positions as a result of "accounting problems." This phrase has sometimes become synonymous in academe with fraud. Some of the recent fraudulent schemes in academe include: