U of Arizona website falsely said dean of students has doctorate

Up until Wednesday, the University of Arizona provost’s website inaccurately claimed Vice Provost for Campus Life and Dean of Students Kendal Washington White holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University.

Her personal profile on LinkedIn, an online space for professionals to post their résumés and network within their fields, also listed her participation in a doctoral degree program from 2017-2020, until the Arizona Daily Star questioned Washington White’s purported credentials on Wednesday. That line on her online résumé made no distinction about the doctorate being incomplete or in progress, and was listed in the same style as her completed degrees.

Washington White does not have a doctorate. It took the Arizona Daily Star two phone calls to confirm it.

A call to the registrar at NAU earlier this week confirmed that Washington White started a doctoral program in educational leadership there but never finished. A second call to the university’s department of education leadership also confirmed this. While she does hold a master’s degree in education from NAU, she did not complete the doctoral program.

UA, White updated webpages

Within hours of the Star asking Washington White about these discrepancies on Wednesday, the UA provost’s webpage, which hosted the incorrect information about a doctorate, was updated to say “Kendal Washington White holds a Master of Education degree from Northern Arizona University.”

In response to questions about these discrepancies, Washington White emailed this statement to the Star on Thursday evening:

“I have always been transparent that I have not completed my doctoral degree at Northern Arizona University,” she said. “Any errors or misstatements on how the status of my doctoral candidacy was presented online were inadvertence and have been addressed. What is most important is that I lead, partner, and support students, faculty, and staff.”

Washington White has worked in the UA Dean of Student’s office since 2009. In 2013, the UA named her interim dean of students and selected her to permanently fill the role in 2014. Nearly 10 years later, Washington White, who is responsible for “providing leadership in the areas of student accountability, academic integrity” among other duties, receives an annual salary of $208,314.

To get the job, Washington White added, “I participated in a nationwide search from a consultant and earned the position per my credentials and performance.”

A spokesperson for the UA administration, Pam Scott, offered no further explanation about how or why the provost’s website indicated Washington White had a doctorate, and said the dean’s statement “covers everything.”

Reference to a doctoral degree have also been removed from Washington White’s LinkedIn page in the past two days, in addition to some other modifications. The page still states that she earned a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1989. For her master’s in education from NAU, it indicates she started the program in 1997, but does not have an end date. It previously stated she completed the master’s degree in 1998, and the Star has confirmed that with the degree-granting department.

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Where her LinkedIn profile once listed a doctorate in educational leadership earned between 2017-2020, it now lists an unspecified program of study at NAU started in 2017 with no end date.

Although White is the likely arbiter of her own LinkedIn page, it is not clear who made those erroneous modifications to the provost’s website, why or exactly when.

A search using the Wayback Machine — which periodically takes screenshots of webpages and archives them — revealed that as of Jan. 26, 2022, Washington White’s page on the provost’s website only listed her title and contact information, with no mention of her credentials. But by Nov. 30, 2022 (which is the next available screenshot in the Wayback Machine’s archive), the provost’s website had been updated to state Washington White held a doctorate.

Not a ‘victimless’ error

Experts say regardless of how it happened, it’s inexcusable for a university to have incorrect credentials about an employee, no less a top administrator, on its own website for months.

“The impact on students can be real and traumatic. This is not a victimless crime,” said Sarah Eaton, an associate professor of education at the University of Calgary. She recently co-authored the book, Fake Degrees and Credential Fraud in Higher Education, and has studied this issue at length.

Regardless of how Washington White’s credentials were misrepresented, “the fact remains that there (were) inaccuracies on an institutional website and this person’s LinkedIn,” Eaton said in an interview Thursday. “To exemplify integrity and ethics those things should be clarified.”

Although Eaton could not comment on the specific situation regarding Washington White and the UA, she said that from the outside looking in, “the irony here is difficult to ignore,” because the dean of students typically has the power to discipline students, which is true at the UA. “You’ve got somebody disciplining students for misconduct when they themselves have exhibited — at the very least — questionable behavior.”

Eaton said there is no data on how common it is for higher education professionals to inflate their credentials, but that it happens frequently enough to be a known issue that colleges and universities need to avoid because it can undermine institutional credibility.

Eaton acknowledged that not all roles at a university — even one like dean of students — necessarily require a doctorate to do excellent work and serve students. But because modern society often privileges those with more credentials, some people are motivated to embellish their expertise, she said.

Part of Washington White’s defense of this discrepancy is that regardless of what the website said, the UA dean said “what’s most important is that ‘I lead, partner, and support students, faculty, and staff’.”

The problem with that line of defense, according to Eaton, is it ignores the integrity issue at hand.

“It’s so hard to get a job in higher education. There’s so many people who have legitimately earned their credentials who can’t get a job who would love to be in a position like dean of students,” she said. “Whether it’s outright and intentional fraud or a misrepresentation, at the end of the day the person is not representing themselves honestly. That’s the crux of the matter.”