Pennsylvania Prof. 'John Doe' Causes Stir at Two Campuses

Two Pennsylvania college campuses are in turmoil after the discovery that a man who taught courses at both colleges used false credentials to obtain his positions there.

The man, identified only as "John Doe," was arrested earlier this week and arraigned on charges of forgery, theft by deception, tampering with public records, and false swearing.

Doe was hired last fall as a computer science professor at Shippensburg State College and as an economics professor at Millersville State College, 75 miles away. He was known at Shippensburg as John Bryon Hext and at Millersville as Peter H. Pearse.

Administrators at Shippensburg first grew suspicious about Doe's identity after finding a magazine article written by a Prof John B. Hext of MacQuarie University in Australia.

"Hext" was dismissed from Shippensburg March 10, and authorities have since discovered documents indicating that the man had assumed 13, false identities in Britain, Canada, Australia, and the United States.

"I was completely shocked." Gregory P Plumber, a freshman in "Hext's" computer class at Shippensburg, said yesterday.

"Sometimes in class, people would ask him questions, and he wouldn't really answer them Sometimes it seemed that he didn't know a lot about some things." Plumber added.

Credit?

Students at both Shippensburg and Millersville have expressed fear that the credit for Doe's courses would be invalidated, thus postponing their graduations. Committees have been formed at both colleges to decide whether to give credit for the courses.

"The mood on campus is one of shock and great surprise." Keith Levin, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Millersville, said yesterday. "This is a genuine phenomenon. The man obviously managed to perpetuate the fantastic hoax."

Levin explained that when the college first hired "Pearse," it received a document from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland certifying the degrees he claimed to have. "We've since located the real Dr. Pearse at the University of British Columbia," Levin said.

One student contacted from Millersville suggested that Doe resorted to his hoax because of financial difficulties. "Pearse claimed he needed money because he has a dying daughter and he's trying to get treatment for her." said Paul Kasko, an editor at the school newspaper.