Mount Holyoke Suspends Historian for False Statements About Serving in Vietnam

By ANA MARIE COX

Mount Holyoke College has suspended for a year without pay Joseph J. Ellis, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who admitted he had lied about being a Vietnam combat veteran.

In a statement released last month, Mr. Ellis said that he accepted the sanctions and that, in the coming year, "I intend to find time for self-reflection and to begin work on a new book."

Joanne V. Creighton, Mount Holyoke's president, said that the institution's Faculty Advisory Committee on Appointments, Reappointments, and Promotions had "met intensively over a number of sessions" before deciding to suspend Mr. Ellis and to "publicly rebuke" him for telling students -- including those in his course on the Vietnam War and American culture -- that he had served in Vietnam. Mr. Ellis had actually spent most his time in the military, from 1969 to 1972, as an instructor at West Point, and never served overseas. His lie about that time and other fabrications emerged in a Boston Globe article in June, after which Mr. Ellis admitted his deceit.

David Garrow, a professor at Emory University's School of Law and a sharp critic of Mount Holyoke's initial decision to defend Mr. Ellis, said he was "pleasantly surprised at how tough a statement" the college had put out.

Ms. Creighton said that in evaluating Mr. Ellis's behavior and the scope of his lies, the committee had "met with Professor Ellis, reviewed course syllabi and course notes for his Vietnam course, reviewed all his teaching evaluations -- and this going back over all his 29 years here at the school." In addition to serving a suspension, Mr. Ellis will step down from his endowed chair at the college.

"The loss of the endowed chair is a sharp rebuke," said Andrew Burstein, a historian at the University of Tulsa and a colleague of Mr. Ellis's. "That must hurt, because in academia there is no greater source of status."

The college had "received hundred of letters and e-mails, including a large number [from] Vietnam veterans," said Ms. Creighton, who emphasized that Mount Holyoke "deplored" the disrespect Mr. Ellis had showed Vietnam veterans in lying about his background. Mr. Ellis, in his statement, apologized "to those Vietnam veterans who have expressed their understandable anger about my lie." He also extended his "personal regret to all students, faculty, and administrators who have been affected."

The tone of Mr. Ellis's apology last month differed significantly from his original statement, in June. In the latter, he apologized for "having let stand the assumption" that he had served in Vietnam and noted that "even in the best of lives, mistakes are made." In last month's statement, he said that "I am solely responsible" and "I did something both stupid and wrong."

In Mount Holyoke's statement, Ms. Creighton said that "while the college must censure Professor Ellis for his serious failing," the "quality of his scholarly work, the power of his teaching, and his administrative contributions" played roles in its decision. The veracity of Mr. Ellis's writings on his specialty, the colonial period, was never questioned.

Even though Mr. Ellis's lies were limited to an area outside his specialty, Mr. Garrow wondered if the college should have gone further in its punishment. "Should an institution think about detenuring someone in these circumstances?" he asked. "Well, I think it should."

Ms. Creighton said that the sanctions imposed on Mr. Ellis are consistent with the college's honor code: "The usual goal is to condemn the wrong and and encourage reflection and ultimately restoration." She continued, "I fully expect the community will support this decision." Asked if she expected Mr. Ellis to return, Ms. Creighton replied, "We do. We expect to see him back in September of 2002."

Mr. Burstein agreed. "Joe is too provocative -- in the best sense of the word -- to be removed from the classroom." Mr. Burstein said he suspects that Mr. Ellis and his students may ultimately even benefit from the scandal: "The controversy he spawned will no doubt shape the classroom dynamic in a way that does the students more good."

Mr. Ellis won the 2001 Pulitzer for history for his best seller Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Among his other books is American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won the National Book Award in 1997.

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