Quote:CU regent candidate raps "minutiae" amid false-degree claims
Posted:? 06/08/2012 01:00:00 AM MDT
By Lynn Bartels
The Denver Post

A Republican running to sit on the governing board at the University of Colorado has erroneously told voters he has a master's degree in international economics from a prestigious East Coast university.

Called on it by critics, Matt Arnold mocked advanced degrees Thursday, explaining he completed the coursework but not his thesis.

"I was more interested in getting on with my life than trying to, quite frankly, waste more time in pursuit of academic BS that no one cares about," he said.

"I think that's one of the big problems, quite frankly, with education these days. We're graduating a bunch of people who hang letters after their names, but they have no useful skills."

Arnold is best known as the director of Clear the Bench, a group aimed at unseating what it sees as activist judges. He is one of two Republicans running for the at-large regent post at CU. He faces Brian Davidson in the June 26 primary in the only statewide race on the ballot.

"This is minutiae," Arnold said when asked about his degree. "What we ought to be talking about is who has the better ideas for reforming higher education in Colorado, and, quite frankly, I'm the only one who has put forward any ideas."

Arnold, a captain in the Army Reserve, attended the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy, in the fall of 1991 and spring of 1992. The one-year program has a reputation for rigorous academic studies.

Earlier this year, when told by The Denver Post that some Republicans said he didn't have a master's degree, Arnold said "they're wrong" and produced his diploma from Hopkins' SAIS school in Bologna.

Johns Hopkins spokeswoman Felisa Klubes said the diploma amounts to a "graduate-level certificate."

"It's not the same thing as having a full-blown master's degree," she said.

Arnold transferred to Hopkins' D.C. campus to complete the second year of the program. He said after finishing his courses, he was working on his thesis -- one of the degree's most significant requirements -- when his computer crashed, and he lost much of his material. He said he couldn't afford to fly back to Germany to recoup his research.

"I had to get a job," he said.

Arnold said he mistakenly used the phrase "master's" on the campaign trail at times as a sort of "generic shorthand."

Critics contend Arnold is guilty of embellishing his academic credentials and should drop out of the race.

"It would be bad enough for anybody to lie about their r?sum? for any reason -- especially about academic achievements -- but for a candidate running for CU regent to do so is entirely unacceptable," said Bob Balink, a Republican and the El Paso County treasurer.

Arnold countered that Balink is one of Davidson's supporters and that Davidson is the candidate who should drop out because he has a "clear conflict of interest."

Davidson is a physician and faculty anesthesiologist at CU's medical school.

"He'll be voting on budgets that affect his livelihood," Arnold said.

Davidson said university physicians are "essentially self-funded," noting that patient fees cover the majority if not all of the salaries and benefits for physicians on the Anschutz campus.