Albright College today unconditionally dropped all charges against a faculty member it was seeking to fire for truthfully exposing its college president.

Shortly before a scheduled faculty committee hearing of the charges, the college announced it was withdrawing all its allegations against Achal Mehra, a fierce critic of the president Col Henry Zimon, who has been accused of falsifying his resume.

Mehra said the withdrawal of the charges completely vindicates his position that “Col Zimon pulled a first class con job on the college.”

“Col Zimon perpetuated a deliberate and calculated fraud upon the college,” Mehra stated. “The College was forced to drop the charges because it recognized that the hearings and any resulting court action would expose the truth and the full extent of Col Zimon’s duplicity and academic dishonesty,” Mehra said.

“Col Zimon and the trustees dare not stand before any tribunal in America, which forces them to speak the truth under penalty of perjury, because their lies would have consequences,” Mehra said.

After the college failed to identify any false statements made by Mehra, the Faculty Executive Committee ruled on Aug 16: "The FEC will assume, for the purposes of this proceeding only, that the statements attributed to Professor Mehra are true."

Mehra has accused Zimon of falsely claiming that Zimon was publishing two books, as well as of making several other misleading statements about teaching at Harvard University and holding postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard and at MIT. In 1999 the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article detailing evidence that exposed the misleading statements in Zimon’s resume. The college has been mired in the charges ever since.

Mehra has conducted a relentless campaign against Zimon’s academic misconduct during the past two years, including publishing a newspaper, The Iconoclast, and establishing a website, www.zimonisafraud.com.

Mehra said: “The highest obligation of a scholar, which is enshrined in the noblest traditions of the profession, is to speak the truth. What I did was to fulfill my professional obligations to speak the truth. It is some members of the faculty and some of the trustees of the college that have facilitated Zimon’s fraud who are unprofessional, who are in violation of their canons of professional ethics. It is they who ought to be ashamed of their role in the cover-up.”

The dropping of the charges, Mehra said, is a “vindication of not just me, but the enduring faith that I have in the ideal that truth always triumph, no matter how often it is beaten down or how arduous the journey. It is truth that won out today.”

Mehra said that now that the facts about Zimon’s dishonesty have been confirmed, Zimon should be given a week to resign from the college or the trustees should fire him. He said he would propose a resolution of no confidence in Zimon at the next faculty meeting.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education provided support to Mehra. FIRE’s Executive Director Thor Halvorssen said, "Albright College is truly a topsy-turvy, Orwellian world, and we are going to tell people about it."

Nearly a half-dozen faculty members and a member of the board of trustees have quit Albright College during Zimon’s presidency, protesting his academic dishonesty.

Dr John Hinshaw, assistant professor of history, who quit the college last year to join Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Penn., said in a statement, “It would be difficult to overstate the dismay of the junior faculty, and several of the senior faculty, to the systematic lies and half truths of Henry Zimon and his administrative and academic allies.”

Maurice Methot, assistant professor of digital media, who also resigned last year and moved to Emerson College, Boston, Mass., said: “The Zimon affair was a decisive factor in my decision to leave Albright. How could anyone, faculty and students alike, not be profoundly disturbed by the events surrounding Colonel Zimon’s presidency.”

Dr Carmen Salsbury, assistant professor of biology, wrote in her resignation letter: “The ongoing controversy surrounding Dr. Zimon’s appointment as president has created a hostile sometimes embarrassing work environment. The seriousness of the allegations against Dr. Zimon cannot and should not be minimized, especially within the academic area where quality and legitimacy are solely based on the honesty, integrity, and intellectual accomplishments of its constituents.”

Dr Margaret Paton Walsh, assistant professor of history, stated in her resignation letter: “President Zimon's record here is marked by what can at best be considered a devastating lack of frankness. Not only do serious questions remain about his curriculum vitae and the issue of enrollment figures and college rankings, but in faculty meetings President Zimon seems remarkably unwilling to discuss even the simplest and, presumably, uncontroversial questions honestly and openly with the faculty.”

And Dr Lourdes Giordani, assistant professor of cultural ecology, who resigned to join the State University of New York, New Platz, the coming academic year, said: “The college does not have a credible president. Hank Zimon never bothered to explain to the campus community why he lied in his c.v.”