“The Congressman knew that he had been to prison, but what we didn’t know was that he was continuing this conduct,” said Ira Cohen, Davis’ spokesman. “I don’t think there was any secret about [the prior conviction].”
Moore pleaded guilty on Nov. 9 “to student aid fraud, bank fraud and Social Security fraud,” wrote The Post. He even cancelled class to attend the hearing, suggesting that his students meet with a research librarian regarding their final projects, according to the Williams Record. “The statement of facts that Moore agreed to as part of his plea offered a detailed account of his extensive history of fraud schemes, which began in 1985 and, according to online court records, included a credit card fraud conviction in 1987, for which he went to prison,” reported the Record. During the 20 years of his activity, Moore also used a “number of aliases and fake Social Security numbers over the course of two decades, using them to gain admission to universities and access to loans.”
Moore’s educational background turned out to be a fraud as well when a Department of Justice report on Moore stated that he had never received a Bachelor’s degree and that he had lied about his previous education to gain admission to Claremont Graduate University and Howard University, where he earned his Ph.D.
Williams learned of the convictions from The Post article on the evening of publication. According to Williams, the college had no knowledge of Moore’s past legal trouble or of the ongoing federal investigation. After learning of the conviction, Williams first suspended Moore for five days, after which point they announced his dismissal.
According to the Record, Moore was teaching a course titled “Black Leadership” at the time of his conviction and was planning to teach “Congressional Leadership” the following semester in addition to a winter term course on federal courts. His current course has been taken over by another Williams faculty member, and his planned courses have been cancelled.
Waiting for sentencing, scheduled for Feb. 17, 2010, Moore faces up to 41 months in prison.
Surprised by the conviction, Williams is now investigating its policies on hiring visiting professors in an attempt to understand how Moore succeeded in lying to the college. Hired in 2008, Moore taught five classes over his first year at Williams and applied but was denied a tenure-track position. He was instead offered another visiting professorship.
When applying for the positions, Moore lied about past felony convictions. Since Williams does not conduct background checks on potential faculty members, Moore was able to pass through the interviewing process and gain a professorship. According to the Record, “For visiting faculty such as Moore, hiring procedures are less stringent than for tenure-track faculty. While certain guidelines must be followed for all faculty hires at the College — the submission of a cover letter, curriculum vitae and letters of reference, as well as an interview with the specific department — the hiring of visitors relies less on formal protocol and is largely conducted and overseen by individual departments.”
In the wake of the conviction, many Williams students have also approached the political science department with criticisms of Moore’s teaching style. Despite the controversy, Williams has not announced any formal changes in hiring policy.