Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

If the justice minister has falsified information about his academic past, he should explain himself or resign

site Ukrainska Pravda ran an article alleging that not everything on Zvarych’s resume might be as it seems. At issue are the U.S.-born official’s studies at Columbia University in New York City, and his subsequent teaching career at New York University.

Zvarych, who became a Ukrainian citizen in 1995, has intimated in various venues that he holds at least one degree from Columbia. His resume on the official Ukrainian government site says he graduated in 1891 (sic) from the prestigious Ivy League school. Zvarych has also claimed that he taught law at New York University. The Ukrainian version of his resume says he worked as a professor at NYU from 1983 to 1991.

The Ukrainska Pravda report, however, suggests that Zvarych holds no degrees from Columbia, even though he seems to have matriculated there. The Pravda report replicated what it purports is a statement from the Columbia registrar’s office confirming that he received no diplomas.

Zvarych’s comments about his academic career are confusing. In a March 25 interview with the newspaper Fakty, Zvarych said he received a full scholarship to attend Columbia. “I received a master’s degree in philosophy,” he told Fakty. He also said, “I never practiced law in the United States, only in Ukraine. By the way, I never finished the university because I applied for a doctoral program. I didn’t finish that either, but began teaching at Columbia as a teacher’s assistant.”

Does Zvarych mean to say that he received a master’s degree without receiving a bachelor’s first? That would seem to be impossible. And what could it mean that he didn’t finish his studies because he applied for a PhD program? The statement makes little sense. Also, if he was no longer in a graduate program, why was he a teaching assistant? As far as we know, teaching assistantships are reserved for graduate students. “I had my own courses, conducted seminars and the like,” he says. But under what unprecedented circumstances are young dropouts from PhD programs allowed to teach their “own courses” and “seminars” at major universities?

“Then New York University offered to make me a professor,” Zvarych says in the interview. “I didn’t have the title of professor, just the rank. These are different things. I taught at NYU for seven years, different subjects: law, ethics and intellectual history.” Zvarych therefore achieved a desirable job at a top university without a doctorate. That is, to say the least, unusual.

This could all be a misunderstanding. But if so, Zvarych has not helped himself by his refusal to come forward and explain what’s going on. Refusing to reply to more than a dozen phone queries from the Post while fielding softball questions last week from a Channel 5 interviewer sympathetic to President Victor Yushchenko’s team doesn’t cut it.

There’s nothing wrong with not having gone to Columbia or taught at NYU. But there is something wrong with being a liar and an obfuscator, especially if you’re the justice minister. Zvarych should prove that he has not willingly falsified his resume or he should resign.