Ex-Business School Professor in Hot Water After Discovery of Falsified Credentials
Image Courtesy of The Houston Business Journal
By Angela Hickey
Previous business school professor, dean of the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas, and ex-member of the Swiss Guard, Mario Enzler, has resigned from his dean position recently amid claims that he falsified his teaching credentials.
Mario Enzler is mostly well known for his time as a Swiss Guard, a topic he covered in a book, I Served a Saint, reflecting on his time serving under Pope St. John Paul II. Enzler has also spoken about a friendship he formed with St. Teresa of Calcutta, in the same era. After retiring from the Swiss Guard, he spent 16 years as a Swiss banker.
Years after moving to America, Enzler and his wife opened an academy in New Hampshire focusing on a classical curriculum, which would later allow him to take postings at higher education institutions, such as The Catholic University of America.
According to his Rate My Professors page, he was rather well received by his students, garnering a plethora of five star reviews and a 4 out of 5 star rating, with 75% of students saying that they would happily take his class again. Students sang his praises, with some going as far as to say that he was an “amazing teacher” who was “extremely knowledgeable, funny and caring” towards his students.
Not all his reviews are positive, however. One from December 8, 2018 says, “Enzler is a nice guy, but a bad teacher. He spends 50 minutes every class talking about topics which are irrelevant to the assigned slides and homework. He reads directly from the slides, and does not explain how to do any of the homework (due weekly, and very hard sometimes) for the remainder of class. He also doesn’t grade ANYTHING.”
After four successful years at CUA, he was offered a position as dean of the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas before his credentials began to be scrutinized.
Concerned with Enzler’s leadership, faculty members at St. Thomas fact-checked his resumé, turning up the alleged false credentials, which prompted them to contact the university’s Board of Directors in April, according to reports done by The Houston Chronicle.
In their investigation, professors discovered that the school he claimed to get his Ph.D. from does not offer any doctorates at all. In addition, the college from which Enzler claimed to receive his bachelor’s degree was actually a high school. With his secret exposed, the group reported Enzler to the St. Thomas Board in April.
In an interview done with The Daily Mail, assistant accounting professor, Ramon Fernandez, one of the initial investigators, said he was concerned that someone without credentials could become dean of St. Thomas.
“I just don’t want it to happen again,” Fernandez said. “Really, the guy is [a] charlatan, he’s a fraudster and he’s a con artist.”
