Making It In At FDNY

If it were another agency, the revelation that 14 employees bought bogus college diplomas on the Internet and then tried to use them as the basis for promotions would be regarded as a relatively minor scam by a handful of jokers.

In the Fire Department, however, it rises above that level for a couple of reasons: 13 of those who have been charged are officers, and the agency is one where both the rank and file and the unions for decades have loudly championed the upholding of hiring and promotional standards.

It was with that in mind that some questioned whether the disclosure of the scam by the Department of Investigation was timed to coincide with the holding of a new hiring exam for Firefighter that critics within the department claim muddies the standards in order to increase the number of women and minorities in the job.

Uniformed Fire Officers' Association President Pete Gorman has insisted that his members who now face FDNY charges - including at least a couple in the Chief ranks - never intended to deceive the department.

But anyone smart enough to become an officer in the FDNY ought to know that a college degree based on "life credits" they were granted for essays detailing their experiences did not meet the agency's standards for promotion.

The operators of St. Regis University - the diploma mill used by the firefighters - have been indicted on fraud charges by Federal prosecutors.

In deciding how to discipline those it has charged, the FDNY will undoubtedly take into consideration the fact that a majority of those who tried to use the phony diplomas eventually got the necessary credits for promotion from legitimate academic institutions.

But the fact that they found the time to get the credits the right way undercuts Captain Gorman's claim in their defense that the demands of both their work and home lives had made it difficult for them to advance by actually attending school.

The bedrock of the argument advanced by firefighters of all ranks, as well as the unions, for strict adherence to civil service tests is that the system properly rewards those who put in the necessary study time.

Will those who took a short-cut lose face in their firehouses? That remains to be seen. But if they stay in their present ranks, their actions certainly take a bit of the moral steam out of their colleagues' insistence that their opposition to the new testing system is solely about merit and fitness.