Student receives award for revealing flaw in president's resume

<p>The student journalist who discovered a resume discrepancy that led to the resignation of the then-president of Toccoa Falls College has received a national ethics award.</p><p>Joel Elliott was one of three winners of the 2004 Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.</p><p>The school cited Elliott's courage in resisting pressure from leaders at the Bible college to suppress news that then president Donald Young had not graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., as Young's resume stated.</p><p>Young resigned in early May 2003, about two weeks after Elliott's story appeared in The Toccoa Record and The Talon, the college newspaper. Young said the incorrect listing was due to a mistake.</p><p>Elliott, 24, discovered the discrepancy while completing an assignment for his communications degree. He now works for The Toccoa Record.</p><p>"It didn't enter my mind" that he would be recognized with an ethics award, he said.</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/4/171107