MONTEREY, Calif.- Tuesday, the Monterey Institute of International Studies said it's one of several schools duped by a man who claims to be a decorated Green Beret.
It's focused on repairing a bruised reputation, and making good on its promises.
It's a story Central Coast News first told you about on Friday, "It's the ultimate kick in the stomach feeling...Everyone has been potentially taken for a ride," said President Sunder Ramaswamy.
Brian Hubbs and other students brought their research on Bill Hillar to President Ramaswamy's attention, he said at first the school was careful with the accusations, "If you look at the casual research of the web he is all over the place...figuring out what the quote, unquote truth was."
He became a believer in the students, "They deserve an enormous amount of credit, " and a disbeliever in Hillar, once the University of Oregon confirmed Hillar never received a PH.D there, "That's a big deal in academia," said Ramaswamy.
"We had tried to contact Mr. Hillar by UPS receipt mail so we know someone had received it, and we said here are some questions without impuning anything can you provide your side of the story and we gave him a time deadline and we haven't heard back from Mr. Hillar at all," said Ramaswamy.
Central Coast News has also tried calling Hillar several times, and Ramaswamy is not sure if anyone will ever hear from Hillar again, but said he's more worried about the students who have already taken his workshops.
"We will offer another workshop on site and also online, and we wont charge...And maybe not everybody wants to, as I said some people felt they got turned on to the topic, they can ignore the fact that he was an alleged charlatan," said Ramaswamy.
But Ramaswamy's biggest goal is to make sure this new piece of school history, doesn't repeat itself.
"We will do everything we can that the people were putting in front of you in the classroom live up to what they claim," said Ramaswamy.
The school said it changed policies to do background checks on all instructors, no matter how long they teach there.
About 800 students attend the school including military veterans and civilians.
