Two academic degrees falsely attributed to the ISU director of football operations will be treated as a personnel issue.

It will be handled confidentially within the ISU Athletic Department, Athletics Director Bruce Van De Velde said.

Charles Partridge apologized Wednesday and claimed responsibility for the errors, saying he had “ample opportunity to proof read the media guide, and that puts the responsibility with me.”

Partridge’s biography in the 2001 ISU football media guide states that he “has earned a master’s degree in higher education from Drake and a master’s degree in leadership and policy studies from Iowa State.”

While records at both Drake University and Iowa State show Partridge was enrolled as a graduate student in the late 1990s, he did not complete the master’s program at either school. The discrepancy was found during an investigation by ISU journalism students.

“I am remorseful that this has happened,” Partridge said. “The athletic program has built [itself] on integrity, and the bio in the media guide did not accurately reflect my post-graduate work as my r‚sum‚ did.”

Van De Velde said Partridge did not falsify the information on his r‚sum‚ or transcripts, which Van De Velde reviewed Monday.

“[Partridge] did not misrepresent his qualification in any manner throughout the hiring process,” said Van De Velde, who was not at Iowa State when Partridge was hired. “He met the required qualifications and criteria as outlined in the position vacancy notice.”

The discrepancy is an athletic department personnel issue, Van De Velde said.

“This information in the bio was not put there by our media relations department,” he said. “It was put there by Charlie, and he has to accept responsibility for that, and I think he has. I believe he feels terrible about it, but it had nothing to do with the hiring process.”

While Van De Velde does not see any need to modify the hiring policies and procedures, he said the athletic media relations department will check media guide bios more carefully in the future.

“I think it’s important that we take the next step now and verify academic degrees, and we can do that off of the transcripts,” he said.

While media relations staff will help create bios for new employees in the athletic department, the bios are ultimately reviewed by each individual, said Tom Kroeschell, director of media relations for the athletic department.

“You write something up based on what they have in their r‚sum‚ and anything else they want to add, and then you take it to that individual for their approval,” he said.

If the media relations staff discovers errors in the guide, corrections are made for the next publication.

They also may be included in the notes given to reporters before sporting events, Kroeschell said.

Kroeschell said he first heard about the errors in Partridge’s bio for the 2000 and 2001 media guides Monday.

Partridge’s bio in the 2000 media guide stated he had “earned a master’s degree in higher education from Drake and is a semester from receiving a master’s degree in leadership and policy studies from Iowa State.”

Partridge said he began working on a master’s degree at Drake and then transferred those credits to Iowa State when he was hired as a graduate assistant coach in 1998.

“Through that period of a couple years, I went through some academic transitions and I did not accurately reflect that in the bio,” he said.

Partridge was last enrolled as a student in fall 1999 and needs to complete his thesis work to earn a master’s.

Partridge has “done an outstanding job in his performance of his duties,” which involves organizing recruiting efforts, working with the football budget and managing the day-to-day operations of the football program, Van De Velde said.

“I think he’s just made a poor decision in regards to his bio,” Van de Velde said, “but I think he’s learning from it.”