In many other professions, the act of misrepresenting one's academic credentials would have little if any consequence. Had the woman been, say, human resources director at a major corporation, nobody'd care about her degrees as long as she did her job well.

But academic institutions have different standards in that regard. Academic credentials are the very reasons academic institutions exist in the first place. At a college or university, a degree is not just a piece of paper. It's the nearest thing to a sacred icon that there is. A university dean lying about what degrees she has is equivalent to a priest lying about being a Catholic.