Candidate for Mercer Island City Council Joy Langley has been at the center of a blooming controversy since Monday over accusations that she has falsely claimed to have earned a degree from Cornell University.

Since the allegations surfaced Monday, Langley has strongly maintained that she is a Cornell University graduate in an interview to the Mercer Island Reporter and a statement posted to her campaign website.

Nevertheless, Cornell University stated Wednesday afternoon that an extensive review of archives found no record that Langley attended or graduated the prestigious university. Their most recent exhaustive search followed two previous explorations by the university registrar’s office.

Furthermore, the university states that Langley never made any request to Cornell to keep her records private, a fact that seemed to contradict her own statements. From the MI Reporter:

Langley told the Reporter that the National Student Clearinghouse did not confirm whether she had a degree from Cornell … because Langley chose to keep her student records private.

The complete statement from Cornell University’s senior director of media relations reads:

“After receiving numerous inquiries and speaking directly with Ms. Langley, Cornell University re-examined its digital and paper archives, at the university and college level, and can confirm that we have no record of a person named Joy Langley or Joy Esther Langley attending or graduating from this institution.

“We can also confirm that the Office of the University Registrar has never received a request to make private any records related to Ms. Langley.”

On Wednesday evening, the Marker reached out to the Langley campaign for comment, but had not received a response at the time of this publication.