who needs California when they have CSCCS and AIDE?

Fortunately, Breyer State’s and Canyon’s “accreditations” travel with them like spare tires. So even though the state of California can’t tell the difference between a university and a mailbox, the schools are able to reassure us that the difference is unimportant.

Both BS and CC were credentialed (along with the degree-granting, but otherwise non-existent “Medical College of London") by a fantasy entity called the “Central States Consortium of Colleges and Schools.” CSCCS was run by Breyer State’s (former) president, who is still a Breyer State professor, a Canyon professor, and an ex-St. Regis professor.

I note that there’s been a recent adjustment, with the BS and CC accreditations oozing from an unrecognized thing called the “Association for Innovation in Distance Education.” But the idea’s still the same.

George Gollin, Professor of Physics at University of Illinois, at 9:26 am EDT on August 19, 2008

It’s simply amazing that such fraud can be foisted on the American public while government agencies responsible for oversight dance with the dollars provided by the for-profit sector.

Too many public officials are profiting from such quackery and providing the shield of protection that obfuscates what a college is or ought to be.

The ease of acquiring fake degrees or half-baked copies thru frivilous colleges is going to hurt the original higher education enterprise.

The public has inadequate protection by its officials. This is a hallmark of a third world country!

Bob P, at 1:20 pm EDT on August 19, 2008

Nuclear engineer with fake degree

Gabriel wrote: “If the person has a phony degree than he/she will not get hired. My firm would never higher someone who is not qualified. The free market will deal with this problem...”

The list of possible St. Regis “University” customers includes a fellow who bought a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering, and landed a job at a nuclear power plant in Minnesota. According to a news report he now works in the control room of another nuclear power plant, but this time in Wisconsin.

George Gollin, Professor of Physics at University of Illinois, at 2:30 pm EDT on August 19, 2008

Still why?

George, If someone obtain a phony degree and was subsequently hired than most likely there was something wrong with the people conducting the interview...especially if you are hiring for a Nuclear Engineer. How hard would it be to find out that the interviewee is incompetent to fulfill the requirements of a Nuclear Engineer??? Cheers!

Gabriel, at 5:15 pm EDT on August 19, 2008

idaho and fake degrees

I don’t know how many of you read the recent story on fake degrees and diploma mills, and I can’t recall if IHE covered that story, but there are two thing in this story we can pretty much bank on.

First, Idaho is not at all likely to pass a law more stringent than the feds. I’ve lived there, earned a degree there, and live just a few miles across the border, and get a lot of Idaho news. They just don’t do that sort of thing. If anything, they’ll be more lax when it comes to oversight and regulation when they can. It’s just the way the state is. This is probably why the institutions in the story set up shop in the state in the first place. I’m glad to see Idaho cracking down.

In answer, partly anyway, to Gabriel’s question, most fake degrees, well, many of them anyway, are not used to get jobs, but to move up the salary schedule on a job already held. I’m assuming these people with fake degrees provide their “official” transcript, which is why those who ran the diploma mill that was busted here recently were convicted of fraud. I doubt my institution had to check the veracity of my transcripts and degree when I was hired, because it was from an accredited. The diploma mill case in my area was discovered in just this way, a federal law officer used a phony degree to get a significant pay raise, someone checked, and low and behold, a diploma mill was uncovered and thousands of fraudulent degrees, from GED to PhD were discovered to have been sold. Here’s a list of folks: http://tinyurl.com/62a72r

bradley bleck, instructor at Spokane Falls CC, at 7:30 am EDT on August 20, 2008