University of Illinois physics Professor George Gollin is having a homosexual affair, his marriage is disintegrating and his teen-age daughter is enrolled in University Laboratory High School, "a remedial institution."
   Or so the anonymous posters on an Internet bulletin board about "distance education," largely online schools, claimed recently.
   Actually, Gollin's only problem is that he decided to challenge a class of those schools known as diploma or degree mills, which hand out diplomas – even medical degrees – for a lot of money and little or no work. Credit cards accepted.
   "He is the subject of incredible harassment because he's a threat to them," said John Bear, a Florida-based distance learning expert and co-author of a book about diploma mills who also publishes guides to legitimate online and by-mail educational programs.
   Allen Ezell, a retired FBI agent who co-wrote the book "Degree Mills: The Billion Dollar Industry that has Sold Over a Million Fake Diplomas" with Bear, has seen this kind of thing before.
http://www.news-gazette.com/localnews/story.cfm?Number=18449

30 06 05 17:05

Attending a Gila County Community College Board of Governors meeting anymore is like watching the Three Stooges' comedy short, "Men in Black." For those of you unfamiliar with the gag, Larry, Moe and Curly play three deadbeat medical school flunkies, Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine and Dr. Howard. The threesome bumble through the hospital over the loudspeaker's nonstop paging: "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard. Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard."

The list of doctors at Gila Community College, now run by Eastern Arizona College, keeps growing. Yesterday, the board of governors announced the appointment of Dr. Harry Swanson as dean of the Payson campus. He completes the triumvirate of EAC's Gila County diploma-mill educated leadership: Dr. Stephen Cullen, dean of the Gila Pueblo campus and Margo Bracamonte, senior dean.

http://www.paysonroundup.com/section/opinion/story/19448

16:57

BUNDABERG, Australia, June 18 - When Dr. Jayant Patel accepted a surgical post at the municipal hospital here two years ago, it was a big relief to this farm town, which has had trouble finding and keeping doctors. Dr. Patel was a professor of surgery at the State University of New York at Buffalo in the 1980's, and he came highly recommended by several doctors in Oregon, where he had also worked.
More http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050619/ZNYT04/506190387/1004/Local

19 06 05 21:16

Joshua Tree radio station KCDZ 107.7-FM aired an editorial in late 2002 that said Yucca Town Manager Stewart (presently the city manage of Barstow) didn't have the background needed to be the town manager.

"Good town managers," News Director Gary Daigneault said in the editorial, "spend years in top schools studying public administration, learning the laws of the state, how a county interfaces with its municipalities, tax laws, redevelopment, reimbursements ... ."

http://www.desertdispatch.com/2004/107460898495369.html

This is a great example of Gary Daigneault's double standards, and in his  own words  to boot. Mindful of the dicussions here, read the article link tell us what you think.

11 06 05 16:46

GAO-04-771T, Diploma Mills: Federal Employees Have Obtained Degrees from Diploma Mills and Other Unaccredited Schools, Some at Government Expense

Example:

Employee #3, hired at NNSA in 2000, received a PhD in engineering administration in 1985 from Columbia Pacific University, an unaccredited school. He performed course work required for a PhD at George Washington University, a fully accredited school, but did not complete a dissertation. Employee #3 claims to have completed a dissertation for Columbia Pacific but did not attend classes or complete any coursework at that school. In December 1999, the Marin County Superior Court ordered Columbia Pacific University to cease operations within California. The court determined that Columbia Pacific failed to meet various requirements for issuing PhD degrees, awarded excessive credit based on life experience, and failed to employ duly qualified staff.

http://www.gao.gov/htext/d04771t.html

02 06 05 07:20