Re: Office of degree authorization in Louisiana

Greetings,

I would like to find out if there's a such office as the Office of Degree Authorization in Louisiana State? I have found the Oregan office of degree authorization website and how it identifies the diploma mills, and unaccredited college.

I want to find about whats happening in Louisiana.

Please help.

Thanking you,

Migara

 

Louisiana has a long history of tolerating diploma mills. Recently, they've cracked down (a bit) by requiring unaccredited schools to be on an accreditation track and making progress towards it. It is unclear how this is administered or measured, but several of their prolific diploma mills have moved operations (or, at least, their addresses) to Mississippi.

 

You have no idea how glad I am to see that. I graduated from a very traditional "sit down in the classroom" school in LA, but occasionally, an HR person will look at my degree with some comment like:"I've seen these before, how much did they charge you for it?"

 

If you e-mail Alan Contreras (ODA), he may have a contact person in Louisiana who could facilitate your inquiry. I contacted Alan and was able to get the contact person for North Carolina.

 

Re: Office of Degree Authorization in Louisiana State

Thanks to all. Care to kindly pass the conact info for Mr. Alan Contreras. Is he in Louisiana? or some other state?

Thanks

 

The Oregon ODA website has contact info for Alan Contreras.

 

Maybe if you used Northeast Louisiana State University on your resume'!

 

John Kay is the key man at the Board of Regents in Baton Rouge, LA. He and his colleague Larry Tremblay are the people concerned with school licensing and approval.

 

Re: Office of degree authorization in Louisiana

Thank you Dr. John Bear.

I have emailed both of them and i will post the reply/ies.

Migara

 

That's kinda what I believe he was thinking! Mills in a state can make any degree from anywhere in that state suspect.

 

Re: Office of degree authorization in Louisiana

I wounder how long will it take Louisiana board of regent to email me. I still havent heard from them for my email.

 

Re: Office of degree authorization in Louisiana

The Reply from John Kay of Lousiana board of regent re- Fairfax University.

Migara

Fairfax University is not accredited by any accrediting association recognized by the United States Department of Education (USDOE). Fairfax University reports to our agency that it offers only religious degrees. Under Louisiana R.S. 17:1808, institutions offering only religious degrees are exempt from state oversight. I hope this information is helpful, and should you have further questions, please contact my office.

John Kay
Assistant Commissioner

 

Re: Re: Office of degree authorization in Louisiana

That is, to say the least, disappointing. Fairfax tells them something, they take it at face value, and allow Fairfax to continue its operations from their state. Gee, how diligent.

 

Office of degree authorization in Louisiana

What disappoint me is that Louisiana Board of Regent never answered my origial question of "where does the Fairfax University gets its Degree granting Authority?

 

Re: Office of degree authorization in Louisiana

I think he did. He said the Board doesn't regulate religious schools. That pretty much means they have the authority to grant their degrees by default.

 

Email reply I got from Mr. Paul Gough, South Dakota regarding the Fairfax University!!!!!!


Thank you for your inquiry concerning Fairfax University. As I live in Pierre and frequently drive by the address you provided, I was surprised that Fairfax University claimed to be located there. I consulted the Fairfax University web site under general information and found the Pierre address you provided. A whitepages.com search on the address produced a financial services office and an attorney's office. I provided the whitepages.com search results and an extract from the Fairfax web site to the Attorney General's office by email. The assistant A.G. replied that he would send a letter to Fairfax university. I drove by the location earlier this afternoon. It is a small one-storey building. I saw signs for the financial services office and the law office. I did not notice anything that would lead me to suspect that it was a university's branch office.

The SD Codified Laws section on nonaccredited universities is provided below. Nonaccredited institutions are prohibited from offering postsecondary education credit or degrees. Note the bolded/underlined section concerning accreditation from a regional accrediting agency approved by the US Department of Education. I checked two of the regional accrediting agencies:

North Central Association - Higher Learning Commission: Regional accrediting agency for region in which South Dakota is located:
http://www.ncahigherlearningcommission.org/
I searched for "Fairfax University" - "no matching records found"

Southern Association - Commission on Colleges: Regional accrediting agency for region in which Louisiana is located:
http://www.sacscoc.org/
I searched for "Fairfax University" - search returned nothing

Your concerns about Fairfax University's operation in South Dakota appear to be justified. I will pass along any additional information I receive.

Please write again if you have any questions.

Paul

Paul A. Gough
Director of Policy & Planning
[email protected]
South Dakota Board of Regents
306 East Capitol Avenue, Suite 200
Pierre, SD 57501-2545
605.773.3455/FAX 605.773.5320
http://www.sdbor.edu

 

Think Fairfax will give you an honorary doctorate as a Private Investigator? Nice job!

 

Wishfull thinking.