Pacific Western University & becoming a commissioned officer

While browsing the internet, I noticed that a two star general has a non-RA bachelors degree from Pacific Western University. The school openly admits that it is not RA:

The major general's website can be viewed by clicking here. Here is his educational history:

I guess that to be a major general in the Army National Guard, a person does not need a regionally accredited degree? Or, for that matter, I guess that one does not need an RA degree to be a commissioned officer?

Interesting.

 

UMI also publishes dissertation from Pacific Western University

I also came across a dissertation from Pacicific Western University that was published by UMI. It is here.

 

I served in the U.S. Coast Guard and I know to become a commissioned officer you MUST have an accredited degree. But for proof, take a look at the link below.

http://www.gocoastguard.com/dc/DCPrograms/ocs.htm
Educational Qualifications:
Applicants must be in their senior year at or hold a baccalaureate or higher degree from an accredited college or university.

As for the Army National Guard here are some of their requirements:

Eligibility Requirements

The Officer Candidate School Enlistment Option is only available to individuals who meet the following requirements:

Meet the Army National Guard enlistment eligibility standards.
Be a U.S. citizen.
Meet qualifications of local or State Officer Candidate School program.
Have at least 60 semester hours from an accredited college or university prior to Officer Candidate School (OCS) enrollment or enlistment.
Complete 90 semester hours from an accredited college or university prior to date of commission.

So, we can see that, at least nowadays, you must have an accredited degree to become an officer. Perhaps back then that wasn't the case. In fact, the Army War College is not accredited (but I don't know much about the AWC to know why, etc). However, they recently applied for accreditation. The NAVAL War College is accredited.

 

Perhaps it was field grade.

 

I had a friend who was an attorney advising the state National Guard. It seems to me that National Guard officers receive two commissions, one from the President and one from the state governor. Also, state appontments to flag grade are considered more as political appointments in general, that is, the governor appoints whomever he will.

I could be wrong.

 

The hyperlink that I posted did not work but you can go to http://www.umi.com, and then click on dissertation express and search for Pubication # 9717824 or for the author's last name, which is "odor".

 

Are we sure why there is a discussion here.

He was commissioned a dozen years before his PWU degree. I don't imagining that commissioning without a degree in 1969 was all that unusual.

He has had an R/A masters for some years. Sounds like a well qualified general.

Looks like his Guard duty kept him out of Vietnam. He might make president.

 

It wasn't unusual. Officer Candidate School had no college requirement and Vietnam created quite a demand for officers.

I don't think that the U.S. Army had (has?) a degree requirement for any rank as promotion was ostensibly performance based. But as a practical matter a degree was probably needed to advance more than a few officer ranks. For that reason, I'd guess there have been many questionable degrees among the officer ranks.

 

To receive an active duty commission in the Air Force today, you need an RA degree. Also, all education is currently processed through the Air Force Institute of Technology. It would be extremely difficult to slip a unacreditated degree through after the system. While it wasn't always the case, the same policy holds true for todays Air National Guard.

"To apply for OTS, you are required to be either a graduate of a regionally accredited college or university or a college senior who is available to depart for training within 365 days if you are a civilian or member of a non-USAF service branch or 270 days if you are a USAF service member. - from the OTS website

As far as the requirement for education for advancement in the Army, my impression is that graduate education is not required if you have command experience. Disclaimer - This impression is based on recent conversations with several Majors that have both squares filled.

 

That's interesting. In my recent conversations with active and recently-separated field grade officers from the Army and the Navy, I was told that to advance much beyond 0-5, an advanced degree is almost considered a prerequisite by the examination board. I wonder if this is also more or less stringent a requirement based upon your occupational specialty or branch in the military.

The officers also told me that since the number of available slots decrease with each promotion, and there are a lot of officers with their various tickets punched, advanced degrees and joint assignments (working with another armed service) was a way of distinguishing yourself from the herd and impressing the board.

Any current or recent 0-6s or above out there who wish to comment on this?

Regards,

Michael Lloyd
Mill Creek, Washington USA

 

I just now noticed that he has:

• Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters (National-Louis University)

I missed this on the first go-around.

 

NLU is RA if I recall. I did not look so I could be wrong.

If he wants to get a degree from Bobs University of Woodcrafts is seems OK as he did not base his commission on that.

 

Different branches of the military treat advanced degrees differently. In the Air Force, your chances of being promoted to O-5 are extremely low if you don't have it. According to current Air Force demographics, only 1.9% percent of the active duty O-5 population does not have a graduate degree. In the O-6 community, it is 0.2%.

 

But his MS...

How was he able to get admitted to a master's program at an accredited school with a PW bachelor's?

Isn't that the bigger puzzle?

 

Yes, I wondered the same thing and I'm surprised that no one picked up on it sooner.

 

Re: But his MS...

I didn't think it was a puzzle. As John Bear has often noted, schools will (privately) consider admitting accomplished candidates directly into master's programs without the benefit of having a bachelor's degree. Plus, the general might have earned a master's degree from the Army War College, which could have been used as the basis for admitting him. Finally, they might have been willing to accept the unaccredited bachelor's along with his experience as sufficient to admit him.

With hundreds of thousands (millions?) of admissions decisions made each year by colleges and universities around the country, it should not surprise us to see the occasional exception to the rule. What is silly is when advocates of unaccredited schools make a big deal of finding such exceptions, attempting to "prove" the value of degrees from unaccredited schools.

John's survey of admissions officials showed that almost none of them would consider such a degree. But faced with an actual situation, it seems they're willing to consider exceptions. No mystery there.

 

Very interesting. I have from time to time done some guest lecturing in the evening at classes given by Chapman University at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma with the Army's Fort Lewis right next door. Those classes are usually in the graduate business administration or graduate health administration programs. This may explain why the majority of the people in the classrooms are 0-3s and 0-4s and E-6s, 7s and 8s wearing Air Force blue and Army green.

Regards,

Michael Lloyd
Mill Creek, Washington USA

 

Re: But his MS...

I just didn't think it was all that unusual.

 

On June 14 of 1988, PWU was incorporated under the laws of the State of Hawaii and opened a campus Honolulu. The Vice-governor of the State of Hawaii, the Honorable Benjamin J. Cayetano, signed the official Apostil on the 10 of August, 1994. Hawaii is one of the 50 states of the USA that operates under Article IV, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States of America, which gives and unequivocally establishes that “credit and good faith shall be given at public acts, testimonies and judicial proceedings in any other state.” Therefore, the degrees granted by PWU are recognized in every state of the USA and in those foreign countries that have agreements on university equivalents.

If all of this is true, whay Oregon State said that the use of this degrees are illegal?. I have been looking for your educational system and for a foreign observator it seems that may be there is a conflict of interest between acredited an anacredited but legal operating by the law of one state. It seems that there is a lot of money flying around, maybe. What is the cost of be acredited?. Sometimes you sound like "or you are with me or you are against me". There is no middle place in all of this?. I make my self all of this considertions not only like I jorunalist also because I was looking for a distance international PhD degree on social work. Here in Spain this studies are very low only "Diplomatura", 3years course, and is not possible to make a "Licenciatura" 5 years course , or "Doctorado". and I have been working on it for 15 years, in my own foundation. I am preparing an article about the education in the 3th world in comparative with westerm educatonal system, but I must say, sincerily that I am losted with your way.

 

I think this is the answer to your question. Most state approved schools will show up on the oregon list as not acceptable. They can be considered acceptable once they apply to the ODA (along with the $200 fee) to be evaluated.

Any school on the ODA list can do the same thing.