An Open Letter About John Bear

In 1986, I enrolled in The Union Institute’s Ph.D. program. I began to design a degree in Nontraditional Higher Education. But the genesis of this program began long before my enrollment.

In 1980, I was an education specialist in the U.S. Air Force. I had been successful in the USNY Regents program, and was looking to branch out to other opportunities. One day, I was wandering through the Barnes and Noble in Boston and found John’s 6th edition. I was stunned at all the “alternative” possibilities. Of course, most of them were from unaccredited schools, schools that couldn’t get accredited. I was stunned at the scope of possible schools—not all of them accredited. Unlike today, many legitimate, nontraditional schools simply could not get accredited. It was fun going through their literature, looking at all the different ways they approached delivering higher education—and to the validity of the degrees they issued. A lifelong pursuit ensued.

When I decided to take the Union doctorate, I did so because I could shape my Ph.D. program around my interests in nontraditional higher education. After completing my Entry Colloquium, I began to assemble my committee. I decided to right to John, thinking there was no way he’d agree to do it. But, I hoped, he could refer me to someone else who would. Imagine my surprise when he agreed! He also suggested several other people, including one who would go on to serve on the committee as well, Dick Crews of Columbia Pacific University.

John was a stalwart member of the committee, providing a great deal of guidance to me, as well as the other members. Unfortunately, duty commitments and family issues took over and I had to drop the program.

Now, I’m going to tell a tale that I don’t think I’ve revealed to anyone in this field. When I left Union, I couldn’t pay my light bill, much less my tuition. I left with an outstanding balance, struggling to pay it off. When things in my personal life settled a bit, I sought to return to Union. The school’s policy was that all outstanding debts were to be repaid prior to re-admission, which I simply couldn’t do (until my financial aid kicked in). John wrote the president of Union, personally guaranteeing my tuition. In fact, he wrote the president twice, and was ignored both times.

When I came across MIGS, John was of the opinion that their connection with the CEU—that the CEU would issue degrees earned through MIGS—and that the IHU specifically included MIGS in their listing of CEU—meant the program was probably legitimate. I set up an agreement with them that would include free tuition in return for doing some work for them. John agreed to serve as my faculty mentor when I pursued a degree. Well, we all now know what became of MIGS. I decided not to pursue a degree and John got to write them a sufficiently dismissive letter.

Sometime later, John took the initiative to write the latest president of Union, asking her to consider re-admitting me. My account was no longer an issue, but the time frames involved were—I was well outside what anyone might consider a reasonable time for degree completion, about 16 years. But the president was great and she wrote both John and I inviting my return. I was re-admitted in June of 2000 and graduated 12 months later.

I’m writing this to express publicly my gratitude for all the support John has provided over the years. Our friendship began after we came together on my Union committee. I’m grateful it didn’t end there.

Thanks, John!


Rich Douglas, Ph.D.

 

Very interesting, very personal, and very touching.

 

Education is expensive and out of reach for many of individuals. Your struggles to achieve your educational goal are heartfelt and wonderful. It is great to have a friend during difficult times. Congratulations and best wishes.

 

Rich,

Thank you for sharing this. We all have our stories and yours is an inspiring one. This is a very nice tribute to both Dr. Bear and Dr. Douglas.

Tony Pina
Faculty, California State U. San Bernardino

 

Dammit Rich you're becoming a nice guy. It might not even have been a near-death experience.

By the way, I just enrolled in American Coastline University. Do you know anything about it. Just testing.

 

Rich,

Thank you. I admire your tenacity. I hope it will inspire many others to accomplish long cherished goals.

John,

Thank you, for many of us your books are the first encouragement to pursue distance education.

 

Bear's Guide (and Bears' Guide) has been an invaluable and trusted resource in my collection for about 15 years. It has helped me to lead several friends and colleagues into their graduate programs.

I have many books on distance learning, but none are nearly so enjoyable to read as my Bears' Guide.

Tony Pina
Faculty, Cal State U. San Bernardino

 

Dennis:

Taken well-in-cheek. I hope your CCU studies are going well.

 

Thank you for saying these things, Rich.

My only disappointment: when you said you were going to reveal things that hadn't been made public before, I thought that finally you might be addressing the time you drove up from San Diego to Berkeley to visit, and somehow left your shoes at a gas station 200 miles away.

But of course you didn't have the Ph.D. then.

John "I was sad because I had no shoes until
I met a man who had no Ph.D." Bear

 

Nice open letter, I also enjoy the fact that it is in the first forum I always visit at DegreeInfo, the accredited/unaccredited forum.

 

Ditto the kudos for Rich's, shod or not, perseverance. Nothing shoddy there.

One thing I never see mentioned about the Bear's/Bears' guides is how they demystify the university. A bit of "value added" there that lends them value to all students, IMO.

 

NB: The only shoes I'd brought on the drive. I wasn't wearing them while driving. I stopped at a gas station in Glendale at 2 a.m. (check a map), thinking it was open. I placed the shoes on the ground to put my feet in them, saw the gas station was closed, so I drove off. Without the shoes. I discovered this about 2 hours before our meeting in Berkeley--a meeting to decide the future of Greenwich, IIRC. I had to drive around until 10 a.m. until a shoestore opened.

At least my shoes weren't stolen off the porch by monkeys, right John?

 

When I lived in Kloof, South Africa, we used to have monkeys in the garden. Somewhat like having a couple of dozen 15-pound squirrels. They could be quite destructive.

 

I think one thing I like best about the Bears' book is that they don't out-of-hand reject unaccredited institutions; they merely make sure that the reader understands accreditation and the consequences of non accreditation as well as anyone not working in the field likely can.

Another thing I really like is that the Bears make an extremely strong case for nontraditional education on economic grounds. THAT chapter should be required reading by every high school senior!

 

..'Nuff Said...., thanks for shearing, highly appreciated!

shabs

 

Rich,

Congratulations on your accomplishments. Remember you will always have your research. Continued good fortune in the future

 

Dr. Douglas,

Perserverence almost always pays off - thanks for the story.


peACE,

ACE

 

Rich,

Thanks for the personal account. A great stick-with-it-attitude and a desire to not leave unfinished work completed. In the end it all came out OK. Perseverence prevails!

John

 

Thanks Rich, and good luck in the future...

Rich,
Yours is an inspiring story, and it makes me not feel quite so bad for never having finished my MASTERS degree long before now (I'm 50, and have about a year to go - Amberton University).

I have to say that John Bear and I exchanged a few email messages about a year and a half ago when I was first looking into "non-traditional education" and didn't know a thing about it, and he very wisely and fairly steered me away from some extremely unattractive ideas I had in my mind about an "easy way out".

Nothing in life comes free, and anything worth having requires hard work and effort. Congratulations to you, and thank you John Bear for always telling it like it is.....
- Carl