KCBS TV story: oh my goodness!

This one is amazing. KCBS-TV is in Los Angeles. A transcript and link to the video are here:

http://cbs2.com/specialassign/local_story_127143143.html

On camera: an MD from "Pacific Basin University" who appears to be practicing without a license in California, also hidden-camera footage of the Dean of Pacific Western University explaining that "Whether you learn it or not we don't really care."

As you probably recall, PWU is "Police's" alma mater.

The video seems to prefer Internet Explorer to Netscape.

G

 

His was PWU-Hawaii a much more reputable school!?

 

Yeah I watched it on TV. It was pretty good. What they should've done was show the video to Sheila Hawkins of the BPPVE instead of that assembly woman though.

 

This is perfectly consistent with what I was told by the same PWU person when I inquired about finishing my failed doctorate there. (Needless to say, I got suspicious, and then confirmed my suspicions either by doing a thread search here or by calling the cops in Puerto Rico, I forget which). Thanks for the link, Galanga. What a hoot!

 

Wow is all I can say to that. Perhaps California will reexamine it's position on PWU.

 

PWU

Hopefully just the opposite. PWU should examine itself and get back in order. Many people have PWU degrees and had 'worked' for them. PWU is a State Approved school thats been around for 24 years. I can't imagine them giving that up now.

Dispite what people say here, the Hawaii school follows the same basic format as the Californian school. It simply allows more options but one still works for it just the same.

PWU also had considered DETC accreditation but would not give up the doctorate programs at this point in time. They have, however, been changing around their programs.

I think the video is good. Maybe PWU will re-evaluate itself and think about where its going to be in the next year or so.

HADJr

 

PW Hawaii, unregulated, tries to fly under the banner of PW California in order to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the cachet of CA-approval (wowie) to cover programs NOT approved by the State of California. When it suits PW, they're two schools, and when it suits, only one.

When PW appoints a doctoral dissertation supervisor, it does so without any regard to whether supervisor and student are even in the same field. Ah, rigor!

To paraphrase Ursus Major, I once considered appointment as Archbishop of Uppsala, just as PW considered DETC. How plans do change!

What is your connection to this fine school?

What 'work' do you have in mind?

 

Re: PWU

One of the great dangers of an unaccredited degree is that it is very easy to take the degree mill path. Once that degree mill path is travelled though, it is very hard to recover. Orion is one case where they apparently tried to turn a degree mill into a real school and that was a mess that failed. Even if someone worked for their degree, in this situation they are just out of luck. PWU is a plain old degree mill. That article makes it clear if it wasn't already clear.

 

Re: PWU

PWU never, ever had even one program approved in California when there was a difference between being Authorized and being Approved. They operated at the Authorized level (require almost no oversight) until that category was eliminated. Faced with having to get the entire school Approved (under the new law), they palmed-off most of the operation to Hawaii, leaving just a few programs under California. I doubt seriously if they would have done this if they were really operating all of their programs at a sufficient level.

This duality is deceptive and California shouldn't stand for it. But it does.

There has never been a reason to believe PWU has ever operated a legitimate program. California's institutional Approval process is hardly as rigorous as the former programmatic approval (where schools had to have each degree program evaluated and Approved separately; schools often had one or more programs Approved, while the rest of the school was Authorized. PWU was neverApproved until the law brought that distinction down near the old Authorized level. California Approval doesn't have the meaning it used to, yet PWU still needed to shove most of its operations "off shore." Yuch.

 

PWU

Bill Huffman and Richard Douglas!

Thank you for your replies. I did not intend to start a commotion about PWU, just hoping this ole school would be forced to follow the path of William Howard Taft, SCUPS, CCU, and so on.

Bill, your answer to my comment was excellent. I agree with you 100%, you could not have said it better. And Richard, your knowlege on the background tells me a lot.

After seeing the video and reviewing your answers, I would guess... it ain't gonna happen.

I'm outa here...thanks!

HADJr

 

Hi Rich: Thanks for the clarification on just what and wasn't California-approved. I'd forgotten how minimal that was.

If it weren't for people here who bothered to call a mill a mill (not just hint, not just insinuate, but say so regardless of who whined), I might well have fallen for PWU, rationalizing to myself that what was actually fraudulent was merely unusual or unorthodox.

If it weren't for people here who blew the whistle on certain individuals whose talk was eminently plausible but whose schools and "accreditation" were simply bad jokes, I might simply have moved the mistake elsewhere and wasted horrific amounts of time, energy, and money being that worst of all possible mill users--the one who actually does real work (in my case, finishing a dissertation) for a completely fictional worthless degree.

And if it weren't for other people here who bothered to call crap crap about other rotten schools, ones by which I was not at all tempted, I might not have learned how to apply this salutary caution across a range of scenarios.

This thread was as good as any to express my thanks, since it concerned a "plain old degree mill", and di alte kemfer* are as likely to see my thanks here as anywhere.

Janko

*the old fighters

 

Bill Huffman: "One of the great dangers of an unaccredited degree is that it is very easy to take the degree mill path. Once that degree mill path is travelled though, it is very hard to recover. Orion is one case where they apparently tried to turn a degree mill into a real school and that was a mess that failed. Even if someone worked for their degree, in this situation they are just out of luck. PWU is a plain old degree mill. That article makes it clear if it wasn't already clear."


Cehi: This is an excellent, genuine point. Thank you.

 

Great video!

The worst part about PW and this kind of practice is that it makes us all look bad to someone unfamiliar with DL. Joe Citizen doesn't hear, "PW online degree is fake and a fraud", he hears "online degrees are fake and a fraud".

 

Excellent point.

One of the things I liked about the degree mill stories on Good Morning America was the fact that Greg Hunter mentioned that there are legitimate online programs.

If the public ever equates DL with degree mills, we're all done.

 

Unfortunately many already do. Although I believe that this aspect is getting better at least within academia. Probaably because so many RA schools now offer DL programs.

Another sad part of the story is that it hurts all academic credentials when people run around claiming degrees that weren't earned. Especially because these types are so frequently obviously lacking in education. (I could list many examples from this board but won't because yesterday I turned into such a kind, forgiving, and friendly guy. )

 

Aw Bill, you and I are just getting positively mushy in our old age.

 

No you didn't. Your stalker site is still attached to your profile.

http://www.werewolves.org/~follies/PhDFraud/

 

You seem to want to defend academic frauds but do it so badly. Why is that, incompetence or isn't your heart really into it?

 

Incompetence.

 

I suggest that you read Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning.