Kennedy-Western is misunderstood

It may take hours, but you, too, can earn a degree

 

The reporter interviewed the K-WU rep who was calling from California, not Wyoming. Maybe he was on vacation?

It has been suggested on this board that K-WU provides just enough of an academic process to avoid being shut down by federal authorities as a diploma mill. This article seems to support such a contention. Even statements from K-WU students and graduates support this (sometime unwittingly).

 

The KWU spokesman talking about KWU distance learning like it was cutting edge and ground breaking indicates to me that the guy is either a blatant liar or is totally ignorant about the distance learning opportunities available from fully accredited schools. I'm not a lawyer nor a detective but I'd bet that after a full investigation the owner of KWU could be in a world of hurt. They are probably safe though because there's lower hanging fruit than KWU. They just have to be less blatant about their academic fraud than their fellow academic frauds so that if dipscam 2 is ever initiated they won't go after KWU in the first batch.

 

I have recently been asked to join the Yahoo group of 30 or so KWU students/alumni that was formed just prior to the closing of KWU's official forum (the one that's been down for a month or so for mysterious, suspicious reasons). Apparently the Yahoo group's owner thinks I might be able to offer guidance to the group's members on one level or another... and I'm happy to be helpful if I can. Unfortunately, I fear I'll be saying things to them that they don't want to hear. It remains to be seen if I will actually end-up participating. I'm waiting for the group's owner to tell me when/if we're going to have a chat or start a thread or whatever it is he wants to do... if anything.

But my having joined has allowed me to receive a daily digest of its members' postings, and one of the most striking things about them is the pervasive viewpoint that KWU is a fundamentally legit institution that has just gone slightly awry and merely needs to mend its ways a bit in order to elevate itself to a level of acceptability. They're holding on to hope against hope that KWU will, if sufficiently prodded, do the right thing and improve itself so that Oregon and other states which view it as a diploma mill (or but a mere notch above one) will change their opinions and grant the institution legitimacy. But... and here's the most astonishing part... they're serious.

Oh, I'm sure that somewhere in the group is a person or two or three or maybe even 10 who genuinely understands that KWU is a joke and knew it from the beginning and is now just jumping onto the "hey, we're legitimate... really" bandwagon for reasons known only to them. But I'm sensing that, by and large, the majority of that group is sincere and really doesn't get it and really thinks that there might be a way to somehow salvage KWU and make it essentially and objectively legitimate. It's astonishing how they call each other to arms and try to rally their numbers to the good fight and simply refuse to hear or grasp that their coursework and/or credentials isn't/aren't worth the powder it would take to blow it/them up.

I've actually come to feel sorry for them... to a point. People who refuse to see are victims of sorts, but largely of themselves. KWU offers hope and promise to those who might never have considered getting a real degree. KWU targets such as they and dangles before them the enticing possibility of obtaining much-needed educational credentials by giving far too much credit for "life experience," and then charging them just enough for the rest of the coursework and, ultimately, the credential, that KWU ends-up making all the money it needs to from the student, and the student feels like he/she spent sufficiently much, and worked sufficiently hard, that he/she is deluded into believing it all means something. Because many of them had no prior experience with college-level work, they don't recognize KWU's substandard materials and assignments for what they are. And they end-up in Yahoo groups trying to salvage what cannot be salvaged.

Sadly, when we read articles like the one referenced in the post that started this thread, it's sometimes difficult for us to distinguish between someone who's truly a KWU shill, and someone who's just misguided and wants desperately to believe that which is simply not true. Of course, if it's a KWU spokesperson, there's no question he/she is a shill. But when it's one of KWU's students or graduates -- whom I have earlier stated in these forums are almost certainly willing participants in the hoax and who, therefore, are just as culpable as KWU -- I know realize it gets a little more difficult to label.

Of course this simply strengthens the argument for the need for standards and strict enforcement thereof. It's this gray area (or at least its appearance) that contributes to the victimization. Oregon's ODA (though I quarrel with its precise methodology at the moment and hope to encourage it to change its approach) is absolutely dead-on in wanting to protect consumers from being victimized by the likes of KWU.

Too bad there's no deprogramming service to which we can send current and former KWU students. It's almost like they're in a cult, for godsake!

[sigh]

 

Haven't they suffered enough?

 

Do you really want to engage me in these forums? I mean... really? If you really want to go, then, hey, let's go... but I promise that you'll be the first to scream "medic!" Is that really where you want to take things? Really?

I'm sorry if you don't like my responses to some of your postings in other theads, but at least they're all on point, relevant to what's being discussed, and not little more than cheap shots in order to make myself feel better. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not afraid to include a bit of biting criticism wherever I think it's appropriate -- and I'm certainly willing to be on the receiving end of same. But when I do it's always part of making a larger point that directly addresses the subject of the thread. I never just reach out and take a swipe simply because the object of my irritation happens to be within striking distance...

...as you have done here.

Fortunately, it all says more about you than me... an observation I believe I've made about you elsewhere around here.

Isn't it interesting how it's usually the ones who hide their identities behind handles that feel most free to puke reckless vitriol? When one wears one's words, one tends to be more responsible about uttering them. Anonymity is essential to the very nature of protest that is at the foundation of our democracy, but signed commentary more appropriately fulfills our obligation pursuant to the social contract.

 

KWU almuni seem to actually believe that KWU is almost RA quality. They are victims in more ways than one. When one of the telemarketers working for KWU says that he never heard of anyone being denied admitance. When the alumni hear about KWU breaking their own policies time and time again they are able to somehow rationalize it all away.

 

I can think of two reasons why K-WU would be placed at the top of the hit list. First, their footprint. They are the leader of the pack--they're everywhere! Second, if federal money is involved in their biling practices.

 

Those K-WU students and alumni agonizing over current events are delusional on this subject. They perceive K-WU as a school that has somehow let them down and (mysteriously) won't strive to improve. What they're missing is that K-WU is designed exactly as it is supposed to be. Kennedy Western established their business model in the early 1980's when they opened under some slimy circumstances, and hasn't changed a thing--except in repsonse to the internet's unique marketing opportunties.

Kennedy-Western University won't change because it is exactly what its owners want it to be. They're just hoping the current stink passes soon.

 

...an' I still got lots o' spinach

I'm one tough Gazookus
Which hates all Palookas
Wot ain't on the up and square
I biffs 'em and buffs 'em
An' always out-roughs 'em
an' none of 'em gits no-where.

If anyone dasses to risk
My "Fisk" it's "Boff" an'
It's "Wham" un 'erstan'?
So, keep "Good Behavor"
That's your one life saver
With Popeye the Sailor Man.

 

I joined the KWU student chatgroup at their request last week for an hour-long exchange on the issues. I think the full text of that exchange is now available on their web site.

One issue that is confusing to these students is that SOME KWU students do more work than others, and there is no real pattern that I can discern (=no real standards).

 

This is absolutely true. There've been a number of KWU alumni that claimed that they had better than 100 RA credits and had to still take 5 KWU classes for their KWU degree. They can't accept the fact that in this situation the value of the KWU degree is defined by the people that have done the least amount of college work to get a KWU degree not by people like them who have done the most amount of work for a KWU degree.

The KWU standard is really nothing more than what makes money. There have been numerous examples given here by people that indicates that the very few policies that KWU actually does have written down are not followed, e.g., the 5 year experience rule, having a college degree before getting into their PhD program.