Kennedy Western relocating?

Ran across this today:

Warren National University has placed their lead generation campaign on hold until further notice. They are relocating their offices to Wyoming, and hope to re-launch in early 2008

US inquires only, sorry offer not available to CA, UT or OR residents. Must be at least 23 years old and have 5 years full-time work experience.


http://www.directdegree.com/scripts/offer.php?code=NTT-&&offer=KENNED-013&&file=M_305057

 

I thought they have been a Wyoming school for quite a while, ever since they stopped being a Hawaii school and an Idaho school and a California school. (Yes, I know that was Kennedy-Western, but since the Warren website talks about being founded in 1984, clearly they make no distinction between the two names.)

 

K-W has moved their address-of-convenience around the map freely in search of lax jurisdictions in which to register their school. But all the while the thing was actually operating out of an office building in Ventura County California.

Apparently California's education code is written in such a way that if a school doesn't offer classes to California residents, then it isn't legally operating in California, even if its offices are physically located there. So K-W was always very careful not to accept applications from Californians.

More recently I've seen K-W/W-N advertisements in academic trade publications recruiting administrators and staff, saying that their place of employment would be Cheyenne WY. So the school is apparently moving some/all of its administrative and clerical functions to Wyoming, presumably as part of its accreditation quest.

 

Should K-W/WN U get DETC accreditation, they could, presumably, re-establish themselves in California.

 

There was a couple on our recent trip to Ecuador who had lived for 40 years in Gas City, Indiana. They were quite familiar with the doctoral alma mater of Kennedy-Western's founder/owner, Indiana Northern, run from a dairy farm outside of Gas City. Lots of juicy bits for my posthumous edition.

 

I had kind of thought that Warren National was going for RA through the North Central Association, but I can no longer find that info. Could someone post a definitive link as to what accreditation Warren National is going for?

 

After noting K-W on the "Institutions Whose Degrees are Illegal to Use in Texas" page, I conducted a little additional research. Needless to say, it was shocking to discover the following information concerning a few Texas residents.

- An assistant department dean at a Big 12 university holds a "PhD in Business Administration" from K-W.

- Two professors at state universities claim grad degrees from K-W.

- A commissioner appointed by the Governor claims to be a K-W doctoral candidate on more than one webpage.

I'm unsure if any of the persons mentioned above actually used K-W degrees to obtain their present positions.

Outside the Lone Star state, there is the assistant professor at USMA (West Point) who has a PhD from Kennedy-Western listed with his other credentials. The gent also lists a USMA degree.

"In short, USMA expects its graduates and cadets to commit to a lifetime of honorable living".

Well, so much for the vaunted honor code, I suppose.

I briefly considered providing a reporter with info about the K-W degree-holding Texans, but decided against the notion.

 

Ah, I believe you are correct, sir.

Same potential applies, of course.

 

Perhaps an anonymous call to a reporter pointing them in the right direction may be in order? ..as long as we choose to turn a blind eye to people using degree mills to progress their careers, people will continue to use them.

It bothers me to think that someone who earned a legitimate degree was not able to get any of the positions you mentioned in your post, as they were beat out by someone with a bogus one....

Now when it comes to someone teaching - would you not prefer to be taught by someone who holds a legit degree?

 

Is this by chance a Baylor prof? I remember reading a bio once and it stuck in my mind since it said something ridiculous like "started their PhD at Harvard, but transferred to Kennedy Western"

 

I thought that possibly they were moving more than just their maildrop to Wyoming when I originally read it.

 

Blue Mason: "...as long as we choose to turn a blind eye to people using degree mills to progress their careers, people will continue to use them..."

In a world in which the senior Undersecretary of Defense, in charge of HR for two million military and civilian employees, himself has a fake Master's degree . . . and was "exposed" on Good Morning America just three years ago . . . and was subsequently enthusiastically supported by the president and by then-secretary Rumsfeld . . . and still has his job . . . is there really any hope of real change?

John, feeling gloomy today

John Bear, co-author, Degree Mills: the billion-dollar industry that has
sold more than a million fake degrees

 

Close. Started at Cornell. The one example that irks me most is the USMA asst. prof.

 

Should K-W/Warren get DETC accreditation, that alone should be enough to justify DETC's disappearance into a black hole. AICS was bad enough, K-W would be appalling. But I wouldn't be surprised.

Now... if K-W/Warren is going regional, hopefully North Central will see through the shadiness, but then again, they have made some, uh, interesting decisions in the past, though none as egregious as DETC.

 

Which, um, interesting decisions has NCA made in the past? What was the scoop on AICS?

 

A July 1, 2006 AP story (here) has the NCA/HLC saying that they'd received an application from K-W/W-N.

But as of today, it isn't listed as a candidate. It doesn't appear on the NCA/HLC's site visit schedule either. (One or more site visits would normally be a prerequisite to candidacy.)

So, what's up with that? It's more than a year later, you would expect to see some movement. Has K-W/W-N withdrawn their application or been rejected?

My guess (it's only that) is that the NCA/HLC told K-W that that they weren't doin' no site visits to Thousand Oaks and to come back when their Wyoming address was something more than an address of convenience. Hence, the moving trucks.

 

Ted: "Which, um, interesting decisions has NCA made in the past?"

Well for starters, there was a school whose accreditation was vigorously opposed by the Arizona Association of Professors, and the Arizona association of universities . . . and which got its Northwest candidacy on the day it opened, which I hadn't thought was possible. (That would be the University of Phoenix.)

There's another university (you'll have to wait for my posthumous edition), two of whose just-fired registrars approached me at a registrars' convention, to share some outrageous chicanery that had gone on at their school, which they subsequently brought to North Central, which either ignored or devalued it, and went ahead with accrediting that school.

On the third hand, North Central apparently did pay attention to the devastating report written by Dr. Fyffe, late of Trinity, and canceled what was likely to have been the final visit before accreditation was granted.

As I recall, AICS claimed its accreditation from the dreadful and unrecognized World Association of Universities and Colleges until the very day they got their DETC accreditation. Clearly DETC didn't feel those worthless accreditation claims were not relevant to the process.

 

I think the bulk of this article has been reported before, but this one added a Kennedy Western PhD who was discovered at Texas Southern University.

10/23/07 Texas Article
Real officials, bogus degrees
Fake degrees a growing Texas problem

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou071022_tj_fakedegrees.19826b1c4.html

 

AuditGuy, the Texas Southern prof mentioned by KHOU is among the K-W degree recipients alluded to in my earlier post. But no, it wasn't me who blew the whistle.

This morning, I checked web pages for three others previously claiming K-W degrees. Two references have since been removed.