Fairfax

With relative calmness (!), what is your view of Fairfax.

 

Uncle,

I also asked for replies with relative calmness (actually I asked for objective replies). Some on this board don't know what either of those words mean.

My advice is that you , run, duck for cover and don the lifejackets.

Rafael

 

Interesting interpretation of your reception to the thread that you seem to be referring to.

http://www.degreeinfo.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7254

If that's the thread that you're talking about then I believe you must be overly sensitive. Actually your initial reaction in that thread supports that theory but I thought people were very helpful? Perhaps you didn't get the answer that you were hoping for but I really couldn't see anything negative in the responses.

 

Lord Fairfax Community College is a regionally accredited (SACS) 2-year institution granting degrees at the Associates level. In regards to distance education, however, their selection of Web-based courses are not all that extensive.

Why do you ask?

 

Unaccredited, operating with little semblance of quality oversight, and making one wonder how it can continue to operate without proper accreditation under Louisiana law.

 

Thanks, Rich. I saw the documents from LA board of regents meetings in 2000 ordering them to stop offering degrees, but they still do. That strikes me as very risky. Is it even legal?

Their faculty seem better-qualified than most non-accredited schools, however.

I have no opinion on the place yet--that's why I asked for input. I have no plans to run for cover. Why should I?

 

Bill Huffman

You are absolutely right Bill, SOME were helpful. Others simply gave no useful information at all and bantered about with the usual rubbish.

Take a good look at the responses I got from Tom Head, Dr. Bear and Gus. THEY are representative of how this forum SHOULD answer questions posed no matter the topic, school, accreditation status, claims or predispositions and conceptions.

Those that took the time to offer concrete suggestions were incredibly helpful.

Rafael

 

Re: Bill Huffman

Rafael,

You were very sensitive to my comment about legitimacy. If that troubled you, I apologize. It was not intended as a personal confrontation, only as a comparison of Fairfax and the schools you mentioned.

 

Socks, farts

Fairfax confuses me more than just about any other place. In the seventeen years since Marina and I helped Alan Jones and Malcolm Large design and establish Fairfax in Louisiana, I have neither seen nor heard anything that would cause me to question their academic integrity. Nothing. Truly, nothing.

And the fact that Lord Perry of Walton, one of the really big names in the world of distance learning (head guy at Britain's Open University for years) has served (and still serves) as Fairfax's Chancellor for years, says something. But what? Lord Perry is neither stupid nor senile.

And yet . . . and yet . . .

That's where socks and farts come in.

Albert Einstein lacked many social graces; he apparently often wore shoes without socks. A very famous movie star (if we believe the gossip columns) farts often and loudly in public. And neither behavior has anything whatever to do with his intellectual achievements or her acting ability.

To me, it is as if Fairfax operates without academic graces. The Louisiana stuff. The South Dakota stuff (including, briefly, a second school run by Alan Jones). The Montana or is it Wyoming or both stuff? The secretarial service "campus" when things were (and, I think, are) run from an office in Birmingham, England. Attempting to get a District Attorney in California to enjoin me from selling my own books because they didn't like what I wrote about them. Then (late 1980s) suing me (and others) in federal court in Louisiana -- a matter that was no fun, and fairly expensive, even if the judge did cut me out of the suit about ten minutes after my name was introduced. These are reasons I'm concerned and annoyed by Fairfax, and I have no idea why Jones does these things -- especially while (as far as I know) maintaining academic integrity.