Pennsylvania sues "University of Berkley"

From the AP article. They've been around a long time, with a "campus" in a mail forwarding store in Michigan and the real office in a shed behind a garage in Erie PA. I truly can't understand why the University of California, Berkeley, which has been aware of them for a decade, didn't take legal action, other than writing a mild "Please stop, fellas" letter, which was ignored.

Attorney General sues, seeks to close, alleged diploma mill
By DAN NEPHIN
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH - A degree from a university with a prestigious sounding name at bargain prices? Credit for life experience, no studying, tests or having to step foot in a classroom?

Sounds good.

But the thousands of degrees sold by the University of Berkley aren't worth the paper they're printed on, according to the state Attorney General's office, which moved Wednesday to shut down the Erie-based online school.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-07062005-511315.html

 

University of Berkley

I live near Erie in Erie County. I was surprised to see that someone from Erie had the guts to be doing that. (I saw this on the local news last night before reading Dr. John Bear's post). I could not resist looking at the website and was surprised to find they claim their degrees have been accepted by Edinboro University, which is a local state college where I took many of my undergraduate education classes. I wonder if that was a blatant lie, or can they actually show where their degrees have been accepted for transfer or acceptance into a higher degree program.
In any case, it sounds like shutting this place down is long overdue. The website was still up as of this morning.

 

Another Story in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"If you don't find an accredited one on the list, don't buy the degree," he said. "The not accredited ones are totally useless."

Darrel Vandeveld, senior deputy attorney general in Pennsylvania.


Since when can you buy an accredited degree? Also, if these fake degrees are useless, why are so many people buying and using them?

By the way, my research gets used for this perverse purpose by the Jamesvillage Idiots--they like to use the results and trumpet the acceptability of unaccredited degrees. But they ignore the fact that such acceptability drops significantly when respondents are told about the facts regarding accreditation! This result demonstrates that acceptability of such degrees is largely a result of ignorance--and you can't count on people remaining ignorant to your fake degree, as we see so often.

 

The Chronicle of Higher Eductaion chimes in:

"Pennsylvania's attorney general filed suit on Wednesday against the owner of the University of Berkley, an online operation not associated with the University of California at Berkeley, accusing it of selling thousands of bogus degrees.

Later on Wednesday, the Erie County Court granted a request by the attorney general, Tom Corbett, to immediately shut down the company that runs the university, based in Erie, Pa., and its Web site, and to freeze the personal and corporate assets of its owner, Dennis J. Globosky, a spokeswoman for the attorney general said.

Mr. Corbett told the court that he believes Mr. Globosky, 50, has sold more than 12,500 illegitimate degrees, including associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctorates, and brought in revenues exceeding $34-million, said the spokeswoman, Barbara A. Petito.

The attorney general has been investigating Mr. Globosky, a former New Mexico state trooper, for more than a year, since receiving a tip that the company was fraudulent, Ms. Petito said.

Mr. Corbett found that Mr. Globosky owns the University of Berkley, the University of Berkley Online, UofB Inc., and the New Millennium Accrediting Partnership for Educators Worldwide, an organization not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education that Mr. Globosky used to accredit the University of Berkley.

"We will prove to the court that this operation is 100 percent designed to defraud consumers, prospective employers, businesses, universities, and any other organizations or government agencies seeking workers or volunteers," Mr. Corbett said at a news conference in Erie. "These fraudulent businesses also destroy the credibility of legitimate educational institutions that offer Pennsylvanians and others actual online degrees that help better their lives...."

 

$34 million ???

Why is this person still in business? What can his overhead possibly be?

As soon as I hit $10 million profit, I would close down and move to a nice cosy cabana somewhere south of the Equator.



marilynd

 

Curiousity got the best of me and I must admit I went to their website. It disturbs me that I wouldn't have known that they are a degree mill if I wasn't aware of the different types of accredition and what they mean. This site is professional, slick, and I think that if I was just shopping around for the quickest way to get a degree I would think this school was legitimate. No wonder they sucker so many people. Betcha 34 million will be enough to get him a good lawyer.

 

Of all the words I could have spelled incorrectly, I *had* to choose 'education!'

 

Re: University of Berkley

Hi Sue - I'm unclear if you're saying that no one in Erie has guts or if no one in Erie has criminal tendencies.
Jack

 

Anyone in Erie with guts

Hi Jack,

I guess to clarify that I would have to say that I am surprised that I lived so close but had not really heard of this so-called school before. I do think it takes a lot of guts to charge that kind of money for illegal degrees no matter where you live. Yes, there obviously are at least a few in Erie with criminal tendencies!