Epi-Pen CEO had (or has) a fake degree.

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by John Bear, Aug 30, 2016.

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  1. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, who insanely inflated the price of the Epi-Pen device, is the daughter of former Governor and current U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia.In 2007 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Bresch had claimed to have an MBA degree from West Virginia University, but the university disputed that. The university subsequently awarded her an EMBA despite her having completed only 26 of the required 48 credits.

    In the ensuing controversy, the university announced in April 2008 that it would rescind Bresch's degree. Michael Garrison, WVU President at the time, was reported to be "a family friend and former business associate of Bresch and a former consultant and lobbyist for Mylan."
    (Wikipedia entry on Heather Bresch)

    As a Facebook poster writes, "So much for meritocracy, fairness, the free market, the level playing field, ethics, you name it..." Gee, sometimes even Democrats go bad!
     
  2. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    Sounds like she briefly had a real degree based upon fraud.

    I think it interesting that the investigating panel decided that she likely didn't realize she wasn't entitled to a degree; I guess she just figured if you show up a bunch of times a degree happens even if you don't have the credits to qualify for graduation.
     
  3. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    I've really had enough of this.

    People say it's a waste of time to go on an exposing spree, but I think it's entirely worth it. People work hard for years to earn these credentials making many sacrifices and often go into deep debt to do it. They need to be better protected, and allowing this is certainly not any kind of protection to that investment. In many ways, it devalues the hard work of all of us.
     
  4. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member


    I've noticed that cheaters/crooks fancy themselves smarter than people who work hard. That they've "bested" the hard worker and "beat the system."
     
  5. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    That's one of the things that angers me about it most, right below the employers too lazy/indifferent/lacking in knowledge to investigate and verify these credentials.
     
  6. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    One of the issues I have with the "Stolen Valor" warriors out there is that they routinely aim to humiliate people stealing credit for military service or awards with very little information. Uniform mistakes can indicate an knowledgeable person who is a fraud. Or they can indicate someone made a lazy mistake when getting dressed.

    Academic fraud is a bit fuzzier. There do appear to be people who delight in their fraud. But then there are people who seem blissfully unaware that their school isn't legitimate.

    I recall one Chief (E-7) who wanted me to add his brand new B.S. from Almeda to his service record. I refused. He got angry. It was accredited, he argued, and accreditation is voluntary!

    He was pissed because he needed that degree to be competitive for E-8 and figured he found a way. When one of his subordinates submitted their A.A. from TESC, I added it. The Chief responded by writing me up. I was a snob, he said. I was only trying to spite him because I didn't like that he was a Chief, he said. He honestly couldn't see any reason why a degree from TESC was different from a degree from Almeda. To him, portfolio assessment and a degree awarded based on life experience were the exact same thing and I was unfairly screwing him out of a promotion.

    I ended up going to a DRB (Disciplinary Review Board) which determined that I had not disrespected anyone and that the charges were brought maliciously because I refused to bend on a policy despite being threatened by a senior enlisted petty officer. He got a letter of reprimand. I got a letter of appreciation.

    As I look up the ol' Chief (since retired) today he still claims that Almeda degree. I have no doubt that he claims it because he sees absolutely nothing wrong with it.

    One of the problems with Bresch is we don't know what she knew or thought. Did she have an advisor? Was she given a "special" advisor who told her everything she wanted to hear? Did she leave mid-program knowingly or did someone honestly tell her she had "done enough?" We can't really know. This is dealing with a level of corrupt influence that goes well beyond what the typical academic fraud looks like.

    Was she completely innocent? Doubtful. But we cannot know for sure. Her rescinded degree was undoubtedly embarrassing. And many facts are known in her case that, for the low level academic, might not otherwise be made public.

    So cases like this, yeah, sure let's have fun. But I do worry about well-intentioned militancy inadvertently impacting innocent people.
     
  7. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I worked with a guy once who was heartbroken when his Dean had to tell him that his doctorate from Kennedy-Western was unaccredited and unrecognized in conventional academia. He'd had to write some sort of long paper for it, so he was perfectly sincere in his belief that it was recognized.
     
  8. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member


    It's a good thing I never had to wear a dress uniform properly.
     
  9. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    It's not always dress uniform stuff. I knew a guy who put an American flag patch on the shoulder of his coveralls. Completely unauthorized. I asked him why he was wearing it one day and he said "What, are they gonna tell me to remove the flag of our nation?"

    Well, yes, when the flag of our nation is displayed improperly someone will most definitely do that.

    When he got out of the Navy he became a fixture on Facebook for his, ummm, innovative veteran uniform assemblies. He would go to the Army/Navy store and buy things he thought looked cool. He never wore rank or medals that he didn't earn. But he once had a Marine Corps cammie blouse covered with his Navy stuff and with a few other things he thought looked neat. Used to wear his collar devices (E-6) on white dress shirts just for going out to dinner, as well.

    Perhaps not surprisingly he's been accused of stolen valor on the street a few times. But he hasn't stolen anything. He's just weird.
     
  10. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    There are people who want to attack simply for the thrill. No way to regulate that, so it won't be perfect. But if it were me, I would simply go after people using milled degrees, and secondarily people claiming to hold degrees from legitimate schools but actually don't.

    John Bear said it best (paraphrasing) that anybody with a triple digit IQ generally knows that they're engaging in a fraud.
     
  11. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    If you ever want to get depressed or infuriated, search LinkedIn with the names of phony schools, and the results come in by the pages. Interestingly, most of them decline to use their names unless they approve you, so they appear as "LinkedIn User". One that I saw was a pretty high ranking official for the city of Las Cruces, New Mexico. He's proudly listed as (I forget his name) "Joe Blow, Ph.D." on the city's website.

    BTW, if anyone is on LinkedIn, feel free to look me up, I accept almost all connection requests.
     
  12. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    I've done that a few times and was shocked by the fraudsters boldness, while at the same time saddened that so many companies are asleep at the wheel allowing these phonies in.
     
  13. Lagu88

    Lagu88 Member

    Like that also can? Not completing the whole programme can be rewarded a degree? Like that last time I also do not need to go through so many months of studies because my E.MBA adopted what Maharishi University of Management adopted or used to adopted - one month one module.

    Despite having a grad diploma and nearly completed my E.MBA, I met free riders with only bachelor degrees trying to leech everything from my work and claim everything as their own credits, while doing my second master degree. Basically thief, and after the department head knew about it, he just said "they don't like to fail people" as one girl had already failed due to language barrier. We have only eight students for that master programme.

    You see, grading this type of stuff is also very subjective, thats why I heard universities like MIT may not award grades. This issues also spread to sports training. I went for scuba trainings and I also realized that some instructors tend to threat girls more leniently than guys. Actually, looking at the marking matrix, they are basically some guidelines. Whether the student meet the criterias in the matrix is up to the instructor to guage. To be fair, Some instructor may have stricter guage. But favoritism, biasness, prejudices, hidden intention can also affect this guage or measure. This may goes to academy as well.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 9, 2016
  14. Lagu88

    Lagu88 Member

    Army stuff sometimes a bit... I used to served in the army, but have exercise induced asthma. I did not go and down grade like many people do. Instead, i completed quite a few what they called "all parks runs". Instead of running, i am allowed slow jogging and clocked 10 to 20 km for all the numerous running events. My superior gave me a medal for clocking certain distance, may be due to never give up attitude?

    Because feeling like achieving not much in army endeavor, so I aimed for the marksmanship in rifle shooting, and finally attained it. After reading this forum, I did my bachelor during my army career, like what American Military University trying to train their soldiers.

    Years later, still got to down grade because new laws is passed stating if studying university full time, one cannot postpone their call backs for reservists and weekly remedial training. Surely will affect university projects, I don't know about others but my full time master programme is so heavy till got to work weekends at times.

    Funny thing is, land sport I have difficulty, but swimming still reasonably easier and fine. I am not biomedical majored, so don't why also. Engineering aspect, may be pressure or density of water that ease actions when swimming styles are correct?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 9, 2016

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