Hawaii Litigation Update: American National University

The State of Hawaii has settled the pending litigation against ANU Distance Learning, Inc. (a Hawaii corp) dba American National University and its principal, Ms. Lingxin Zhang (of Cal) and Bill R. Booth.

The settlement will be documented by a Stipulated Judgment and Permanent Injunction which is pending filing with the First Circuit Court of the State of Hawaii.

Under the terms of the settlement, ANU, Ms. Zhang and Mr. Booth are enjoined from operation of any unaccredited degree granting insitutions in, from or under the claimed authority of Hawaii and its laws. The defendants have also agreed to offer full restitution to any ANU graduates or students.

Anyone wishing to see an unfiled electronic version of the stipulated judgment may email requests to [email protected]

Jeffrey E. Brunton
Staff Attorney
Office of Consumer Protection
State of Hawaii

 

Hawaii American University?

Hi JE:

Is this the same school, or related to, Hawaii American University? I came across this school on a Google search. It claims to be registered in HI, as well as, endorsed by the Hawaii Legislature. Have they granted this school stste approval? How is registered different than describing that the school is plainly incorprated in HI, and little more? Is being registered the same thing, but with a stronger sales pitch? Subsequent searches identify that they claimed accreditation by their own agency.

Thanks in advance,

RJT

 

Re: Hawaii American University?

In the USA RA is the accepted standard for college education. DETC is also generally accepted but this covers more of the relatively small nitch schools that are almost exclusively distance learning and can't quite manage RA. In the rest of the world the fully legal and accepted schools are officially sanctioned by the government. These confusing claims of state-approval/legislature-endorsed/fake-accreditation/state-licensed are primarily made by the bottom-of-the-barrel fringe of the education system. This low level fringe of unaccredited schools operates primarily on the border line between legal and illegal. They prey on the general public and sell their mostly useless degrees to anyone and everyone except the informed.

 

To clarify

Actually I should have noted that this particular American National University is not related to the other American National University (run by Dr. Henry Yu out of California.)

Nor is it related to Hawaii American University (also run out of California by Leroy H. Graw and David McNary), which we sued and obtained injunctions and six-figure judgments against earlier.

Nor is it related to the American University of Hawaii which is one of two institutions (AUH actually being run out of Hawaii) that have obtained "proclamations" from our state's legislature.

We agree, the use of these legislative proclamations has a tendency or capacity to mislead, confuse and deceive consumers and we shall endeavor to put an end to the practice in the extremely near future.

 

Thanks JE and Bill. In my opinion, The term "registered" is likely most confusing verses "incorporated" within the state; the latter does not imply approval, while the first could be interpreted as such.

 

Any relationship here to the other university on the Island Honolulu University?

What is the status of this place?

John Roberts Ph.D (London ICST)

 

I don't believe there is any relationship to Honolulu University of the Arts, Sciences & Humanities. Our litigation against HUASH is still pending.

Nor is there any relation to the University of Honolulu USA which sometimes refers to itself as Honolulu U. This one has absolutely no connection to Hawaii--other than the nameand appears to have been based in Houston, Texas and Bangkok, Thailand.

 

JE, In a posting to your thread that I made earlier this week, I had asked about Honolulu University. I received today as a result of the posting I guess, a copy of the 2002 students handbook with Honolulu university address details showing their postal address in Honolulu. It even has a Honolulu machine postal stamp.

Address details; 1314 South king Street, suite 654.

Tel# 808-955-7333.

You had mentioned in your reply that they were Texas based, Thailand & Bangkok.

If set up in Honolulu, offering degrees can you not take action, or are they allowed to continue on the island as being an off-shore Diploma mill?

J.R (ic)

 

J.R.

There are two distinct and separate schools with similar names. Honolulu University of the Arts, Sciences & Humanities (which is commonly known as Honolulu University) is the entity which you received the catalog from. We have sued it and the litigation is pending.

The other one is the University of Honolulu USA. It has no ties to Hawaii, other than the name.

If you are still confused call me at (808) 586-2636.

Jeffrey E. Brunton