Unaccedited Faculty at Accredited Schools

A recent thread discussed the issue of faculty at unaccredited schools holding regionally accredited degrees. How about the issue of faculty at regionally accredited schools who hold degrees from unaccredited schools?

I realize that in many cases a college/university will accept someone with an unaccredited doctorate as long as they hold a master's or otherwise terminal (or "terminal-like") degree, such as an MFA, MBA, MSW, MEd, etc., in their speacialty from a regionally accredited school. This is especially true if the doctorate were earned AFTER being hired.

What is the opinion of the group on this issue? Do you think that such a hiring (or accepatnce of the degree earned by a faculty member as demonstrated by the school listing it in the updated faculty profile) has a negative effect on the school's reputation?

Regards,

Jeffrey

 

This issue was bantered about on the aed ng about 3 months ago. Some of us did some searching and found about a half dozen schools who had faculy on staff (full-time) who had their Ph.D. from a non-RA school. As I recall, none of the schools were top-teired universities and I think that two were predominantly minority universities. I believe at least two of the faculy members were graduates of California Coast U. And, as you point out, most of these individuals had RA masters as well as substantial industry experience.

Someone on the aed ng was very negative to the idea of non-RA Ph.D.'s on staff - even going so far as to say that one should'nt even consider attending those schools because of that. I disagree. I think if one has substantial industry experience, can develop original ideas, can write and publish papers in his/her field of study in respected journals, and has the desire and ability to teach, I say great.

 

A quick search at Google.com will reveal quite a few instances where unaccredited Ph.D.'s are serving at RA schools.

 

Russell---what descriptors did you use to access the above information?

 

I've come across a few in my Internet travels. One here, two there. Consider the schools though. They're normally at the noncompetitive end of the spectrum ... Springfield College, Lesley University, etc.

I'd be interested in your search parameters as well.

Thanks,

Pete

 

Things to consider:

1. Are these people tenured/tenure-track?
2. Are they full-time professors?
3. Did they earn the degrees before or after being hired?
4. Did they have substantial industry or professional experience?


Tom Nixon

 

Jeffry - One "gotcha" in this realm comes with professional accreditation. A couple of years ago, the school I teach at full-time went through an ACBSP visit. They found a fellow on our adjunct faculty that had a PhD from a non-RA school. He was bumped off the Doctorally qualified list and moved to "professionally qualified" list in a hearbeat. It was somewhat embarassing. I don't believe he ever taught for us again.

Beyond that, a non-RA doctorate isn't likely to do much good for a faculty member (other than getting students to call you "doctor") and can cause real creditability problems. If anyone on this ng saw such a situation, it would raise questions.

Thanks - Andy

------------------
Andy Borchers, DBA
NSU (1996)

 

Jeff:

I entered California Coast University, Ph.D., and several faculty came up. And this is just one of many unaccredited schools.

 

Is two several?

I entered "California Coast University, Ph.D." and got just one page of results. The only two which seemed to be of individuals with CCU degrees at RA institutions were:

Gloucester County College (a community college) http://www.gccnj.edu/programs/liberalarts/faculty.cfm
Charles Kocher -- Adjunct Instructor, Law Enforcement
Also has Rowan University BA and MA

John W. Collins, Jr. http://pirate.shu.edu/~collinjo/prof/military.htm
Seton Hall University
Faculty Associate of Educational Administration and Supervision, August 1998 – PRESENT; Associate Academic Director for SetonWorldWide August 1998 – January 2001.
His online info lists multiple graduate programs, including a 1999 Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Administration and Supervision from Seton Hall University. Other programs include: the Air War College at the Air University; the Logistics Executive Development Program at the United States Army Logistics Management College; the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Military Managerial Development at California Coast University; the Command and General Staff Officer (CGSC) course at the United States Army Command and General Staff College; and the Master of Public Administation (MPA) in General Management and Public Administration at the University of Oklahoma.

When I entered California Coast University, Ph.D. without the quotation marks, I got tons of web pages that happened to have these terms, not necessarily in a phrase.

Using Metacrawler, I picked up

William Sink
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Golden Gate University Telecommunications Management http://internet.ggu.edu/tech_industry_school/tmfaculty.htm http://www.billsink.com/resume.htm
Education: B.S., University of Wisconsin;
M.S., M.B.A., Golden Gate University;
M.S., California Coast University;
Ph.D.(in progress), California Coast University
Ph.D.(in progress), Southern California University for Professional Studies




------------------
Kristin Evenson Hirst
http://distancelearn.about.com/
[email protected]

 

Kristin:

I entered the following two (no quotation marks) at google.com:

California Coast University, Ph.D.
California Coast University, Ed.D.

Several pages came up!

 

Several pages come up, yes -- but not that many are faculty pages at regionally-accredited school websites.

Some are from less-than-wonderful schools such as http://www.cula.edu/fac2.htm

Some are from personal pages -- such as http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5185/sbsd.htm

Some are from pages that just happen to have those terms on them, although not in a phrase.

And some -- but relatively few, I think -- are pages from regionally-accredited schools that list faculty at regionally accredited institutions with Cal Coast degrees.

 

Ever since beginning to teach totally online with interactive softwares, peer to peer learning methods, etc., it has seemed to me that universities in the traditional senses are no longer necessary.

Why can we not develop websites which will allow competent learning-focused persons with degrees and experience to document themselves, put up their writings and citations, post syllabi and course contents, and ways of fostering learning, and in essence "accrediting the courses and their facilitators" rather than the sameole-sameold approach that accredits universities whose professors then move.

At the same time I would like to see attached to that direct assessments of those learning centered courses by learners who have been IN THEM, along with grades earned, and so on.

Seems to me we have tools which may allow us to enter a significantly reorganized process of learner and learning facilitation. Sure would be less expensive for adult adults to avoid the extra charges of traditional U's
that they do not utilize.

Having been in this DL thing for forty years, I would LOVE to set up my own set of history, humanities and learning to learn courses, plus get other profs who feel as I do into the activity. AND, I know SKADS of people who tell me they would love to learn on line without all the hoops, whistles and cogs.

But, being a long time teacher and not a businessman, I have not a clue as to how to start.

Might this be a useful thread for Distance Learning Discussion ?

Guy

 

Thanks everyone for posting your responses concerning my curiousity if there was any measurable frequency of non-RA doctorates teaching in a university.

What peeked my interest was that recently I attended a series of workshops conducted by a former high ranking official of the NYC Board of Ed. He is also a full-time professsor (PhD program) at CUNY Graduate Center. He earned a doctorate from a DL school that was not RA until about 13/14 years after he graduated.

I was surprized that he went as far as he did in the profe4ssional AND academic worlds. The overwhelming majority of faculty of the CUNY Graduate School have "traditional" ivy league and otherwise first tier credentials.

I am happy to find out that there appears to be not be that many schools that accept such credentials. But, it makes me think how many people in private industry have "questionable" credentials. I am not only talking about "Dr." Gray, but more importantly, those who affect us in our everyday lives.

 

Forgive the grammar of the above post.

 

Losing Face

I've recently been Googling bogus degrees and matching with RA universities. Just to see what would happen, I've sent e-mail to the university administrators pointing out the bogus degrees on their faculty rosters. Usually, I've received no response at all. So, I thought this exercise was futile. But I've just gone back to some of these websites, and I've found several - eg Drury University - where the bogus degree is missing. The administrators never responded to me but the bogus degree disappeared quietly... Several Dr XX and now just listed as Mr XX.

 

use the Google advanced search function

with the exact phrase name of bogus university

limit the search to domain = only .edu

I did "Suffield University" and "Almeda University" this way, check it out...

 

Most of them were hired based on their RA master's and the PhD was added as dressing. However, what is more amazing are the ones with an unaccredited Master's degree and teach at the University level to MBA students. One of such faculty members is OLIVER SCHWABE with a bogus MBA and DBA teaching at a RA school (Jones international)

http://www.jonesinternational.edu/aboutJIU/faculty/profile.php?profile=34.1&pt=fcty

 

Re: Re: Unaccedited Faculty at Accredited Schools

Mr. Schwabe is apparently also on the faculty at Capella University;

http://www.kmcluster.com/den/Oliver%20Schwabe-GB.htm

Interesting that Capella no longer lists individual faculty bios. Perhaps after the Diane Stottlemeyer embarassment?

 

Re: Re: Re: Unaccedited Faculty at Accredited Schools

There were other faculty Capella removed from their mentor list several years ago due to their not possessing regionally accredited doctorates.

 

Warnborough MBA Running Troy E-MBA Program

Another amazing example is John O. Johnson, Director of the E-MBA Program at Troy State University, whose MBA is from Warnborough University. I suspect his DBA is also from Warnborough, but the source of the MBA and DBA is not stated on his regular profile. (See http://ar.troy.edu/programs/emba/resume.htm). The Warnborough source of his MBA is found only by a Google search on another faculty listing.