MIGS Lives?

Discussion in 'The Monterrey Institute for Graduate Studies' started by Rich Douglas, Jul 9, 2001.

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  1. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I just received the following e-mail that seems to indicate MIGS is:

    a. Still MIGS
    b. Recruiting students
    c. Servicing admitted students.

    I have no idea why I received this, unless they did a mass mailing. Or it is a hoax.


    Greetings!

    I hope this e-mail finds you in good health.

    We just wanted to check in with you and make sure everything is going
    smoothly for you, and to see if you had any questions.
    As always, if you require any assistance, or have any questions, you can
    contact myself, or Ric Feinberg [email protected],
    and we will be glad to assist you.


    Sincerely,
    Jon Chatfield
    Admissions Counselor
    Center For University Studies
    Monterrey Institute For Graduate Studies
    E-Mail: [email protected]
    Phone: 1-800-459-1738
    Get Your Degree Online! WWW.DEGREE.COM


    I answered it at the e-mail address it indicated, and it didn't bounce back.

    Rich Douglas
     
  2. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Maybe MIGS is as disorganized as they seem, and the computer still has you as a student? The part about "going smoothly" seems like something that would be addressed to someone already in the program.

    Bruce
     
  3. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Maybe MIGS is as disorganized as they seem, and the computer still has you as a student? The part about "going smoothly" seems like something that would be addressed to someone already in the program.

    Bruce
     
  4. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    By the way, in case anyone was wondering whether or not there was any substantive changes at MIGS (along with the superficial ones like taking down the welcome letters, getting a post office box in Mexico, dropping the Florida address, etc.), all the old information is still available (including directions to contact them in Florida!). Just go to their website and download their "catalog." It's really just their old website folded up into a .pdf document. But it shows that the school, by whatever name, is recruiting, enrolling, and educating students. Well, we're not sure about that last one.... :razz:

    Rich Douglas
     
  5. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Oops...should've been [​IMG] !

    Rich Douglas
     
  6. Chip

    Chip Administrator

    I would be willing to place a small wager that within 48 hours, the PDF will either be gone from the site, or Sheila will have instructed her minions to correct it.

    Another typical degree mill tactic... following the threads of conversation about a web site, and making immediate changes to "correct" the information that has been discovered.

    Now, MIGS may not be a degree mill... but they certainly act like one!
     
  7. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Does acting like a degree mill make them one? I don't know, but Chip is right. They're behavior includes so many "mill-like" activities. When I posted the existence of the "catalog," I assumed it would disappear.

    Now, I happen to be of the mind that a school should be responsive to criticism and fix a fault once it is pointed out. But with MIGS it is a "cat-and-mouse" game of "gotcha."

    If there had been no MIGS; if they'd promoted this as a Touro-like extension of the main campus; if they'd led with the CEU officials instead of their own; if they'd gotten the degree-granting process and authority straightened out up front; if they'd squared things away with Florida early; if they'd not promoted themselves in slimy ways; if they didn't rush into running "la cosa nostra" by enrolling students before they had their acts together; if they would have staffed the operation sufficiently; if they would have taken advantage of--instead of run from--the plethora of free and abundant expert assistance....sigh [​IMG] You get the picture.

    The CEU has a lot at stake here. MIGS has helped them upgrade their (CEU's) online presence. MIGS also represents a significant revenue opportunity. Through Dr. Arias' well-connected activities, the CEU could see its stature in the international academic community grow, especially in the U.S. Finally, an effectively run MIGS could be a boon in the upgrading of faculty credentials at the CEU and other Mexican universities.

    Will it? Only by overcoming a lot of issues and shaking a lot of baggage.

    Rich Douglas
     
  8. Peter French

    Peter French member

    Yes I for one agree, but it doesn't deter me any more.

    Arias, Forman and Yates, whom I have been involved with are highly reputable
    and professional academics.

    My Mentors/supervisors are the latter 2 of the above.

    Nothing proceeds from them apart from CEU approval and the ultimate OK comes
    from the Secretary of Education. This includes acceptance of the proposal,
    assessment of entry criteria and the meeting of core competencies for the
    coursework part of the degree. I have no problems with it. Their physical
    location is of no consequence as in my physical location.

    I have a mentor also here in Australia and everything has been passed here
    in that context. Furthermore I have been invited to be part of a doctoral
    colloquia, and also offered my own seminar. I couldn't for more general
    acceptance within the academic community that this.

    My dissertation is "Quality Assurance Issues in Post Secondary Educational
    Institutions in Australia - Strategies for Constructive Change".

    I am purely doing this for personal reasons as I have no need for it
    academically or vocationally. I have been offered 2 PhD places out here but
    for my own personal reasons will be completing this project with CEU, who
    incidentally have ALWAYS been the Institution that would issue the final
    degree.

    I have no further comment to make on the matter, as I have another 150 pages to complete.

    Peter French MEd MAcc
    Australia
     
  9. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member


    You win. I just downloaded the catalog again. It has been edited to reflect the change in address. References to the Florida address have been removed.

    All fine and good, if they did these things on their own. Instead, they only clean up the crap pointed out by others. Makes you wonder what else is there.

    Rich Douglas, who knows what else is there.
     
  10. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I may have posted this elsewhere, but WHOIS lists contact information for the MIGS website (www.degree.com). Florida it is. (It hasn't been updated since January, but what is there to update? MIGS still operates from Florida.)

    Registrant:
    Degree (DEGREE2-DOM)
    c/o MIGS of the Centro de Estudios
    Universitarios Hidalgo 511 NE 3rd Ave.
    2nd Floor
    Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33068
    US

    Domain Name: DEGREE.COM

    Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Billing Contact:
    Feinberg, Ric (RFD133) [email protected]
    degree.com, degree.com,LLC
    Degree.com
    c/o MIGS of the
    Centro de Estudios Universitarios
    Hidalgo 535 Pte.
    MX
    800-459-1738

    Record last updated on 08-Jan-2001.
    Record expires on 21-Mar-2010.
    Record created on 20-Mar-1996.
    Database last updated on 11-Jul-2001 11:46:00 EDT.

    Domain servers in listed order:

    NS1.HE.NET 216.218.130.2
    NS2.HE.NET 216.218.131.2
    NS3.HE.NET 216.218.132.2


    Rich Douglas
     
  11. Peter French

    Peter French member

    well I and the crew are working as hard as we can - someof us have been otherwise engaged the past 100 hours or so - forgotten? :)

    Peter French
     
  12. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I've never heard CEU referred to as CEU Hidalgo rather than CEU Monterrey.

    I'm assuming that Hidalgo is a neighborhood or suburb of Monterrey NL. Is that correct?
     
  13. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    The Mexican state of Hidalgo is closer to Mexico City, and is not adjacent to Nuevo Leon. There is also a Hidalgo, Texas, which is very near the Mexican border (outside of McAllen). This could be what this listing references (considering its proximity to Monterrey, and that Serna lives in Texas).

    Rich Douglas
     
  14. Peter French

    Peter French member

    Rich, I think that you should enter the next Olympics in the jumping to conclusions
    dept. You are great at it.

    The pdf file was under change before you posted your news. The whois change
    was sent in before the web site changed and for reasons I'll never know,
    has still not gone through.

    The Florida issue was addressed earlier on and an official was told that registration was not necessary at all.

    Were mistakes made? Definitely. But that is what is going to happen, and was expected to happen when you create something that is truly different from what is. Some mistakes were avoidable. Disorganized? Not particularly. 100% Overseen at all times by the CEU campus people. If you were as close to the action as you say that you were, you should know this. The head of the CEU DE program is based at CEU - OK?

    Rich, I realise that you are annoyed that you feel that many of your suggestions were ignored. They were not ignored. They were not used. There is a big difference. It happened and will continue to happen to all of us - none of us 'own' it or run it absolutely. The same thing has happened to me and I go back a lot further than you - now don't get upset over that as well!

    I am not really interested in what is posted. It is such a waste of time and energy. In fact, I think everyone you had contact with at MIGS really wishes
    you well. We are all there to get our own jobs done.

    You can go an and watch everything from a distance through an eye glass, and speculate, and yes there will be glitches. But not because of anything underhand or fraudulent. Compare Phoenix! ...and a few others.

    As I said before, jumping to conclusions should be a new sport in the next Olympics.

    Peter French
     
  15. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I hope your MIGS experience results in a useful degree you want. It wasn't worth wallowing in all of it any more for me. One is often judged by the company one keeps. You keep 'em. But stop trying to mislead people away from the truth. Spend your energies trying to pry them loose from all of their horrible practices. I did, but it was futile. Maybe you'll succeed.

    Rich Douglas

    "The problem with the 'rat race' is, even if you win, you're still a rat." Lily Tomlin [​IMG]
     
  16. Peter French

    Peter French member

    Rich - get on with your life and get over it.

    Just remember though, if I ever do offer you a job, to rem'nd me, as I would have obivously forgotten, that you are not real high in the loyalty stakes.

    Peter French
     
  17. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    It's not a matter of loyalty. I'm not disloyal to MIGS. Just the opposite. I hung in there (taking more than enough well-deserved heat for it on this forum) for too long. If anyone is disloyal, it is MIGS. They've not lived up to anything they proposed to do with this little venture. It has been one large deception.

    I notice you address me instead of the issues around MIGS. I'm not the issue, MIGS is. Is it because those issues are indefensible? You certainly cannot refute the truth, truth that is easily observed by all. And boy, have they observed it!

    Rich Douglas
     
  18. Gus Sainz

    Gus Sainz New Member

     
  19. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

     
  20. Chip

    Chip Administrator

    Originally posted by Peter French:

    The pdf file was under change before you posted your news.


    Then I will wait a few days before revealing the other places that haven't yet been changed, to see if Sheila's crack staff can find them before I post them... anyone for a game of "hide the sausage"?

    The whois change
    was sent in before the web site changed and for reasons I'll never know,
    has still not gone through.


    Probably because, to change the listed registrant, they have to reregister the site, which takes considerably longer than updating an address. But I can't believe that Sheila is going to give up a very valuable piece of Internet real estate...


    Were mistakes made? Definitely. But that is what is going to happen, and was expected to happen when you create something that is truly different from what is.


    Different from what? A diploma mill? A legitimate school? Existing DL programs? Scam multi-level marketing programs? Macarena lessons? Term papers for sale? MIGS has had ample opportunity to clean up its act, and has not done so. Armando, at a meeting at which I was present, expressed frustration at Sheila's complete lack of understanding of professionalism... and made it *very* clear that she and Bill basically called (and probably *still* call) all the shots.

    100% Overseen at all times by the CEU campus people.


    Funny, this is 180 degrees different from what Armando said at the same meeting. His indication was that the MIGS operations were nearly 100% autonomous from CEU, and that there was minimal oversight. I specifically asked about things like criteria for prior learning credit at the doctoral level, oversight of curriculum matters, hiring of faculty, etc... and was told that all of these were handled by MIGS staff, and that oversight by the CEU was pretty minimal and very general in scope. By example, he said that CEU would be involved only in things like decisions to add new degree programs. Of course, I suppose it's possible that things have changed since the bogus lawsuit brought by Serna against Levicoff, but I doubt it.

    The head of the CEU DE program is based at CEU - OK?

    Again, very, very different from what Armando (who, as president of MIGS, would theoretically be in a position to know) told John and I.


    Rich, I realise that you are annoyed that you feel that many of your suggestions were ignored. They were not ignored. They were not used.


    Funny. The word I heard was that absolutely no acknowledgement was made whatsoever of Rich's suggestions. No "This is great", no "This sucks", no "this bears consideration." To mind, that is pretty good evidence that the commentary was ignored, rather than "not used."


    In fact, I think everyone you had contact with at MIGS really wishes you well. We are all there to get our own jobs done.


    Riiiiight.
     

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