New major MIGS article in Chronicle of Higher Education

This week's issue has quite a good and long story on the Texas legal action, and the Danzig connection. It is at http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i13/13a02902.htm (but not, alas, in their "free" section). A few quotes from the long story. (My guess is that the promptness and length and tone of the story had something to do with the MIGS attempt to "hijack" the Chronicle site, as noted in another thread here.

Headline:
Texas Fines Distance-Learning Institution as Diploma Mill

The Texas Commissioner for Higher Education "asked Degree.com to stop calling itself a university, cease offering degrees, and stop granting credits to be applied toward degrees. He told the institution to inform graduates, students, and applicants that Degree.com has no degree-granting authority. He also asked the institution to rescind degrees already awarded to students and to refund their tuition."

"The Monterrey Institute of Graduate Studies is frequently mentioned in colorful and sometimes scathing terms in online discussion groups about diploma mills. One such posting led to a lawsuit that resulted in an investigation of the institution by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which, in turn, led to last week's fine."

"Degree.com is managed by Ox-bridge Limited Partnership, which lists William H. Danzig, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as its general partner, according to documents filed with the Florida and Nevada state governments. Distance-education experts who have tracked the institution's history say its behind-the-scenes operator was once Sheila Danzig, Mr. Danzig's wife.

The Danzigs' Web site (http://www.danzig.com) offers links to various get-rich-quick schemes, as well as to a site that promises to teach users how to dance the Macarena..."

 

Possibly a simple explanation for recent events is that MIGS knew of the impending story (e.g. through discussion with the reporter) and therefore made the "Chronicle of Higher Education" additions to their site (as a means to try to make the connection for web-surfers). Then when they got wind of the negative nature of the story (with MIGS referred to as a degree mill) they removed the added wording from their site. Make sense or no?

I must admit that the self-deflagration of MIGS truly boggles the mind.

 

Unless, of course, their plan all along was not to run a graduate school awarding legitimate degrees, but to run a business that collected private and public funds under the pretenses of running a graduate school. It is possible their aim was never to enroll very many U.S. students, but to keep the Mexican enrollment (via the CEU) high in order to qualify for certain funding programs. Just a thought....

Rich Douglas

 

Originally posted by PSalmon:

... a simple explanation for recent events is that MIGS knew of the impending story ... and therefore made the "Chronicle of Higher Education" additions to their site ...


I think that this is highly likely.


Then when they got wind of the negative nature of the story (with MIGS referred to as a degree mill) they removed the added wording from their site.

Interesting idea, but I seriously doubt it. Sheila may be completely amoral, but she's not an idiot. She'd have to be out of her mind to think that the Chronicle article was going to be favorable, given the TX actions against MIGS.

You'll note that the Chronicle headline stuff was changed less than 12 hours after being reported here on degreeinfo.

Since we know that Sheila regularly reads this forum (she claims that "someone she knows occasionally glances at it", which is likely about as accurate as claiming to FL officials that MIGS/CEU has absolutely no operations whatsoever in FL), I think the more likely answer is that, upon seeing her latest scam revealed in an unflattering manner on degreeinfo, she asked her web maintenance guys in India to make the changes to the site.

Further supporting that notion is the lightning fast speed with which she has made previous changes after someone pointed them out here on degreeinfo -- such as when the place changed overnight from "MIGS" to "CEU", but the web guys forgot to sanitize a couple of pages... or when Armando Arias was unceremoniously sliced (literally) out of the pictures on the site, but they left one of the old pictures up by mistake.

Also, as I've alluded to before, there are a couple of places on the MIGS site(s) where there are *still*, to this day, unsanitized, tattletale evidence of the things that Sheila has been trying to cover up or eliminate entirely... but I have no intention of revealing them here on the forum (nor do I think anyone else should), because it's a lot more fun to imagine Sheila and/or her minions tearing their hair out trying to figure out where on the site there are references that they've missed.)


I must admit that the self-deflagration of MIGS truly boggles the mind.

That is truly the best part of this whole thing. MIGS is its own worst enemy, and I am relatively confident that it will fold entirely before long, thanks to their unflagging efforts to shoot themselves in the foot.

I say this because if Sheila and Bill didn't have even 150 grand to put into marketing the place and hiring a couple of employees, they are *certainly* not going to have a quarter million bucks to pay the Texas fine.

At every opportunity they've had, EVERY SINGLE ONE, they've blown it. Hell, they had Rich Douglas as a student, John Bear as Rich's faculty advisor, Tom Head writing emails supporting them, and I was even on the fence for quite a while. They've managed to either alienate or otherwise convince everyone in that group that the school is a joke. if Steve's true intent was to run them out of business (which I am confident is not the case), there could have been no better vehicle for doing so than the lawsuit, and no better "supporting efforts" than the Danzig's own comedy of error and stupidity.

But I'm sure that they'll manage to top even their current brilliance. Someday, somebody needs to write a book (or at least an e-book)about the whole sordid mess.