Here's a story reporting the death of a church leader in Nigeria: Cherubim And Seraphim Church Confirms Otubu's Death What I found interesting was the description of his academic credentials: ... He later attended Abott Commercial Institute, Sapele: Matriculation Evening School, Benin City, 1943-1947; School of Accountancy, Glasgow (Correspondence); School of Accountancy, London (Correspondence). Otubu holds Higher Diploma in Accountancy and Hon. Doctorate Degree in Divinity in 1981 by the Open University of California, United States of America. Does anybody know anything about the "Open University of California"?
Never heard of it, Oxpecker. I did a Google search (naturally) and got 51 hits for 'open university of california'. Many of them were about programs and positions open at the University of Californa. There were also lots of references to a book entitled 'The Road into the Open' published by University of California Press. I saw your Cherebim and Seraphim news story on both the Vanguard and allAfrica.com. There was also this, about a Ukranian environmental health professor who claims to be on the faculty of the Open University of California. http://www.charityfund.poltava.ua/index1en.html I didn't see anything else. My guess is that both of these people manufactured the university in their heads, and just happened to choose the same name.
All the Cal State schools have an "open university" where anyone can take a course, space permitting, as an external student, pay the external student fees, and obtain credit. That's what I did to obtain UD credits for my USNY degree. See http://www.csudh.edu/open/ for example.
Only four (4) Cal State Uni's have the authority to award PhD's: Long Beach Los Angeles San Diego San Francisco Of these only San Diego has a stand alone program, the others are offered in conjunction with another school. None of them have a theology program. So the answer is NO.
I was about to go all indignant, in the "Doesn't anyone read Bears' Guide" mode -- and discovered to my chagrin that the Open University of California listing, which was in some earlier editions, is not in the current one. It was started in the early or mid 1970s by Mary Rodgers, who also ran the Open University of America from the basement of her home in Hyattsville, Maryland. They had a convenience address in Sacramento, and quite a thick catalog, which was largely full of photos of Africans either in military garb or academic gowns, which seemed to be their target clientele -- so the posted references seem consistent with that. To the best of my knowledge, they never had permission to operate anywhere.
Re: Re: Open University of California I just want add to what Ian wrote about the CSU's Open University. This is one of the coolest things that I know of. You can just walk in off the street, grab a form from the extension office, attend the first class meeting of pretty much whatever course you want to take, get the professor to sign your form, take it back and pay a fee, and you are in. Berkeley raises an eyebrow at that, but it's what makes CSU different than UC. (What good is a prestige university to me, if I can't take classes there?) Of course you have to meet course prerequisites and there has to be space available (enrolled students get priority). But lots of the more esoteric courses have low enrollments and are sometimes in danger of being canceled. So if a class section only has 11 students and they need twelve to avoid being canceled, they are gonna love you to death when you walk in. Three examples of the many fascinating things on offer for a humanities guy like me from the Spring 2005 semester class schedule at San Francisco State: Classical Archaeology 502 Course Description Title:Ancient Egyptian Language and Literature Description:Understanding, reading, and writing of the ancient Egyptian language in its hieroglyphic script. Prose tales, poetry, religious, and scientific documents. May be repeated. Philosophy 515 Course Description Title:Islamic Mysticism Description:An examination of the mystical teachings of Sufism. This is not a survey course but a concentrated effort to approach some of the central Sufi ideas about humanity, God, and the structure of reality. Art 502 Course Description Title:Asian Art: Spiritual and Cultural Traditions Description:Evolution and expansion of art forms across Asia. Indo-Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, and other important religious/cultural traditions.
