The present plan is that the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather will devote 2 min. 50 seconds to degree mills on Friday, July 25. This was triggered by news of the big national workshop on degree mills that Allen Ezell and I will be putting on for 400 top government HR people on August 12-13. No way of knowing in advance whose charming faces will be seen, but Sen. Collins of Maine is a sure thing.
Well I've become the face on the cutting room floor. But there will apparently be sound bites from my co-author Allen Ezell, Professor George Gollin, and Senator Collins. And they say the folks down the hall at 60 Minutes are thinking about diploma mills again.
For those who missed the news: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/25/eveningnews/consumer/main565236.shtml
Good article! The issue of degree mills appears to be moving more into the public eye, glacially slow of course, but at least its out there. As has been stated on several previous threads, the task of DegreeInfo and other DL advocates is to educate the public regarding distance learning in general, i.e., that distance learning does not equate degree mill.
One would scarcely know from the segment that there is such a thing as legitimate DL. I had several people watch it and they all said that it made everything sound fake.
I agree with uncle on this. I feel that the segment was too vague. I'm currently working on a DETC degree which contains a lot of hard work. My wife watched the show, and at its conclusion the first words out of her mouth were, "Are you sure that school you're using isn't a degree mill?" I asked her what she thought all those tests I was taking was for. People will mix this stuff all together to the detriment of all DL, my opinion. Another bad thing will occur. Millions of people heard the news that schools of this type exist. The mill operators would have been grinning from ear to ear, free advertising. I bet the phones at the mills will be ringing off the walls for several days as people check out the new information. If people can find these things, they'll use them, and in large numbers.
I watched it too, and I agree that it was vague. I know Mr. Ezell and the Professor from Illinois tried to explain the process, but not enough time to do that.
