I know that there has been talk on here in the past about ULC's questionable status as a degree mill, or not. Religious titles, "legal" doctorates, etc. Anyway... I receive emails from the ULC Seminary as a result of being ordained by them at one time. Check out the one that I got this morning. Thoughts? Is ULC in your new chapter, Dr. Bear?
Someone doubts it's a degree mill? Who? Even without the email you showed us I would say it's a degree mill. 40 credits for a Masters and 60 credits for a Doctorate and no Bachelors required first. That seems fast. They are not accredited by anyone. So they meet California's requirements because they are exempt from the requirements. :stooges:
I vaguely remember seeing posts regarding their ability to continue giving these degrees because of their "legal religious affiliation", and that they state on their sites that they are not accredited academic degrees. Either way... I felt that their informing me that they will predate a degree to make me look more credible, or whatever, deserved some attention.
The ULC Seminary appears to be different than the ULC based in Modesto, CA. The Modesto ULC is legitimate in my opinion (and the State of California).
The ULC Seminary is connected to the ULC itself. However, the ULC Monastery (which could be confused with the seminary, since they do similar things) is not. For instance, when you are ordained on the Seminary website, your information is sent to the ULC Headquarters and can be retrieved from it. When you are ordained through the Monastery, your information is not sent to HQ. There was some sort of split a while ago, and the Monastery became it's own thing. They still seem to function quite the same.
Well, I was speaking with Western Advanced Central University recently, and I'm proud to announce that I not only qualify for 3 Master's degrees and 4 Doctorates, they told me they'd be willing--JUST FOR ME--to backdate the degrees to 1950 since I was able to convince them that I'm 100 years old and was considered an expert going as far back as the 1940's in the fields I applied for degrees in. I'm so excited, and yet I feel like an idiot for wasting all of that time bothering with all of that coursework required when earning degrees from traditional colleges. What was I thinking?
Just because a government agency says a business can operate doesn't make it a legit business. Does the Modesto ULC also meet the California education requirements because it is exempt from them? So the degrees are meaningless outside of the church. The church itself is the accrediting body. Isn't this the definition of a diploma mill? :Eyecrazy:
Aren't ULC ordinations and degrees widely known as novelty certificates? So yes it's a degree mil, but relatively benign one in that no one is really fooled by those degrees.
Not exactly. The ordinations are real enough for people to legally perform marriages, act as chaplains, etc in most US jurisdictions.
I still don't have a problem with religious "schools" like this ordaining people if they want to, but I do have a problem with them giving out doctorate degrees like candy. It cheapens the earned doctorates that people spend years attaining. IMHO this sort of school or religious institution should not be allowed to give out PhDs. They could still give out the Rev title, which is more accurate anyways.
Yes, but with freedom of religion, states can't impose any requirements on this, can they? Given their history of successful trials, ULC looks more like an exercise in constitutional law than anything else. Their "degrees" would be in extremely poor taste IF they were in any way a real religion. For example, a priest in Florida that baptized my child teaches Canon Law in the Church's (Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA) unaccredited seminary (St. Sophia's). That school only gives LTh, and the good Fr., AFAIK, has a MDiv from RA/ATS St. Vladimir's OS (and a doctorate from a school that had and lost TRACS accreditation, ironically enough). As to ULC's "seminary", what distinguishes their "degrees" from e.g. a postcard that declares one "Pope of Discordianism" (I wonder if one could try using one of these to perform a wedding)?
There is now a new ULC organization, Universal Life Church World Headquarters | Become a Minister | Get Ordained | Serve as a Wedding Officiant | Get Ordained Online | Ordination - The Official Universal Life Church World Headquarters