Congratulations, Rich!

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Steve Levicoff, Jun 28, 2014.

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  1. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    Quoted from: http://www.degreeinfo.com/accreditation-discussions-ra-detc-state-approval-unaccredited-schools/48208-charisma-university-has-received-candidate-accreditation-acpsp-2.html

    Sure enough, the case is listed on the Orange County court’s civil docket, having been filed on June 23, 2014. The plaintiff is one Peter Chris Okpala, and the defendants listed are Richard Douglas, Mbwa Shenzi, “Degree Discussions.com,” (space and plural in the original) and “Degree Info.com” (space in the original). According to the docket, Peter spent $435.00 in filing fees - more than I spend on the average theatre ticket, making this case an expensive form of entertainment (for him).

    I would, therefore, like to offer my warmest congratulations to all of the parties involved. I’m sure this is a momentous occasion for Rich – his first lawsuit (of which I am aware, at least) as a nontraditional education professional and a degree mill buster

    Here’s hoping that the issue is resolved for all by September 31st [sic].*
    ____________________________
    .* An inside joke referring to yet another case filed by a degree mill.
     
  2. Maxwell_Smart

    Maxwell_Smart Active Member

    This is a frivolous lawsuit. It has no merit, and bringing it to the courts only serves as an indication of the school possibly having a lack of judgement and responsibility. Negative comments are not illegal, and clearly the school does not understand the difference between "negative comments" and "slander", but they are different, and that difference helps to protect free speech in the United States.

    Whoever is running this school apparently is unaware of the type of PR hatchet job it's about to do to themselves, which once again speaks to a possible lack of judgement and responsibility. This outfit will not win the case, it has no legitimate shot. This strategy of nerfing public comment will backfire quickly, and that's great. We don't need idiots like these in higher education.
     
  3. Ike

    Ike New Member

    This guy is a Nigerian. Google returned the following information for Peter Chris Okpala:

    ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Charisma University

    Contact Name: Dr Peter Chris Okpala
    Position: Founder

    Address:
    Neptune CT, Grace Bay
    Suite 214
    Providenciales
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    British West Indies

    Website: Charisma University - Critical Thinking on a Global Scale

    Telephone: (649) 946-4653

    Fax: (649) 946-4981

    Email: [email protected]

    Accreditation Status: Accredited (what?)

    College Location Type: International
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------

    This guy also teaches for Kaplan University. I am not sure that Kaplan is aware that he is running this outfit. It appears that he received his Doctor of Health Sciences from A. T. Still University. Here's the link to Kaplan University faculty roster.

    Kaplan University Faculty Roster
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 29, 2014
  4. jumbodog

    jumbodog New Member

    Since it is CA shouldn't it be subject to an Anti-SLAPP motion?
     
  5. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

  6. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

  7. Garp

    Garp Well-Known Member

    Did not follow the whole issue but congratulations Dr. Douglas. I hope you collect the amount owed to cover your legal fees.
     
  8. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I don't want to doxx the guy, but he lives in Southern California, not where this indicates. He sued me in Orange County.
     
  9. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

  10. Refereee

    Refereee New Member

    California residents PeterChris Okpala (Los Angeles area) and John R. Beyer (Phelan CA) will probably be coming under a round of close scrutiny by the United States Congress. The issue concerns their off-shore business venture called Charismatic University. (The Charismatic University buildings & grounds appear to consist of rented rooms on the second floor of a small office building, adjacent to a pharmacy, on Neptune Court, in the lovely Turks & Caicos Islands.) One of the Charismatic PhD graduates, James Edward Kyle, is now in the national news. His credentials are beginning to look like a house of cards, and the national press is beginning to dig into the realities behind his PhD from Charisma University. The mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, appointed Kyle with the official announcement: “Dr. Kyle is a nationally board certified health care executive with over thirty years of experience in the medical field." Such phrasing is clearly intended to cause the reader to infer that Dr. Kyle is an experienced hospital administrator with a 30 years as a physician; sounds pretty good. The Washington Post commented: "It’s unclear how the mayor was counting, but Kyle’s résumé shows 10 years in the health field. He is not a physician. He earned a doctorate in leadership from Charisma University — a school in the British West Indies that is not accredited in the United States and was unable to get recognition in the Philippines, where it was founded. According to his résumé, LinkedIn page and city officials, Kyle served in the U.S. Army for nine years and worked as a manager for a nursing agency and as a professor and diversity officer at a for-profit online university. He also worked for a year as a nurse recruiter at a Veterans Affairs health center in San Francisco... Kyle was named R.N. director of nursing for the University of the District of Columbia non-credit programs. At a September 2013 meeting of the city’s Board of Nursing, which regulates health-care providers in the District, the board found that Kyle’s work experience did not meet requirements for the job and notified UDC officials, according to records...Kyle’s only experience at the helm of a hospital was four months, starting in July 2015, as chief executive of an Indian Health Service facility serving the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in Rosebud, S.D. ... That hospital is at risk of losing federal Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements after a series of discoveries made public in December by Rep. Kristi L. Noem (R-S.D.), including that an unattended woman gave birth on the floor and that surgical equipment was hand-washed, according to the congresswoman’s office. Noem said at the time that the incidents took place “in recent weeks.” ... Rosebud Sioux leaders reached by The Post said they had high hopes for Kyle, but he clashed with staff and gave false assurances about the hospital’s preparedness for a review by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. When Kathleen Wooden Knife, a tribal representative, asked Kyle if the hospital was ready for a CMS review, she said he assured her it would pass without any problem. Kyle left in November, right before federal officials inspected the hospital and shut down the emergency room, saying it posed an immediate risk to patients. This month, the hospital received a two-month extension to improve conditions before officials stop paying Medicare and Medicaid claims submitted by providers there. Kyle “just up and left, and left us high and dry,” said William Bear Shield, another Rosebud Sioux." The Post has not yet started work on digging into the validity of a PhD from Charisma University yet, but they will. This is how diploma mills get themselves exposed for what they are. None of them can be sued, because they are all off-shore virtual operations. The Chairman of the Board for Charisma University is a Chinese national living in Beijing. Some of them cannot be sued because they are dead: one of their erstwhile philosophy professors, still listed proudly with bio on their long list of virtual faculty, has been dead for two years now. Both PeterChris Okpala and John R. Beyer are products of the same kind of virtual business that they are running under the name Charismatic University; PeterChris Okpala received a DHSc degree in 2010 from the virtual AT Still University in Missouri; John R. Beyer received a PhD (Clinical Psychology) in 2013 from Charismatic University. Neither of them has taught in an accredited US university, much less run an actual U.S. university. Beyer is a California public-school teacher based on a perfectly legitimate teaching degree from Pepperdine. Okpala’s past is barely traceable: he recently published technical papers in a pay-to-publish journal, Journal of Applied Medical Sciences: search for “Okpala Gene Therapy” or “Okpala Electronic Medical Record (EMR).” Then search for “This is What a Predatory Journal Looks Like.” In the academic year 2014-2015, Okpala seems to be running a private school called “Charisma High School,” out of a mall in Artesia CA. The school is listed as having 17 9th graders, no other students, 12 full-time teachers, 4 administrators (including Sandra Okpala as officer Administrator), and one “other” staffer. So Charismatic High School has 17 students, and 17 employees. Finally, Peter Okpala has been listed as president of another completely unaccredited virtual university business, Victorville International University in Victorville CA. he facilities of this university, like Charisma High School and Charisma University, are located in a rented room in a one-story mall. Difficult as it may be to figure out just who these people really are, you can find their photos if you search on the phrase “Apollos University Articulation Agreement with Charisma University.”
     
  11. mbwa shenzi

    mbwa shenzi Active Member

    Are they now? I know I'm not among Dr Okpala's favourite posters but in all fairness, AT Still University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and it's not entirely virtual either, as far as I know. Also, I'm not sure the main reason why somebody is incompetent is that he or she has a degree from Charisma University.
     
  12. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Yes, his degree is from a legitimate university and largely residential.

    Holding a degree from Charisma doesn't demonstrate incompetency. It doesn't demonstrate good judgment, either. Oh, and it doesn't represent that you've actually done the degree you claim.
     
  13. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    I'd like to formally nominate you for the DI Medal of Valor for actually reading that word salad without having a seizure.
     
  14. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    A.T. Still University, of course, is a well-known osteopathic medical school and graduate school in medical science. It is founded by Andrew Taylor Still, a controversial doctor who came up with the field of osteopathic manipulation; thus it is the oldest DO school in the nation (and world, though other countries do not have a separate DO physician profession and DO medical schools). It is about as legitimate and residential as they come. As Rich justly pointed out, though, graduating from a legitimate school does not demonstrate sound judgement.
     
  15. Refereee

    Refereee New Member

    Corrections for the record on A.T. Still and word salads

    For the record, A.T. Still University, when it awards the degree to which I was referring (the DHSc "earned by Opkala), is most decidedly a virtual university and a clear paper mill. For a doctorate in Health Sciences, you attend all classes virtually from anywhere on the planet, you write a tiny little dissertation, and you spend exactly *one week* in Missouri. That's it. Do not take my word for it. Listen to the words published by this grand and glorious university: "The A.T. Still University (ATSU) Doctor of Health Sciences (DHSc) online program prepares students ... This advanced online health science degree program provides health professionals with the knowledge and skills to excel in project management, decision-making, organizational leadership, establishing evidence-based standards and gaining competencies to apply research to professional practice. Offered through the ATSU College of Graduate Health Studies (CGHS), the health science degree online program consists of 70 credit-hours of study: 64 credit-hours of distance education, plus a 6 credit-hour course which includes a one-week residency held in Arizona."

    "Word salad?" To unearth actual evidence, you need careful reading, careful parsing, and careful writing. "Word salad" is itself a sadly dismissive phrase. "Word salads" are the kind of writing one encounters in courts of law, where the stakes are highest. You may not like it, but if you are accused, that word salad stands between you and the loss of your freedom or your money. They are the kind of writing that occurs in science. You may not have the education to understand it, but that kind of writing is what helps build all the technology you enjoy today. And by comparison with the discipline needed to succeed at a truly demanding university, that little "word salad" is a brief and simple exposition, with all the leads needed to go validate it for yourself.

    You defend A.T. Still as an established brick-and-mortar university, when the point in question -- the value of Opkala's DHSc degree from AT Still -- involves A.T. Still running an entirely virtual paper-mill scam. They do run an established brick/mortar osteopath degree program. And they run a paper mill. You cannot hide the fakery behind an osteopathic brick wall -- not, at least, if you are willing to read carefully, and to chase down the evidence.
     
  16. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I'm one of Dr. Okpala's least-favourite posters as well, but this is just plain wrong. Like it or not, A.T. Still is an RA school - distance and B&M. And Dr. Beyer earned his Ed.D. at Pepperdine U. Not a mill, I'm sure you'll agree.

    I am not here to defend either Dr Okpala or Dr. Beyer. They don't need me and I don't need them. But I will tell you, your statement is 100% B.S. I happen to know for an indisputable fact that Dr. Okpala has taught in more than one RA school. It's OK if you don't like somebody. I'm sure you have your reason(s) but - get your facts straight.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 23, 2016
  17. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    Perhaps a more relevant question is why Refereee has necromanced this thread, which has not had a post for over five months. Reminder: Refereee has made a total of two posts to this forum, both of which are in this thread. In his favor (or hers, or its), this latest post is, at least, broken up into paragraphs (unlike Ref’s original post, which was one massive, very massive, paragraph).

    What is also notable is that it brings Rich’s name back into a subject line. People have been wondering when, or even if, he would return. Perhaps this will be the thread that welcomes him back. Or perhaps not.

    People have been wondering whether Rich still read the board. His profile reveals that the last time he signed in, at this writing, was two days ago. Therefore, he is continuing to monitor our goings-on.

    We therefore await with baited breath. Or perhaps not. Hard as it is to believe, I don't like talking about Rich behind his back... I'd rather talk about him in front of his back. :kiss:
     
  18. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member

    Wormtongue had baited breath.
     
  19. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I'm not sure if you're joking but I think it's a little irresponsible to accuse someone of violating the TOS (a potentially ban-able offense) without any evidence. Rich may have been a bit over zealous in his own defense but I do not think he would do what you're suggesting.
     
  20. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    UPDATE: At this writing, Rich checked on the board a mere hour ago. Presumably, he was typing with both hands, since I've never known him to be a one-handed type.

    By the way, I'm with Kizmet on the alternate identity issue. Rich may be quirky, but I've never known him to be sleazy (unless you count the MIGS days). Besides, if he were posting under another identity, the mods would catch it since the vBulletin software indicates a poster's USP. (A mod once commented that I have more USP's than anyone since I'm constantly traveling around the country, and USP's are localized.)

    Anyway, this all reminds me of Brandon DeWilde at the conclusion of the classic film Shane.* As Alan Ladd rides off into the sunset, Brandon's character cries out, "Shane! Come back, Shane!"
    _____________________

    * Actually, it doesn't, but it's a great illustration.
     

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