California Pacificatory University

This had been a fun thread. We should do it again - find another "University" and have a pile-on. See where it goes...

 

Atlantic International University...it is in Hawaii...LOL

Pioneer Plaza
900 Fort Street Mall 905 Honolulu, HI 96813

 

Bo Diddley was also the pool player George Thorogood went up against in the "Bad to the Bone" video. That video also features the real--and great--player, Willie Mosconi. And on his arm was the sublime Kay Lenz. (She was also the subject of Rod Stewart's video, "Infatuation." Oh, my.)

 

Oh my, indeed! I watched the entire series of Reasonable Doubts (2 seasons, 1991-1993) for two reasons: Marlee Matlin and Kay Lenz. Dynamite, highly-accomplished women - both.

 

But -- gasp! It's accredited by the prestigious ASIC International!! And yes - I know the name is silly for a school in the Pacific - and that an accredited school, American Intercontinental U. has the same initials.

Seriously - and I can't be serious about these schools for very long--- unaccredited schools are legal in Hawaii. They have to apply for permission to operate and there are fairly stringent rules on consumer protection - refund schedule etc. Not much in the way of academic rules - yes, courses have to be real, etc and I think there's a dictum about no degrees in less than a year.

Hawaii used to be a fertile playground for degree mills and there was a lot of consumer fraud. That fraud has been fixed. Schools follow the rules -- or they're fools, and get shut down. Those degrees are still unaccredited - they are what they are.

 

Most of the fraud-prone schools were litigated out of existence by one determined Consumer Affairs Attorney, the late Mr. Jeffrey Brunton, Esq., often revered as 'The Bruntonator" for his persistence and success in ridding Hawaii of predatory schools.

 

It wasn’t his personal issues that I didn’t like (God knows we all have those), I just didn’t care for his tone (incredibly thin to me) and his whole persona, which seemed contrived and made up.

It reminds me of Ernie the piano player in Catcher in the Rye; false modesty while being a show-off. I just don’t equate tuxedos with a bluesman, and I certainly can’t picture B.B. playing poker and drinking with Grand Funk Railroad (memorialized in We’re an American Band).

Being a Freddie King fan, I’m sure you’ll appreciate this, if you haven’t seen it already, it captures the power of his live performances.

 

Fashion guy, here. Not even T-Bone Walker? (Do you remember his famous Gold Lamé one that Elvis copied?)

 

According to Daniel de Vise, B.B. would do both at the drop of a hat, with just about anybody, so....?
About Freddie --- everything you said --- yeah!

 

Hey, @Bruce ! Here's Freddie King - lookin' mighty sharp -- in a Tuxedo.
https://www.superstock.com/asset/freddie-king-blues-singer-guitarist/990-661

(There are others, but this is the coolest.)

 

It is a bit like the religious exemption issue, the university uses the societies right to issue degrees mainly honorary to their members. This is an abuse of the law as these are not real members but people that want a degree. The school might be able to issue legal degrees but i doubt this school would last long so those degrees will stop having some value once the school closes.

 

Interesting point. I've seen a similar practice in Canada, years and years ago. It was basically a fair-sized industry organization, that put on work-related courses for people who worked in that industry. You passed all the requisite courses, you earned a "degree." The degrees had odd titles, like 'Scholar Degree' and 'Fellow Degree.' It was a big outfit and I'm pretty sure they would have cleared this with their lawyers up-front and likely, as long as they didn't use any standard academic titles, they were good to go. But what this guy is doing is different...

Standard degree titles --- and it's the US. I never heard of rules on that for 'associations.' Anybody?

 

Maybe Plan B is: If the school closes - open another one and offer full transfer credit and a new diploma to the old grads - for an additional, say, $3,000. - I think that's worked before...

 

Sounds like the Canadian School of Management. It had a weird history. It was operated from Ontario, but didn't have the legal right to issue degrees. So, they issued other titles (not those in your post), which entitled the graduate to a degree from Northland Open University (also owned and operated by CSM's owner), purportedly in the Northwest Territories (Yellowknife) and, thus, could get away with issuing degrees. CSM was also affiliated with the then-DETC accredited University of Action Learning (later Revans University) for a bit. (That thing is a story in itself.) It was also briefly affiliated with UECU way back when.

The titles were:

• Graduate (bachelor's)
• Licentiate (post-bachelor's)
• Fellow (master's)

 

Thanks, Steve. The it's obviously legal.

 

It does. I belonged to the association I was talking about, for a while - because I worked at a company that was a member.
This was 1979-82.

An influential businessman, who was a senior member, taught some of the Association's courses, and also, I think, had something to do with the CSM, so maybe some of the course material was sourced from them. The weird degree name part is also familiar - but the only ones I saw conferred by the Association were "Scholar" and "Fellow" and I don't remember them being exchangeable at CSM. But who knows?

Around 1986, I was enrolled at Northland Open U. for one semester. I did OK - it was easy, but I sensed what I was missing out on, so I quit. A few years later I took business subjects at a real University. What a difference.

 

Indeed. Last I remember, Revans moved to either Vanuatu or Nauru in the South Pacific. A great tax haven - at least in those days.
IIRC, wasn't CSM the only school to be accredited by DETC, twice and subsequently have its accreditation yanked - twice?

 

I don't know, but that sounds familiar.