As a result of the discussion in a recent thread in this forum, I became curious about Kennedy Western. I looked at their faculty list, and was quite surprised -- most of the KW faculty appear to be highly accomplished individuals, and generally are faculty (often with tenure) at RA universities. Is this surprising to anyone else?
I am not sure what the deal is. I have seen other schools with similar situations. It appears that faculty rent themselves out. I have seen a couple of cases of professors being listed by two or three unaccredited schools in the Theology realm. Berne U I believe has US RA faculty. North
Even assuming everything on their Web site is true, I am surprised that you found anything that could be considered all that impressive. The so-called faculty lists generated by a search by Department are entitled ”The following faculty members support courses in the selected department.” What, precisely does support courses mean? The lists generated by a degree search are entitled ”The following faculty members are support courses offered at the selected degree level.” Is that what K-W considers proper English? Most bios end with the statement, “He (or She) is available to assist Kennedy-Western students in (insert subject here).” What does available to assist mean? I am sure most university professors at any institution would be available to assist (for a fee, or even for free) a K-W student. Does that make them members of Kennedy Western’s faculty? I wonder how many of the individuals listed would be surprised to discover they are considered K-W faculty members. Every list is headed by the disclaimer, “What follows is a representative sample of the over 114 faculty members actively employed by Kennedy-Western University.’ A representative sample? You mean they weren’t the real thing? Does anyone believe that K-W actually issues W2 statements to 114 actively employed faculty members? If one chooses to search by the Teaching At: criteria, there is a drop-down list of over 200 institutions. If one took the time to select each one, however, less than 25% of the searches would result in a match (and they created the list). And the number of faculty members claiming affiliation with another institution of higher learning is approximately sixty (out of the 114 employed faculty claimed by K-W). The others, presumably, simply have some kind of industry affiliation. Ignoring for the moment where each faculty member received his or her education, the truth is, with one or at the most two exceptions, none of the listed faculty are currently employed at an institution that could be considered prestigious. And for those employed in academe, I have to wonder what their current employers would think if the were apprised of their association with Kennedy-Western University. All in all, however, my personal favorite is that when you select General Education Requirements as the Department, the search results state, “No faculty members met this criteria!” Gus Sainz
The proof of the pudding is if these people really are associated with the school. There has been situations with other schools that solicited profs and put them on faculty listings due to interest response. After doing internet searches, I've made phone calls. I do know Thaiman (spelling?), Arsham, Goldhar, and Schweizer (adjuct) are at the schools listed. According to the school web page, McFarlane is no longer at Belmont-Abbey. From my converations, these people do contract out their services to Kennedy-Western. They develop courses, exams and periodically revise their courses. They also get paid for grading exams and consulting on dissertations. Regards, Dick
I guess it depends on one's expectations. I had not expected to see full professors from Northeastern U., U. of Tennessee, U. of Alabama, and so on.
