Kennedy-Western University

I actually appreciate that thank you. I did see the other post and then just stopped posting as it seemed pointless to see a question, respond to it, and then get personally attacked. I don't know jack about KW other than the few things I have heard, I said as much in my unedited and still visible response above, and then whamo. I even considered looking up the degreeinfo terms of use and complaining but then I figured they would apply to me but not to the other person as they have been posting here so long. Glad to see I was wrong about that.

So thank you for addressing it makes me feel better about continuing to interact here. I think as you have mentioned, you need both new and old posters to keep the board alive.

Good job Chip.

 

It was a difficult distinction to make back when K-WU got started. For one thing, there were very few accredited DL options back then, so legitimate schools were often lumped in with diploma mills or bad schools. It took time to sort them out, and even then it was a moving target. (Promising schools sometimes went bad and other efforts that seemed kinda shaky initially got better over time.)

It's much easier to look at this through the lens of history. We can see the good DL schools that have since on on to accreditation--it became more available to them over time. And we can see that schools like K-WU turned out to have rotten cores. IMHO, there were two turning points: accreditation and the elimination of California's 3-tier system in 1989.

Up until then, California placed schools into three categories: Accredited, Approved, and Authorized. Setting aside the accredited schools, unaccredited schools were Authorized under very loose rules--and the State didn't really press even those meager standards. Instead, it focused on Approving individual programs at some unaccredited schools. This really mattered in some areas since Approval often led to being acceptable for licensure (typically in counseling and psychology). So, all unaccredited schools had to be Authorized (easy to get), and could try to get one or more programs Approved (much more difficult to get, and done program by program.) So....

Schools with Approved programs were really a different breed. Some went on to accreditation, some stayed unaccredited, and many went out of business. But of the schools that had no Approved programs, none went on to become accredited, IIRC. K-WU never had any of its programs Approved. CCU, on the other hand, had Approval for all of its programs. Schools like CPU were Authorized, but operated one or more Approved programs.

In 1989, the State ditched this system, requiring instead that unaccredited schools go through institutional Approval. Sounds good, but IMHO the State didn't have the resources to do this effectively and Approval was easier to get than before. Still, many schools couldn't/didn't meet these standards and lost their Approval. A few bifarcated their operations, maintaining two versions. One would be in California and would have only one or two programs, which made getting Approval easier. The rest of the school would operate with some other state's easy-to-get authorization (like Hawaii at the time). Frederick Taylor and Pacific Western were two schools that did this. Many others went out of business (especially the straight-up diploma mills like the University of Central California), and at least one (City University Los Angeles) just kept operating without legal authority. Finally, some moved their entire operations under some other state's authority (even if they remained physically in California). This is the route K-WU took. But as each state got wise, these operations had to find new states to give them legal authority. K-WU "traveled" state-to-state as each state would toughen its rules, without ever really leaving California. It all closed down on them while operating out of Wyoming. They changed names and tried to get DETC accreditation, but closed down when that didn't succeed.

Whether or not a school is a diploma mill is often in the eye of the beholder. We usually agree that selling a degree for a price with no academic work is the sign of a diploma mill. And we usually agree that a properly accredited school isn't one. But unaccredited schools (and their students and graduates) of all ilks struggle with this all the time. For the most part though, this is a distinction without a difference. In some situations, the quality of an unaccredited school is irrelevant--they're all unacceptable. In others, any degree--fake or real--will suffice because no one is looking anyway. But it's the narrow space in-between that pretty good unaccredited schools operate--and struggle for acceptance.

Directly to your post, K-WU suffered the slings of "diploma mill" arrows all along. And they deserved it. And they knew it. The most legitimate way to go would have been to get the school Approved under the post-1989 rules and, eventually, accredited by a recognized agency. (See CCU, for example.) K-WU's owners, on the other had, operated a crummy and shady operation that couldn't meet even the minimal standards held by California, or not-so-difficult standards of DETC. The label was applied all along the way. The "no way out" part came from their own doing.

Hope this helps.

 

One minor comment: they changed names and tried to get regional accreditation, but closed down when that didn't succeed.

Their failed accreditation effort, after renaming themselves as "Warren National University", was with HLC-NCA:

As far as I know, they never applied for accreditation with DETC. Seems like the odds might have been better with DETC -- can't explain why they tried for RA instead.

 

Quite right; RA. My mistake.

I think the RA bid was because their stock-in-trade was the Ph.D., which they would not be able to continue under DETC.

If I'm not mistaken--and I can be as noted above--DETC's scope at the time did not include the doctorate at all, so changing the Ph.D.'s to the Ed.D., PsyD, DBA, etc. would not have been an option.

From WNU's Wiki: The Chronicle of Higher Education stated in 2002, "Kennedy-Western University has a history of flirting with accreditation but failing to earn it." In 2001 Warren National announced it was considering applying to the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) for accreditation, a legitimate accreditor that is recognized for accrediting distance-learning institutions. However, while DETC's approval from the U.S. Department of Education does authorize it to accredit institutions that award doctorates, WNU did not pursue DETC accreditation.

 

I remember, vaguely, that they specially hired someone whose role was solely to herd them through the regional accreditation process. I can't remember the exact details, but I believe that person either started digging into the situation and realized there wasn't even a remote chance, or had a meeting with the NCA and was told there wasn't a remote chance. In either case, the school closed not long after that.

There was a reporter of the local newspaper (I think) that did some really good reporting on the issue at the time. I don't know if those articles are still available, but it was fascinating reading.

 

Having staff dedicated to becoming accredited and maintaining accreditation is common. I would not be surprised if the initial conversation with the NCA was also his/her last.

The WNU Wikipedia page (redirects from K-WU) has many links to background information, including some to the Cheyenne Herald.

Warren National University - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

IIRC, The financial information published by the Cheyenne Herald backed up your theory as to why they went for RA. It also indicated that WNU had roped in some investors for the accreditation push. Which might help explain why WNU was closed down instead of running off to a new jurisdiction as past history might have made you expect would be the case.

 

Class action suit against WNU

Luckily, our organization went to National Student Clearinghouse verification long ago, but I still see an occasional WNU "degree" float through our applicant database.

Whatever happened to the class action lawsuit filed against WN"u" by former students? I saw good coverage of it through the Wyoming newspaper, but hadn't even thought about it for awhile. Anyone know?

 

Knapp Ph.D. from "diploma mill" » News » The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA

I think I found the answer:

December 21, 2013
Knapp Ph.D. from "diploma mill"
U.S. Department of Education shuns ex-super’s alma mater
By Marcia Moore and Rick Dandes
The Daily Item

"closed its virtual doors in 2009 after failing to achieve regional accreditation and having its license revoked by the state of Wyoming. On its website, the university blamed the decision to shut down on a failed accreditation bid and the general economic downturn.

That was no consolation to online students who were left holding worthless pieces of paper, and questionable diplomas rather than the online degrees for which they paid thousands of dollars.

Their lawsuit, which is still pending in Laramie County District Court, states online students paid average annual tuition of $6,000 to $12,000, while Warren National University’s owners took in $25 million to $30 million in tuition revenue each year."