Kennedy Western

Class Dismissed

 

It looks like the word is getting out that KWU is a diploma mill. If only the authorities would take action.

 

I really hope that DETC is monitoring these articles.

 

Why the mention of the DETC in the same sentence as K-W?

 

Because the article also call California Coast University a diploma mill?




Tom Nixon

 

It was flattering but the article didn't call CCU a diploma mill, at least not by my reading.

 

http://www.snitchsandiego.com/sddiploma0616b.htm

 

I don't think the article referred to CCU as a diploma mill, but I did think it was interesting that they were kind-of lumped into the same category as K-W.

 

This testimony at the recent Senate hearings (related to an undercover investigation of KWU) is telling...and speaks much to their operation:

http://govt-aff.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Testimony&HearingID=176&WitnessID=632

Still, I recently found the following schools have respected faculty who claim KWU credentials as well as a board member of the National Science Foundation:

University of New England
Vanderbilt University Law School
Lawrence Technological Univ.
Montgomery College
Montana State Univ
Eastern Washington Univ
Cedarville Univ
Roger Williams Univ School of Law
University of North Carolina
Ramapo College of New Jersey
Essex Community College
Akamai University
Lakeland College
Ellsworth Community College

CCU is identified as an unaccredited school in the GAO report. To me, the unfortunate thing about the GAO report is the poor way in which the facts are presented. CCU cooperated fully with the committee but no mention of it's State Approved status or operational history came to light. No direct or adverse claim was levied against CCU but the indirect reference to being a degree mill because they are unaccredited was unmistakeable. Seems like a sorry piece of legislative posturing to me and amounts to political whining at the Federal level rather than effective action. On a positive note, some points in the testimony did shed light on a procedural loophole that may or may not be corrected and there was some interesting testimony related to KWU.

 

I assume that they actually had someone enroll in CCU in the same manner that they did for KWU. This was horribly damaging testimony against KWU, IMHO. 20% of the classes required for a Master's degree in engineering was earned with only 16 hours of work! KWU is a bigger joke than I thought since I tended to trust the KWU graduates that came here and said that it was academically rigoress work, HA! I think it speaks much better of CCU that they didn't mention any of this. I can only assume that they found the CCU program to be credible.

 

If this doesn't, it's about as close as you can get without crossing that line:

"In early May, the General Accounting Office revealed that 28 senior government officials, including National Nuclear Security Administration managers, were touting degrees they got from diploma mills.
The investigation results, which were presented at two days worth of Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearings, also showed that the federal government had reimbursed two institutions, California Coast University and Kennedy-Western, for more than $170,000."


It certainly seems to be inferred if nothing else.



Tom Nixon

 

That's true. Also thanks for allowing me an excuse to correct my typo. I meant to say it was NOT flattering. (Sorry for the confusing typo.)

 

“A lot of times, people who are buying these diplomas, it’s almost like they’re co-conspirators,” said Deborah Mares, a spokeswoman for the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education. “People who are going after a diploma mill are going after a particular product.”

I am amazed that the BPPVE would go on record in an article calling Kennedy-Western a diploma mill when they tolerate K-WU's existence! (Perhaps they are powerless, but that didn't stop them with Columbia Pacific.) Not only that, they allow other schools to operate non-California programs from California, two of which have been called diploma mills in some places.

 

I think much depends on the nature and level of operation that is being conducted in California. I don't believe KWU is officially headquartered in CA nor is it licensed, or approved there. However, if one or several divisions of an institution (that is headquartered elsewhere) are located in California and legally performing secondary functions such as warehousing or printing! then I think it would be very difficult for CA to enforce a moratorium on the institution itself. I would think the FBI would have jurisdiction if indeed laws were being broken.

 

Interesting hypothetical. But it doesn't apply to K-WU, which operates its academic functions from California. Also, Pacific Western and FTU/FTUI, which also operate from California. I'm not an attorney, but if any laws are being broken, they are California laws and, therefore, outside the jurisdiction of the FBI. But they seem to be operating universities in California without being approved by the BPPVE to do so (or having an exemption from this requirement).

 

I believe the old standard for the feds to use is engaging in wire fraud across state lines.

 

Since they will not enroll anyone who resides in California they do not break any California laws. What they do to residents of other states is a federal issue not a state issue.

 

But operating a university without approval seems very much a state issue. Also, awarding degrees in unapproved areas would seem to be an item of interest.

 

The Feds can always get someone with 18 USC 13, also known as the Assimilated Crimes Act.

Cutting through the legal mumbo-jumbo, it gives Federal law enforcement the power to enforce state law on & around Federal property. All the FBI would need is one employee (and you know there's way more than that, even by K-W's admission) to contact K-W while at work.

As mentioned already, there are also numerous Federal laws concerning interstate fraud, but those have long been relegated to the Recycle Bin of my brain.