The Degree Mill Next Door

Are you sure that it's not this Hartford -- http://www.hartford.edu/

Man, I'd hate to make that mistake!

 

Re: Oy.

This one made me laugh out loud. Thanks Gregg!

I believe there are a few people that don't realize that they have a bogus degree. Especially bogus bachelor's degree victims that have never been to college. I believe that most know though or at least suspect.

edit add on: I just read the Hartford University post. Make sure you got the right one and if you do then I think he has to know.

 

I agree with the coach.

Be VERY careful that your friend didn't graduate from the legitimate Hartford University, founded in 1877, accredited by the New England Association and everything.

I'd hate to ruin a good friendship because I rushed to conclusions Googling a school's name.

I'd be reluctant to ruin a friendship even if I had the URL right, frankly.

Assuming that this person isn't endangering his clients or his employer, and isn't employed under false pretenses, then whether or not he claims a degree-mill degree is kind of a personal matter.

If he's so embarrassed about having failed to complete a university degree that he feels the need to boast a phony one, he's probably really sensitive about this. If you challenge him right at the point where he feels most vulnerable, he's likely to respond in an exaggerated fashion and he will probably always resent what you did to him. That response may not be entirely rational, but it's probably what's going to happen. (Just look at the resentment over in Jamestown.)

Do you really want to ruin a friendship in order to score a few pointless points? I think that you need to proceed very carefully here.

 

This is simply not true... and for all the reasons and in all the ways suggested by my earlier post, herein. Because of society's regard for degrees, generally, people who claim them end-up benefitting from it in ways that even they never imagined or, more often than not, intended... in public or private organizations, or church meetings, or town meetings, or when they speak or run for office, for example... and in many, many, many other ways.

It can elevate their social status; and when the degree claimed is fake, said elevation can unduly prevent others who haven't claimed a fake degree (and, therefore, have more integrity) from holding positions in the community because the fake degree holder ends-up getting those positions by fraud.

Bogus degrees hurt people -- sometimes in not-so-obvious, but nevertheless extant, ways. Bogus degree holders -- nearly all of whom know that they're misrepresenting the facts and are being dishonorable -- are image and social standing thieves in everyday life; job thieves in the workplace; and, when legitimate university admissions officers aren't careful, advanced degree prerequisite thieves. This argument, it seems to me is bad enough; but it becomes even more compelling when the fake degree somehow slips by regulators and fake degree holder ends-up in a regulated professional position where their incompetence can hurt people in even more direct and meaningful ways.

Holders of bogus degrees are no better than the bogus universities which issue them. There is no gray area, here. There are moral and ethical absolutes. Wrong is wrong... and when it comes to bogus degrees, degree holders, and the bogus colleges/universities that issue them, the wrong of it is particularly easy to spot.

That being the case, I'm having trouble understanding what all the equivocation in this thread is all about.

 

I'm sure. The link you provided as you know is the University of Hartford. It clearly says "Hartford University" on his credentials. He is making "that (big) mistake" if he didn't get it right. I double, triple, even quadrupled checked it. It says Hartford University.

 

Thanks for all the responses. This has given me direction on the matter. Now I have to make a decision based my feelings as well of some of your opinions.

 

I'll tell him that there is a degree mill under the name of "Hartford University" and he needs to correct his error to "University of Hartford". Maybe the web guy mixed up the words in the name. Crossing my fingers. I'll let you know how this turns out. It could be just a mistake that left unchecked could hurt him.

 

How can Hartford U. be a degree mill? They're accredited!!!

Just look at the certificate

http://www.hartforduniversity-edu.org/images/cert1.jpg


HA HA HA

 

It's a bed he made for himself. There is no "mistake," here, trust me. Learning that someone we like may have the sort of character flaw that allows him/her to do something bad is always a tough pill to swallow. Stop seeing him as a victim, and the way will become more clear.

 

Hey... I just had a thought: Why don't you just point him to this thread? That way he could both realize the error of his ways and its potential consequences, as well as the disdain others who learn of his fraud will have for him; and he will also see the ethical pickle into which he put you.

 

Mistakes do happen.

For example, Richard Freund is listed in this directory from the legit University of Hartford: http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/artsci/administration.html

But he's listed many times on the web as being from Hartford University: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&as_qdr=all&q=%22Richard+Freund%22+%22hartford+university%22

 

I just did a Google search for "hartford university" site:.edu.

The first thing that came up was the University of Hartford's website.

Following that there were numerous hits containing 'Hartford University' that almost certainly were references to the legitimate University of Hartford.

Lots of stuff about the university art gallery. College sports scores. A transfer page at Seton Hall. A member of an international team doing archaeological excavations in Israel. A professor at Rice who accepted a position as a department head at Hartford University...

So there really are people out there referring to the University of Hartford as 'Hartford University'. Maybe it's like the people at CSU Fresno who routinely call that school Fresno State.

 

And I heard Indiana University referred to, incorrectly, as "University of Indiana" the other night on a news broadcast.

Okay, fine... make sure the diploma really and truly is from the bogus entity before doing anything further, marcuscarey. When you're dead sure it is... well, then... you know what to do.

 

Check it again

You don't say exactly what sort of "credentials" you reviewed. Most likely it was a resume included in marketing materials supplied by an employer. Note that in practice, corporate resumes are typically compiled and distributed by low-level staff in the HR or marketing departments. The resumes on file may be edited frequently to meet the needs of a particular proposal, and the edited versions may or may not always be carefully reviewed by the subject of the resume. It would be quite typical for such staff to misname the "University of Hartford" as "Hartford University".

My firm once ran into trouble because the marketing department was cheerfully distributing sales literature that prominently identified certain technical staff as "state-licensed Professional Engineers". The engineers in question were licensed in their home state, and so the claim was perfectly valid there -- but the marketing material was sent to a different state, where the engineers were not licensed. The engineers were shocked; they could have been disciplined by the State Engineering Board for falsely claiming to hold professional licenses. The marketing staff was completely clueless about this issue; they just copied the standard wordage and shipped it out.

 

So it could also be "U-KW"? (Not to be confused with ukulele?

 

Re: Check it again

I acknowledged it could be a mistake in an earlier post. Thanks for your feedback.

 

If nothing else, this thread shows the effectiveness of mills adopting a name that's similar to a legitimate school.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Just another way the mills can easily hurt the name of institutions and people.

 

Just another example

Since you are a graduate of Excelsior College and Capitol College, it might interest you to know that both "Excelsior University" and "Capitol University" are on the State of Michigan's list of unacceptable degree providers.

"Excelsior University" seems to be currently active at www.excelsioruniversity-edu.org. "Capitol University" was formerly at www.capitol-edu.org, but this now links to "Concordia College and University" (which is easily confused with several legitimate schools named "Concordia").

 

Re: Just another example

Yeah I saw that, it was pretty funny.