University of Atlanta

You're welcome, Johann. By the way, Paramount California University was later changed to Pacific Cambria University, the URL was pcu.edu for a while.

 

And thanks for this. Yes, that pcu.edu domain certainly got around. Why should it not? Nobody was watching. This Cambria, which I knew as a historical name for most of Wales, referred, probably, to the pretty, seaside village of Cambria in San Luis Obispo county, California, with its lovely restored buildings. Hence the Pacific in the school's name. Rather like a school called University of Atlanta , which was actually in Mobile, Alabama for some time before the move to Atlanta proper, in Georgia.

They get around freely - both the schools and their .edu domains. They have for a couple of decades. That's not right.

 

@mbwa shenzi. Now I remember. Yes - one of those guys did an Olympic Backpedaling Performance about his role there.

 

From me - a couple of years ago. Last sentence sums up my long-held feeling on this.

From here: https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/newlane-university.57480/page-6#post-548390

 

Hopefully, one day you will satisfy my curiosity about that name. [Yes, I am fluent in Swahili]

 

Well this is just getting deeper, edu people just told me that once a name has been purchased the school and any school there after can now use the name forever and change the edu domain name as many times as they want.


"The domain was registered to the University stakeholders as a Grandfathered domain name BARRINGTON.EDU in 1996.
As a Grandfathered domain name they are allowed to retain the domain name, and they are allowed to change the domain name to reflect their organization's name change (2008 to U of Atlanta).

Regards,
.EDU Domain Operations"

 

That isn't even close to what their own set of rules say. This is scary stuff

 

Note to newbie fraudsters:

Buy an extinct mill - or "adopt" it. Make sure it has a "grandfathered" .edu domain. Biggest bargain on the planet. Then you look like a legit school. ...Forever. And if you decide to retire from the "business," - you can probably get a good price.

 

Or, to make some bucks you could just "rent out" the domain - as was done in the case of Atlanta U. according to testimony to the FBI of Axact VP Umair Hameed (later convicted).

"Money for nothing, chicks for free" (Mark Knopfler - "Money for Nothing" - Dire Straits, 1985)

 

"Grandfathered," huh? Gee, I wonder where I read that before?

 

Oh I dunno - maybe here, Rich. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfathered_(TV_series)

In our sense here, of course, it means that if an unaccredited school used a .edu domain prior to Oct 29, 2001, it is allowed to keep it. Since then many unaccredited schools - quite a number of them completely worthless - have acquired these domains, by various means, from other schools and are using them, to help them attract "business" by appearing legit and / or of a higher quality than they are.

Some of us think this is serious. If you don't, that's OK - but I do. I'm guessing that's pretty obvious by now.

 

Apologies. I guess you used the word in your earlier post, Rich. It's also been used before on DI to describe this particular situation.

And I still feel the same way. The abuse has been seemingly immune from those in charge for two decades.

 

I don't disagree. I was just recalling being chastised for using that word for this situation.

 

Sorry. I had forgotten completely. My intent was not to chastise but to disagree. I had thought the original process of "grandfathering" was to allow a school to retain the .edu suffix if it had one before Oct 29 2001. Not to retain it after a sale, re-branding and name-change. Or to pass it along to a completely different entity - or worse, to a series of them. Grandfathering OK. Serial and/or "adoptive" grandfathering - not so much, as I see it.

Again, my apologies to you, Rich -- and to any grandfathers I may have offended. I'm one too.

 

I guess there is still a demand for this type of "business" otherwise they wouldn't be around.

 

That doesn’t seem weird to me at all. Our State’s Department of Ed also only oversees public K-12 schools.

 

Right. U. of Atlanta was originally authorized by the State of Georgia's Nonpublic Post Secondary Education Commission. And I don't think there's been anyone at the Peachtree site since 2013 when the school's DEAC accreditation was not renewed. The Mithani brothers owned a business school that operated there also - not a degree issuing school IIRC. That one had problems and closed also.

There was a third school - I think a hairdressing / cosmetology school - at another address that was problematic because it had a large student loan default rate. I'm pretty sure that one is gone too. Anything this school (U. of Atlanta) did after 2013 was done from cyberspace and FBI testimony of Umair Hameed (Axact VP) was that Akber Mithani (father of the above-mentioned brothers) rented out the U. Atlanta domain to Axact. (Fraudulent Pakistani operation - over 300 bogus schools and many fake accreditors)

The address was
6685 Peachtree Industrial Blvd
Atlanta, GA 30360

https://www.google.com/maps/place/6685+Peachtree+Industrial+Blvd,+Doraville,+GA+30360,+USA/@33.9275359,-84.2716064,15z/data=!4m16!1m9!3m8!1s0x88f509fe41455565:0x314d14aa7953b76e!2s6685+Peachtree+Industrial+Blvd,+Doraville,+GA+30360,+USA!3b1!8m2!3d33.9273063!4d-84.2716222!10e5!16s/g/11b8yzx8bq!3m5!1s0x88f509fe41455565:0x314d14aa7953b76e!8m2!3d33.9273063!4d-84.2716222!16s/g/11b8yzx8bq?entry=ttu

MK Industries appears to be the sole tenant there nowadays. As I said - no sign of a school. Any school. (The Business school had a big sign, years ago. I remember) Case closed.

 

I've read media accounts of Axact having high-pressure sales campaigns in Arab countries and "customers" were being "upsold" the "fine American degrees" of University of Atlanta (after it lost accreditation) for as much as $60,000 US.

HELP WANTED

Press operator for chain of degree-mills.
Must be experienced in high-volume diploma production.
Apply: Box 3021, Karachi Pakistan.​

 

I wonder how long this Florida "religious exempt" um-reincarnation will last?

 

Ok got an update and they advised me the domain with the uofa.edu address is now seized.