updates columbia pacific/commonwealth?

do list members have any updates. any opinions on whether they will rise from the ashes.

 

CPU: I wouldn't bet on it. One of the unusual things about CPU was that the two founders, both with excellent academic credentials, ran it pretty much full time for 20 years. But Crews retired and moved to Texas, and Carr sold the ranch* and moved to the California mountains, and seems to be devoting his energies, at a distance, to trying to make CCU work. The store seems pretty much unminded.

CCU: I think the best they could hope for is to become, as CPU was for years, a decent unaccredited alternative for people who could benefit from such a degree. But Montana law seems to be toughening, and I doubt if the Malawi accreditation will help any more than the Shoshone-Paiute did. On another hand, Carr seems adamant in his intention to pursue regional accreditation. And the man was successful in this process with three other schools (Salve Regina, Lewis U, New College). I wouldn't bet on his chances, but I surely wouldn't have bet on the chances of Northcentral U either (complete with their connection with a school I'm not fond of).
_____
* This is not the opposite of buying the farm.

 

Meanwhile the Kyprianou CPU PhD "time bomb" continues to wend its way through the Ontario courts. http://www.hartelaw.com/hepb/keducation.html

 

Not only a problem for Kyprianou, but also a quite strong indictment of Columbia Pacific University in its entirety.


Tom Nixon

 

How many hands does Dr. Carr have?

How old is Dr. Carr? Salve Regina was initially accredited by NEASC in 1956. If Carr can be personally credited with moving this Catholic university to RA, then he must have had a very responsible position with them at that time, and presumably the age and experience to match. So, 45 years ago + (let's say) 45 years old at the time, equals 90 today.

If the gentleman is pushing 90 or something, that might explain why CPU/CCU is slipping from his grasp.
http://www.neasc.org/pssri.htm

 

I could find nothing more recent than last May on the law firm's website. Do we know how the case has gone since?

It was a little unsettling that the very first sentence written by the lawyers reads:
"Mr. Kyprianou's Ph.D. was issued by Columbia Pacific University. This obscure institution formerly located in Southern California ..."

Columbia Pacific was never located in Southern [sic] California. One hopes the lawyers are more accurate in other statements.

The case seems to relate to alleged improper sterilizing of laboratory equipment. There is no allegation that the defendant was taught incorrect lab technique by Columbia Pacific, or that a Ph.D. is required to perform this job.

So the CPU matter would seem to be one of character. If someone is the sort of person who uses a CPU degree (and allegedly calls himself Doctor on his name tag), should he have been hired to sterilize equipment?

And then there is the matter of when this defendant earned his degree. If it was after 1996, it may well be challenged as illegal. If before that, it can certainly be attacked as non-wonderful, but CPU was properly licensed and approved by the state at that time.

 

The last court appearance seems to have been on August 15, 2001 ( http://www.hartelaw.com/hepb/motions.html ).

Maybe San Rafael is "Southern California" from viewpoint of Ontario?? They do indeed know where CPU is/was located, since they pick at this point repeatedly to try to show that Kyprianou didn't have much involvement with the university. Here's a piece of a transcript of one of the Kyprianou depositions:

• 
  Q. Okay. I see, by the way, just in passing, that Columbia Pacific I understand to be in Novato, N-O-V-A-T-O.
  MR. CSATHY: In California?
  MR. HARTE: Yes, Novato, California.
  Q. Had you been to the campus at St. Raphael?
  A. Yes. At that time.
  Q. Whereabouts is St. Raphael?
  A. It's not very far from the Stanford area. Palo Alto. I think very close to that.
  Q. Is that near San Francisco?
  A. Yes. Not very far.

It seems that the questioner is trying to show that Kyprianou doesn't know where (within the Bay Area) San Rafael is located.

The PhD was not directly relevant Kyprianou's ability to practice proper infection control, and he had this job before he obtained the PhD. So the lawyers are using it only as a way to cast aspersions on his credibility and professionalism. I see that in the August 15 motion they are again harping on about his educational qualifications. And a key question in a clinical setting is whether he led patients to believe that he was a physician by wearing a tag with the name "Dr. Kyprianou." I think the lawyers may also have other motives for pursuing this line. Their claim states in part: "...the defendants conducted their affairs leading to these occurrences in a high-handed and arrogant manner and with wanton and callous disregard for patient safety, and the class is entitled to punitive and exemplary damages." I wonder whether they are pursuing the nonwonderful PhD as evidence of high-handedness and arrogance?

It appears that the degree was from 1987, as this exchange (from a different deposition than the one quoted above) reveals:

• 
  Q. You say from 1980 to 1987, you did a thesis at Columbia University?
  A. Columbia Pacific University.
  Q. Columbia Pacific?
  A. Yes.
  Q. Where is that?
  A. That's in California.
  Q. What town, what city?
  A. I think it's called St. Raphael. St. Raphael.
  Q. St. Raphael?
  A. Yes.
  Q. P-H-A-E-L?
  A. Yes.
  Q. It's in California?
  A. M'hmm.
  Q. Is this an accredited university, or do you know?
  A. It's accredited in California, yes.

I'm not sure that the lawyers are knowledgeable about approval vs. authorization vs. accreditation. But they have been asking (and apparently not receiving) documentation about CPU's "accreditation."

The real point is that Kyprianou could have saved himself a lot of unpleasantness and embarrassment if he didn't have the CPU PhD.

 

PSalmon (coathanger painter???) writes: "The real point is that Kyprianou could have saved himself a lot of unpleasantness and embarrassment if he didn't have the CPU PhD."

I agree entirely. Increasingly, I think that usefulness of degrees is what this forum is mostly about. And that "Dr. K" name badge didn't help. Calling oneself "Doctor" in a medical environment, even if one had a regionally accredited Ph.D. (which of course he didn't), has caused more than a few people to have problems. Example: the Ph.D.-holding audiologist in New York, accused of misleading people with his Yellow Pages ad identifying himself as "Doctor ___").

And then there was Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock who celebrated earning his Ph.D. in mathematics with a Great Lakes cruise. An attractive young woman fainted, and the call went out "Is there a doctor on board." Leacock wrote that he rushed to the captain's cabin, but too late: he was preceded by two Doctors of Divinity and a Doctor of Sacred Theology.

Let's see. Les Carr seemed like a rather mature chap when I met him first in 1977, and he'd already been President of both Lewis University (a fair-sized Catholic school in Illinois) and New College in San Francisco, as well as Vice President of Salve Regina. But I don't know his age. His Email address is Elder100@ something-or-other, which I think reflects his intention of reaching that age, not having done so.

 

Soon to be doctor of coathanger painting, if I could only find a good RA/GAAP program in this important field. I have three of the Bears' Guides, but I'm still waiting anxiously for "Bears' Guide to the Best Coathanger Painting Degrees by Distance Learning."

More seriously, coathanger painting is a profession I inherited from my father. I grew up in a country where the freedoms we take for granted in the U.S.A. were curtailed. In particular, you had to apply to permission to leave the country, even for a vacation or business trip. The government was concerned about a "brain drain" and would refuse permission to people who had valuable expertise. My father, who was actually a chemistry professor, once went to the appropriate government office to appear before the bureaucrat who would approve or deny his application to leave the country for a short vacation. At the time, he had in fact been painting coathangers for my mother, who was putting some kind of crocheted cover on them. Realizing that his chances of approval were slim if he put "chemistry professor" on the form, and unwilling to lie outright, my father wrote down "coathanger painter." And when he got to the head of the line, the official reviewed the form in detail and then approved his exit permit without comment! So now whenever some nosy parker asks for my occupation, I proudly state "coathanger painter."

True story.

 

And in case anyone is unclear about the location of either Novato or San Rafael, I just came across this magnified view while looking on the web for something completely different: http://www.windandweather.com/cgi-bin/wind/dyna/dynaP37717 . Must have been put together by a CPU grad...