Chadwick University Called a "Diploma Mill"

[Geoff Vankirk]

Looks like all of you talk but none of you ever did all the work to get a degree at Chadwick. At 45, I know more than many books and received a little bit of credit for my experience. As for the work I did, I received real books, had to study for real tests, worked several years between 60+ hour days and 100 miles roundtrip to work. I almost completed my degree which would have helped me get ahead. You vultures can crow about Chadwick shutting down/moving or whatever but I worked very hard and lost everything.

I know other people whose company went from one environmental superfund/base closures to another. These people couldn't participate in fixed schools but could take a book with them wherever they went. One person already had a BS and many years on environmental sites but had to take four pre-courses before beginning Chadwick's Environmental Course. No Chadwick didn't get more for the extra courses, their BS was a flat rate for all the course books.

I suppose you say everyone should be forced into one technologically advanced mode of learning. It doesn't work for everyone, Chadwick filled a niche and people worked hard to get their degree, and now it's gone. Hope the snearers are pleased.

MRB

Why don't you contact one of the main opponents of schools like Chadwick and bitch to him? He's a hack and a front man for the RA schools so don't expect much sympathy.

Gollin's UIUC homepage

Don't take too much shit from him because despite his academic credentials he's as much of a loser as Ted Heiks. His wife has been involved in several UIUC scandals, his daughter is a dyke, his academic research is ho-hum at best, he's follicly challenged and drives an old Saturn.

[ish]

The majority of the comments seem to reverberate my sentiment that Chadwick really did provide a quality education however they didn't hop through all the necessary accrediting hoops and we all know that's about money and power.........I digress but I have to mention Arizona State University's unchecked power in Arizona. The price of their education just keeps going up despite the plummeting quality, it's apparent they've greased all the right palms.

[teacherman]

I have watched this forum for a pretty good while. I enjoy reading the articles. I have never really commented, even though I have agreed with much that has been posted here. Since this post concerns my home state, I will comment.

This whole issue revolves around Bradley Byrne. He was the director of the postsecondary 2 year school system here. He knew that he would be running for governor around the time that this happened. Byrne also went to war with the Alabama Education Association and tried his best to strip any rights he could from teachers here. Unlike many states, Alabama already lacks the right to strike for its teachers. Basically, his actions were seen as an attack on those who could not fight back. Byrne's war on diploma mills was supposed to be one of his big issues to get elected. Basically, I feel that he mislabeled many decent schools, just because he wanted to grand stand for the people.

Still, he got what he deserved. He lost his bid for the Republican nomination. Being in education here, it makes me very proud to say that.

[Armando Ramos]

This whole issue revolves around Bradley Byrne.

Byrne is a strange cat, originally a Dem before switching to Republican in 1997.  He was elected to the State Board of Education as a Dem in 1994, elected to the State Senate as a Republican in 2002.  Became community college chancellor in 2007 (the ACCS administers private school licensure).  Resigned in 2009 to run for the Republican nomination for governor, which as you noted he lost in July to "dark horse" candidate Dr. Robert Bentley (MD, U of Alabama).

Byrne seems to sail his ship in whatever direction he thinks the political winds are blowing.  The voters obviously detected that trait in the recent primary and he wound up on the reef.

Government employee unions have run roughshod over taxpayers in many states, so no disrepect to you or your profession but on that issue Byrne seems like he was ahead of the curve compared to pols in most other states.  

On the other hand, destroying the state's free market higher ed system in the guise of fighting diploma mills really does seem like retrograde thinking.  As you say, this is a guy whose motivation seems to be political grandstanding, not an underlying limited government philosophy.

Considering that California recently was ranked dead last for the seventh consecutive year among best places to do business, the state still maintains a solid presence in the "approved but unaccredited" area.  Alabama ranked ninth best for business, but has pretty much annihilated its burgeoning independent higher ed industry.

Certainly the wealthy higher ed cartel and its shills appreciate the auto-destructive gesture, but Alabama taxpayers aren't likely to reap any benefits from losing (another) productive industry.

[teacherman]

The only reason I feel that people like Byrne try to run over the teachers of my state is the fact that Alabama has right to work laws that prevent teachers from going on strike. I know very well that many state teacher unions over use this tactic. Still, in some cases, it is needed. Alabama is one of the lowest paid states in the country. According to a recent report in an education newsletter I get, it is projected that teachers or support persons will not get another raise until 2019. It may just be fear-mongering, but still, something needs to be done in a state where teachers are being fired left and right, but state troopers are being continuously hired, so that they can sit at Pizza Hut and talk about the days news. Still, it comes down to the fact that teachers can not strike. Since they can't the AEA is the only real voice that can be heard by the politicians.

Since this is the case, several politicians here in Alabama try to poke at the cage of teachers, thinking that they are making political progress by doing so. Byrne was a good example. Our current governor is another. These are people who would rather build more prisons than spend the proper money needed for schools.

As for the higher ed. issue, I really don't feel sorry for schools who can pay millions for football coaches, and can raise tuition anytime they want to. In public education in grades K-12, this can not happen, because schools are free. K-12 can not demand a tuition hike to fix the current budget short-falls.

Of course, you have to remember one fact. This is Alabama. Remains of the old segregation system are still alive and well here. Many of these people that are in the legislature or in positions of power send their children to private schools. So, they really do not care what happens with public education.

[Little Arminius]

Perhaps one of the problems you have in Alabama is that the majority of voters simply don't value public education high enough to demand that it be properly funded?

[ham]

Many of these people that are in the legislature or in positions of power send their children to private schools. So, they really do not care what happens with public education.

Do you blame them?
They want the illiterate mob of underachieving little hulkamaniacs to experience 'diversity' first hand, those damn closeted racists...but -little incoherence doesn't hurt- they don't want THEIR children around in lice infested schools, g-d forbid the day little Jamal, Malcolm and Quran decide to bring the submachine guns for the home improvement seminar...

[Martin Eisenstadt]

...Alabama has right to work laws that prevent teachers from going on strike.

You misstate what a right-to-work law is.  Right-to-work laws prevent unions from forcing employees to join or pay dues as a condition of employment.  Alabama is now 4th in the US in auto production, no doubt thanks in large part to such laws.

What you are talking about is a strike ban, where states bar strikes by government employees deemed critical to society.  In NY for example all strikes by state government employees are banned.  Alabama apparently just bans strikes by teachers, as do Florida and Michigan.

Alabama is one of the lowest paid states in the country.

Alabama has one of the lowest costs of living in the country.  It stands to reason that government workers ought to be paid accordingly.  Low cost of government is another reason why industry is moving to Alabama.  You ought to be thankful that your pols aren't busy appeasing the union goons at taxpayer expense.

Many of these people that are in the legislature or in positions of power send their children to private schools. So, they really do not care what happens with public education.

Many people who aren't in government send their kids to private schools too.  I send my kids to private schools and I'm not in the government.  There's a guy there who runs a gardening service and he sends his three kids to private school too.  I know what he does because he drives up in a stake bed truck with lawn mowers and leaf blowers hanging out the back to pick up his kids every day.  He has a choice what to do with the money he earns and that's how he decides to spend it.  If other people prefer to spend it on beer and cigarettes that's their right.  Don't force me to subsidize their bad choices.

How did Abraham Lincoln escape poverty when there were no government schools to educate him?  He educated himself, as did most poor people of his era.  He did alright without the government spoon feeding him its leftist victimization and dependency dogma at taxpayer expense.  The marketplace functions most efficiently when the government stays out of it.

[jamesc1]

I know that this is a long dead issue, BUT, I wanted to get this issue correct, in my opinion. Chadwick was NOT the same as a degree from a first rate accredited school, but one from Excelsior isn't one also. Excelsior handed out degrees based on life experience and tested out courses plus new work. Douglas bragged about how easy it was and he told the truth, for once. A degree from Chadwick did not require an I.Q. of 160. That being said you did have books to study and tests to take. NO ONE got degrees based entirely on life experience, Douglas lied about that and he knows it. How hard was it? Not too hard, fairly easy, but you got the grades you made, nothing was giiven to you.

Was it real?? As real as Excelsior, but not accredited. It's the same type of meal but with a different name. In my humble opinion.

Chadwick wasn't a mill, just not a first rate effort. It could have been done better.....
It was every bit as good as Greenwich, which once provided a doctorate to a student in less than 30 days, Bear approved.

---

I want to add something to that story about the thirty day doctorate. Bear told the story about it and laughed at what an accreditor might say about the speed and manner of the degree though he did say the process was real. So it seems it is possible, according to Bear, to issue life experience degrees from a state licensed school that are real and useful.

BUT----only if he Bear does it. Now ain't that some bull-sh*t.

[Martin Eisenstadt]

Chadwick still lives on, as Chadwick Institute, offering training programs and certs but no degrees. Perhaps to fight again another day?

Chadwick was NOT the same as a degree from a first rate accredited school, but one from Excelsior isn't one also. ...It's the same type of meal but with a different name.

Crap sandwich? There are a lot of RA Gold Standard unis that belong on that menu.

The klones have trouble with the logic. If it's a good school and it's RA they think it's because RA somehow magically made it good. So in their feeble minds a school without RA can't be good because all the good schools are RA. There are a lot of very decent, serviceable DETC, ACICS, ACCSC, ACCET accredited programs out there. There used to be a good number of decent, serviceable unaccredited programs as well, before the current mad cartel bash squeezed them out.

I want to add something to that story about the thirty day doctorate. Bear told the story about it and laughed at what an accreditor might say about the speed and manner of the degree though he did say the process was real. So it seems it is possible, according to Bear, to issue life experience degrees from a state licensed school that are real and useful.

BUT----only if he Bear does it. Now ain't that some bull-sh*t.

Nothing burns Klempner's balls worse than seeing somebody succeed at something he failed at. All his mills went down the tubes in fairly quick and unspectacular fashion. He really hates guys like Chasse, Clayton, and Raymond Rodgers up in Canada, who carried on successfully for years without accreditation. He really, really hates guys like Tom Neal at CCU and Anthony Al-Jamie at Anaheim U, who got their little projects accredited.