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Fake Fed Uni Can Be Sued
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Hot research topic for Ri...
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  Grove City Online MA Austrian Economics
Posted by: Albert Hidel - 10-19-2024, 04:20 PM - Forum: Distance Learning Discussion - No Replies

Beginning Fall 2025 Grove City College will be launching an online master's degree in Economics, which they describe as "thoroughly Austrian in its curriculum and faculty." 

They don't take fed money so you have to work out your own financing. No specific price info I could find, but current master's degree tuition runs $750/unit, and $950/unit for their business analytics program. Not cheap, but less than George Mason.

If you can stand the wait, could be a worthy successor to the Mises Institute's now defunct online MA.

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  Trump Shooter Had RA Degree
Posted by: Robert L. Peters - 07-15-2024, 10:03 AM - Forum: Unaccredited vs. State-Approved vs. Accredited - Replies (9)

I would have expected him to be a physics major, but it turns out failed assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks had an AS degree in Engineering Science from regionally accredited (MSCHE) Community College of Allegheny County. It's the gold standard, you know.

Quote:Crooks graduated from the Community College of Allegheny County in May 2024 with an Associate in Science degree in Engineering Science, a spokesperson for the college confirmed to CBS News. Crooks also worked at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center as a dietary aide, according to the facility's administrator.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-rally...dentified/

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  Get Govt. Out of Higher Ed
Posted by: Robert L. Peters - 07-11-2024, 01:58 PM - Forum: General Education Discussions - No Replies

Quote:It Is Time to Treat Higher Education as the Business It Is
[Image: HighEd-W.jpg.webp?itok=HrmV90No]

07/09/2024 • Mises WireDavid Brady, Jr.

So many of the problems with higher education stem from the involvement of government in the market.

Not a day goes by without a TikTok video surfacing of unhappy Gen-Zers or millennials lamenting their career choices that stemmed from college education. On top of this, student debt has become a hot-button political issue. And nearly every conservative laments the rise of such degrees as “gender studies” or “sociology” that seem to be little more than proxies for progressive ideological indoctrination with a price tag. Higher education has become a mess.

Though the above issues may only seem loosely connected by their relation to higher education, they share a more specific point of connection: government funding of universities. From direct funding to student loans, the United States federal government has acted in a way that divorces the customers from the producers of higher education, and the result has been one problem after another. Chief among those problems is ideological bias and the unmarketable degrees mentioned above.

The growing problem of a left-wing intellectual orthodoxy is particularly concerning. In an academic setting, left-wing aligned professors outnumber their right-wing counterparts five to one. Conservative students are often afraid of expressing their views, being regularly outnumbered by liberal-leaning students. A study on the University of North Carolina system found that liberal students dominated with a three to one ratio to conservative students and that conservatives faced the bulk of pressure to not express their views. Gone is the age of valued debate in the “marketplace of ideas.”

Sadly, many of the proposed “solutions” by conservatives are lacking. They likely will only make things worse than they already are.

The Core of the Problem

As mentioned above, the government has fundamentally divorced the consumer-producer relationship that should exist in higher education. If conservative students are among the customers, then surely their viewpoints should be reflected in universities, no? Discrimination is expensive, as you either alienate productive employees or potential customers. Some universities might find value in discriminating against certain viewpoints, but that is true of every market good. It might be costly to discriminate against effective conservative professors or eliminate a consumer base, thus they will tend to cost more. Most universities will realize this is a poor business decision and thus cater to all their customers.

But are students truly the customers?

Figure 1: Percentage distribution of total revenues for degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by control of institution and source of funds (2020–21)

[Image: image_60.png]
Source: National Center for Educational Statistics.

According to the Center for Educational Statistics, in the fiscal year 2020–21, over 40 percent of public-university revenue was provided by government grants, contracts, and appropriations. That compares to just 16 percent coming from student tuition. If one looks at even that small revenue amount paid for by tuition you might spot evidence of government money. Economics Data Initiative reported in 2021 that over 92 percent of student loan debt is federal student loan debt—meaning it is taxpayer money fronted to new students to pay their college tuition and costs. Seeing as there have not been any significant, if any, changes to the federal student loan system, the percentage of tuition coming from student loans is likely still overwhelming.

The Core Applied: Ideological Bias

Conservative as well as many libertarian students have lamented the fall of higher education. It has become a liberal hegemon as evidenced above. This stems from the fundamental divorce in consumer-producer relations.

The revenue stream that colleges rely upon is not from the pockets of their own customers. They rely upon a flow of money from the government. If conservative students remove themselves, who cares? They have no reason to adjust their business model as their customer base was never really the student body but rather government bureaucrats who offer them grants, endowments, and the like.

Traditionally, providing professors who have potentially controversial points of view with a secure job was the role of tenure. However, the tenure system relies upon the consent of one’s colleagues and likely one’s provost. With an overdominant liberal orthodoxy, there is little reason for them to allow a professor who doesn’t fall in line unless the professor manages to conceal their views.

The government stepping between the consumer (the students) and the producers (the universities) changes who is catered to. The divorced college appeals to the entrenched bureaucrat rather than students who may have different social or political views. This is in terms of free speech policy and in its staffing policies.

The Core Applied: Unmarketable Degrees

If one has paid attention to any amount of news related to universities, especially Harvard as of late, they are aware of the power of donations. Revenue from students isn’t the only source for money and operations of a university. Donors play a large role in the shaping of policy. Reliance on donors might provide an insight into how unmarketable degrees might be eliminated.

Only successful alumni can donate to universities. A college who wants the most revenue from their alumni must create those alumni. Successful alumni rarely come from those with the unmarketable degrees above. They must cut the chaff, removing the degrees that aren’t conducive to a return on their proverbial investment.

Is There a Solution?

If one asks Ramesh Ponurru, a columnist for the Washington Post, the solution is simply to spend more money on universities. Primarily, he suggests that the government fund centers that promote more diverse points of view. This may work for specific universities, but to tackle all the problems one might offer a different solution. Dumping more money rarely solves a problem caused by the government.

If one removes government spending on universities, it will force their revenue stream into the hands of students and donors. Conservative students revoking their funds will have a much more significant impact on university revenue, meaning that as a business higher education would be forced to cater toward them or face losses.

If one returns power to the customers, the students, then it is far more likely for this process to receive an overhaul that results in more diversity of thought amongst the educators. Colleges as a business will have a vested interest in providing this diversity, as their bottom line relies upon it.

Ousting students over their political views also becomes unprofitable. Preventing students who deviate from liberal thought from expressing their views, and actively punishing that, will result in a loss of revenue. Thus, shifting to a consumer-funded model would go a long way toward alleviating the problem that is a lack of diversity of thought in higher education.

The solution, as is often the case, for many of the problems facing higher education is to get the government out of it. The government divorces the essential connection between customer and producer in education, meaning that the universities do not cater to the students but rather to the government. When higher education caters to the government for funding, they are more likely to express views the government would like to hear. Research will be manipulated in a way to secure further governmental funding rather than provide actual results. The government’s tentacles spread into the system and pervert it in such a manner that it no longer reflects the values of those who wish to use the service. Instead, it reflects the whims of the government.

One can solve these problems by treating higher education the same as any other business on the marketplace. Universities and colleges should not be given favoritism or protectionism by the government any more than any other business. Competition will improve quality and push down prices, as is the law of the free market. Fixing the problem doesn’t involve spending more on higher education—it involves spending less.

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  Fake Fed Uni Can Be Sued
Posted by: Martin Eisenstadt - 07-06-2024, 09:21 PM - Forum: General Education Discussions - No Replies

They're from the government and they're here to help you. Sure they are. ICE seems to be hellbent on challenging the IRS as the least trusted federal agency. Fingers crossed that plaintiffs will win.

Quote:Indian students who enrolled in fake university set up by ICE can sue federal government
By LU Staff July 4, 2024

600 foreign students who enrolled at a Michigan university that turned out to be an immigration sting operation by ICE can sue the government for a refund of their tuition, a federal appeals court ruled on June 25.

Five years ago, the news media publicly exposed the fact that the “University of Farmington” was a sting set up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to target “pay-to-stay” student visa fraud.

ICE opened the fake University of Farmington in 2016. As Reason Magazine notes,

Quote:    It would ultimately lure in around 600 people on student visas, all of them except one from India, and collect roughly $6 million in tuition and fees from them.

    The government claimed that the foreign students were made well aware by recruiters and fake school officials that they were paying for classes and coursework that didn’t exist, but plaintiffs in the lawsuit say they were “unwitting victims,” entrapped by a school that had all the outward appearances of being a legitimate institution.

    The university had a website, a regularly updated Facebook page, and a fake history dating back to the 1950s. Records obtained by local news outlets showed Farmington was incorporated by the state of Michigan and listed by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges. More importantly, it was certified by the Department of Homeland Security’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which…is the “ultimate seal of official approval,” for foreign students looking for an American education.

    Once exposed, ICE quickly shut down the school and arrested roughly 250 former students. Many were deported, while the rest voluntarily left the country.

On June 25, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal government isn’t shielded from a class action lawsuit filed four years ago by Teja Ravi, a former student at the fake “University of Farmington,” because it entered into contracts with hundreds of students like Ravi for services that it never provided.

The ruling overturned a decision two years ago by the Court of Federal Claims that dismissed Ravi’s lawsuit, and sends it back to the Court of Claims for further proceedings. Both the Biden and Trump administrations claimed that sovereign immunity barred Ravi’s suit.

The appeals court judges unanimously ruled that the government was not immune and had not proven its claim that its contract with Ravi wasn’t enforceable because it never intended to honor the agreement in the first place.

“The government relies on the notion that, because it was only pretending to operate a university, there could not have been intent to contract on its part, even though it took (and has kept) the money Mr. Ravi paid for the offered education, and it makes that assertion even accepting the assumption, required at the present stage of the case, that Mr. Ravi intended to obtain the education for which he was paying,” the ruling said. “The argument is that even when there is an objectively clear offer and acceptance, with acceptance in the form of paying money to the offeror, there is no contract enforceable against the offeror, for want of mutuality of intent, as long as the offeror had its fingers crossed behind its back when making the offer and accepting the money.”

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Sad Hot research topic for Rich Douglas, closed school owner John Bear can help
Posted by: Douglas Union bye-bye - 06-26-2024, 05:41 PM - Forum: General Education Discussions - Replies (1)

Here's an interesting research topic for Rich Douglas in case he looks for another school on-probation for another easy PhD~ If one learns that your alma mater was on probation multiple times due to various accreditation problems which led to its eventual closure, would it be illogical for any human being to question the academic vigor of your degree? And would it be illogical for dumbass morons like Expert Rich Douglas not to defend his...umm...his PhD? Will mark-down degrees like Union limit your career options (i.e. like teaching at the unaccredited (NON-GOLD STANDARD) Virginia Commonwealth University (now called Fairfax)? I wasn't referring to you, Rich.

I think Rich Douglas can also use John Bear's help again, since Bear has first-hand experience as the ex part-owner of the defunct and unaccredited degree mill Columbia Pacific University.

Tom

Tom

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Wink Everyone wants to teach "one day" at degreeinfo
Posted by: Douglas Union bye-bye - 06-26-2024, 01:03 PM - Forum: General Education Discussions - Replies (1)

I couldn't help but to notice there are lots of teachers wannabes at degreeinfo.

Here's the psychosis: If you want to teach "one day" your NA degree may limit your "options." Actually, if you want to teach "one day," you first need to have teaching and/or industry experience, which is not something that comes with a RA degree. Thanks faggots.

Unfortunately, an NA degree isn't your cure for delusional problems especially for penis enlarger/vibrator users like Randel1234 and sanantone.

But teach what though? Half of these clowns don't even tell you where they got their high school degrees. Or maybe they can teach people how to end up like faggots Steve Levicoff and Rich Douglas- get a PhD from a bottom-feeder school that's been placed on PROBATION MULTIPLE TIMES and eventually to its final demise- losing regional accreditation (aka the GOLD STANDARD) and closes forever. Phone lines disconnected. CLAP CLAP CLAP

I'm surprised none of the clowns at degreeinfo sent thank you cards to the regional accreditor HLC/Higher Learning Commission (THE GOLD STANDARD) for shutting down UNION HIGH- something that should've been done decades ago.

For Rich Douglas, it's a particular sad case because his DOCTOR OF SCIENCE DocSc from University of Leicester wasn't rated as an American doctorate. Apparently when he called WES he had an attidude (depression from hairloss) with the gay boy who answered the phone.

Tom

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Big Grin Gold Standard pulls plug on Union, SANANTONE advocates quality
Posted by: Douglas Union bye-bye - 06-25-2024, 11:35 AM - Forum: General Education Discussions - No Replies

When gay boys Rich Douglas and Steve Levicoff (RA or the highway...oops...I meant toilet bowl for Union) still had their PhDs from a college that wasn't closed by authorities, there was a lot talk on academic quality. This is when SANANTONE comes in- the QUALITY ADVOCATE. I don't know what kind of degrees sanantone has. I'm guessing she must have earned her Bachelor's in Degreeinfo from years of extensive typing. Heck, I think anything other that Union High is better at this point.

Legitimate, regionally-accredited/GOLD STANDARD schools do not get placed on probation by their accreditor time after time. In 2002, Union Institute & University's PhD program came under scrutiny by the Ohio Board of Regents. Union underwent major academic and structural changes, including the dissolution of Union Graduate School and restructuring of its PhD programs. The PhD in Arts and Sciences, for example, was redesigned as a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies, with four majors: Ethical and Creative Leadership, Public Policy and Social Change, Humanities and Culture, and Educational Studies.

In 2004, the US Dept. of Education also raised concerns about the quality of the Union's PhD programs specifically. Sorry Rich, it's easy to blame everything on the Union President but this is obviously nothing new. Regardless Rich, sorry I had to scrutinize your PhD and you don't have to defend it.

As an aside, Texas is not a forgiving state. It's actually a learning state. When I emailed Texas Higher Education Board many years ago, they told me they had never suggested any DEAC or ACCSC programs were "inferior." They were very frank (Texas style), and told me their Governor wanted all degree mills out of his state and the fastest way to achieve this was through a blanket policy- regional accreditation (which have since changed and loud and clear on national accreditation). I also asked if CCU made any changes to its programs to meet the Texas requirements. The response I got was a chuckle, as if I was stupid that a school will modify all its programs to meet the requirement of one state.

No offense, sanantone, I didn't mean to bring up your vibrator. Time to get a bf.

Link to Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board:
https://www.highered.texas.gov/our-work/...-agencies/



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  Union Institute & University CLOSES- Rich Doulgas defending his PhD
Posted by: Douglas Union bye-bye - 06-24-2024, 10:34 AM - Forum: General Education Discussions - Replies (6)

Hi Everyone,

I just saw the news that Union Institute and University will be PERMANENTLY CLOSED on June 30, 2024 after losing accreditation: https://www.wvxu.org/education/2024-06-2...ity-closes

I saw Rich Douglas was helplessly defending Union (and the quality of his "PhD") since we know Union isn't exactly a good boy when it was placed on probation by the same accreditor (The Higher Learn Commission/HLC) many years ago.

I also remember Mr. Douglas' "Doctor of Science" degree was rated as a Master's degree only by a credential evaulator.

This must really suck for him since the DEAC-accredited schools supposed to close first. Are there any ways we can help out the Union people? Are there any teach-out programs? I'm wondering if schools like California Myramar Univeristy would accept their students? Like sanantone and other super-capable individuals I am focused on academic quality only. You know what I mean and I certainly don't want to see any substandard Union graduates/students flowing around and defending their degrees.

Thanks,
Tom

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  Support Dr. Navarro
Posted by: Albert Hidel - 03-24-2024, 06:49 AM - Forum: General Education Discussions - Replies (8)

Former UC Irvine professor Dr. Peter K. Navarro is now a political prisoner of the Biden junta. If you wish to send a letter/note of encouragement to him in prison, here’s the address:

PETER K NAVARRO
(04370-510)
15801 S.W. 137TH AVENUE 
MIAMI, FL 33177

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  RA Blow Up Pipelines or No Way
Posted by: Harrison J Bounel - 02-27-2024, 05:24 AM - Forum: General Education Discussions - No Replies

Quote:State Universities Are Teaching Students To Blow Up Oil Pipelines, Records Show

‘How to Blow Up A Pipeline’ author wants to send message to 'capitalists' that 'their properties will be trashed'

By  Luke Rosiak

Feb 26, 2024   DailyWire.com


[Image: GettyImages-1310320592-scaled.jpg?fit=cr...eact-9.3.0]
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

At least sixteen universities are promoting the book “How to Blow Up A Pipeline,” which outlines for readers how to commit eco-terrorism — oftentimes making it required reading, a Daily Wire investigation found.

The book was published in 2021 by Swedish professor Andreas Malm and calls for terrorism and overthrowing capitalism, acknowledging that people will be killed as a result. “Demolish them, burn them, blow them up. Let the capitalists who keep investing in the fire know that their properties will be trashed,” the book says.

Now multiple state-funded universities took classes that were nominally on unrelated topics, and contorted them into courses that read just four books, including the pipeline manifesto and a communist manifesto. At the University of California-Berkeley, for example, students of Geography & Interactive Biology were required to read the book. Instructors Jake Kosek and Paul Fine took what was ostensibly a biology course and transformed it into one on “decolonization.” The syllabus states that the “class focuses on the scientific practice of modern botanical taxonomy as a colonial formation that conditions our modern relations” and how the names of plants “were often forged to be of service to empire-building.”

The lessons across the country suggest that universities’ support for terrorism extends beyond the students supporting Hamas on many campuses. In fact, the book looks to Palestinian terrorists for inspiration, advising that, “As part of the mass resistance in the besieged Gaza Strip in the spring of 2018, Palestinians invented techniques for sending kites and helium-inflated condoms carrying incendiary materials across the wall to burn Israeli property.”

U.S. intelligence identified the book as a “developing threat” and security risk because “Malm encourages pipeline sabotage and property destruction.” Twenty-three government agencies, including the FBI, warned that the film adaptation of the book, released in 2023, could spark terrorism.

A New York Times interviewer was taken aback at Malm’s willingness to cause death. “It’s hard to think that deaths don’t become inevitable if there is more sabotage,” the interviewer said.

“Sure, if you have a thousand pipeline explosions per year, if it takes on that extreme scale. But we are some distance from that, unfortunately,” Malm answered.

“Don’t say ‘unfortunately,’” the interviewer interjected.

“Well, I want sabotage to happen on a much larger scale than it does now. I can’t guarantee that it won’t come with accidents,” Malm replied.

Malm said he hasn’t had the opportunity to blow up a pipeline personally but that he would “gladly participate” if given the opportunity.

“If I were part of a group where something like blowing up a pipeline was perceived as a tactic that could be useful for our struggle, then I would gladly participate,” he said. “I have engaged in as much militant climate activism as I have had access to” and “I’ve done things that I can’t tell you or that I wouldn’t tell others publicly.”

He said he trained his four-year-old son to “be on the lookout for S.U.V.s” because the child “knows these are the bad cars” and has “an awareness of the tactic of deflating S.U.V. tires.”

His own children were not the only youth being inculcated with an ideology of destruction.

In Spring 2022, City University of New York professor Joseph Mohorcich required students to read the book as part of a course called Politics and Human Survival, which persuaded students that without radical action, “everyone could die a terrible death.” Students were also required to read “Revolutionary Suicide” by Black Panthers member Huey Newton, who was accused of murder and rape. Mohorcich wrote a paper called “What level of resistance to air pollution is justified? On violence and self-defense.”

Arizona State University, a public university, required students of Professor Mina Suk’s “Are Humans Special? Environmental Theory” to read “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” that same semester.

The University of California, San Diego required it in a class taught by Professor of Environmental Physics Brad Werner called “CGS 110 Intersectional Struggles for Environmental Justice.” The course says it focuses on “Colonial, capitalist and imperialist exploitation of and damage to the environment” and how “resistance developed,” using “Critical Gender Studies Frameworks.” It includes “role-play exercises and simulations of exploitive/extractive-resistance movement systems.” Werner once argued for “sabotage by indigenous peoples, workers, anarchists and other activist groups” because the Earth was “f**ked.”

The University of Washington required it in “Special Topics in Rights,” where Professor of Political Science Jamie Mayerfeld asks, “Does capitalism help or hinder responsible climate policy? Is socialism a better way?” On the syllabus under the heading “What Should Activists Do?” is “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.” Only four other books are required; one is How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century and another is A Planet to Win: The Case for a Green New Deal.

At Illinois State University, students in an English class are required to read only four books, one of which is “How To Blow Up a Pipeline.” Another is a book on Marxism by Friedrich Engels, whom Vladimir Lenin called “the finest scholar and teacher of the modern proletariat.” Professor Christopher Breu describes capitalism as “cancerous” and “violence.”

Next semester, Ohio State University may change the title of “Environmental Citizenship” to “Climate Justice,” and require students to read the book as one of only four required readings. Another of the four is “Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards The Idea of Degrowth Communism.” That book, sold for $110, argues for making Western countries poorer.

The course will no longer focus on “interdisciplinary perspectives on the environment,” but instead on “political strategies for climate change” and “capitalism.” Professor Joel Wainwright warns ominously that “The carbon profiteers hope you fail to connect the dots,” and argues for overthrowing not only capitalism, but also the concept of sovereign rule.

Wainwright, a geography professor, is the author of Rethinking Palestine and Israel: Marxist Perspectives. In his book “Climate Leviathan,” he praised “the most radical strategies of the climate justice movement” and called for “revolutionary events” overthrowing the U.S. government as well as that of China, because China is too “capitalist.”

A spokesman for Ohio State said the course “is not listed for summer or autumn 2024,” though the change request form says “Autumn semester 2023 Tuesday & Thursday, 9:35-10:55 A.M.” and is listed as having been approved at every level except one, with the final one pending.

None of the other universities responded to requests for comment.

The Department of Homeland Security defines terrorism as any act that “is dangerous to human life or potentially destructive of critical infrastructure or key resources.”

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