http://www.kentucky.com/428/story/111322.html

Quote:Posted on Mon, Oct. 13, 2008

Med schools scrutinized
STEPHEN ARNETT LINKED TO ONLINE, FOREIGN PROGRAMS

By Valarie Honeycutt Spears and Lee Mueller
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITERS

PAINTSVILLE — The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure has opened an investigation into whether a Magoffin County man who promoted online and foreign medical schools has broken any state laws, C. Lloyd Vest, an attorney for the board, said yesterday.

Stephen J. Arnett, a former tombstone salesman and Free Will Baptist minister, promoted the St. Luke School of Medicine, an online school based in Liberia, from an address in Falcon, a small Magoffin County community, until 2003. He held key titles at the school, including vice president, and helped recruit students and place them in Kentucky hospitals and clinics.

Vest said board officials decided to launch a new investigation following a three-part series in the Herald-Leader and that the board would turn over any evidence to the appropriate authorities. The state attorney general's office also began investigating Arnett's involvement with the foreign school after a reporter called with questions.

The articles outlined how three men who have been convicted of practicing medicine without a license -- two in Kentucky and one in Rhode Island -- used their affiliation with St. Luke to treat patients or to study in clinical settings.

In the 1990s, Arnett owned and ran several Eastern Kentucky clinics.

State authorities investigated complaints against him, but he has never been criminally charged in connection with his medical activities.

Now a licensed massage therapist in both Kentucky and West Virginia, Arnett now maintains an office at 624 James S. Trimble Drive, inside the Paintsville Ramada Inn, called Health and Sports Wellness Center.

A company at the same address is listed in Kentucky Secretary of State records as ISO-Diagnostics Testing of Kentucky with Steve "Arnette" -- the last name spelled with an extra "e" -- as the organizer and director.

But Arnett is rarely seen in the office, hotel employees said.

"He comes in once or twice a month, checks his mail, pays his rent and you'll never see him till next time," Frankie Tackett, a desk clerk at the Ramada, said yesterday.

Filing cabinets and a lighted Tiffany-style lamp on a desk can be seen through the glass door to the office, located just off the hotel lobby. A seal on the door says the center is a member of the American Medical Massage Therapy Association. Services listed include massage therapy, neuromuscular therapy, cellulite treatment, naturopathic/homeopathic remedies and reflexology, as well as homeopathic and natural health products and nutritional consultation.

A Herald-Leader reporter visited the office three times this week and found the door locked.

Arnett could not be reached yesterday and has declined the Herald-Leader's repeated requests for interviews.

Arnett has been licensed as a naturopath in Idaho and Washington, D.C., and as an acupuncturist in West Virginia. Naturopathy involves using only natural elements or the body's own immune system to treat disease.

St. Luke President Jerroll Dolphin said in a recent interview that he stopped working with Arnett in 2003 and took away an honorary medical degree the school had given him because he thought Arnett was giving degrees without requiring proper course work.

Though some states have questioned the school's legitimacy, Dolphin said St. Luke offered an intensive curriculum and was not a diploma mill -- a school without accreditation that awards degrees for money and little work.

Larry Lammers worked in a chain of accident injury centers in Kentucky and served a jail sentence for practicing medicine without a license.

Court documents show that Arnett recruited him to St. Luke. Lammers completed course work, Dolphin said, but did not receive a medical degree because of his Kentucky conviction.

Arnett arranged for Andrew E. Michael to observe a heart specialist in Lexington. While in Kentucky, Michael was convicted in Nevada of practicing medicine without a license. He served a jail sentence and is back in custody on federal credit card charges. He never completed his studies at St. Luke, Dolphin said.

John E. Curran, who was sentenced in August to 12 1/2 years in federal prison in Rhode Island, said Arnett provided him with diplomas in medicine and naturopathy. Dolphin said Curran was never a legitimate St. Luke student.

There is no agency in Kentucky that oversees online degrees, nor does the state have an office that investigates people accused of practicing medicine without a license.

But Vest has said the board investigates any allegation it receives and that the attorney general's office can seek an injunction to stop the activity.

Fake degrees are illegal in Oregon, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois, North Dakota and Nevada, where they are misdemeanors and punishable by fines. However, violators rarely face prosecution.

State Rep. Susan Westrom, D-Lexington, said that she will, for the fourth time, introduce a bill that would make the use of bogus credentials a Class D felony, punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years.

"Still, Alabama has been marked by many nationwide as a haven for diploma mills and several unaccredited schools on the list that were kicked out of the state such as Chadwick University, Breyer State University, Carter University and Omni University."

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20...from_state

Someone is trying to pull a quick one at online.degree.net. Their homepage is currently (10/10/08; 11:50PM EDT) showing 3 members and 80 guests!!! Right off the bat that sounds as fraudulent as Gordon University. Upon closer examination, it shows 7 current viewers, probably guests who can't post, in their General Chat forum - the problem is that there is no "chat" taking place. The only post today was a one line unpaid ad by some shill for "Jorma Bridal" using the screen name xiaohx08. WTF would the 7 viewers be viewing? The situation is similiar in their Accredited/Unaccredited Forum with an even higher number of viewers.

Now as for who is responsible ...

DL Truth thread questioning online.degree.net

I was suspicious about this forum several weeks ago but no one else seemed to share my misgivings so I publicly let it drop. I've been keeping tabs on them a bit and the number of guests they continued listing as visitors to their site seemed awfully high considering that there were few legitimate posts. Those few posts are generally from the same handful of posters, hard to believe since they list 2938 members, almost all of whom have either 0 or 1 post.

This needs to be the work of the administrator. It is not Johann or scaredrain, nor, of course, our own Dennis Ruhl. I believe it is the skunk I identified in my earlier post but I'll wait to see if someone else knows definitively before I use his name again. It is one thing to be a pompous asshole (which he most certainly is) and quite another thing to be a lying fraud. (though they are not mutually exclusive activities)

From Degreediscussion:

""""Report this postReply with quote Re: Info on PyD at Cal Coast
by uncle janko on Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:18 pm

Wow. The echoes of "but it's leeegal" are deafening here in the cavern of arcana. Since no one cares to engage questions of ethics and transparency beyond the matter of how one decorates one's office wall and a certain scapegrace legal positivism  , may I offer another question once again: what is the allure of CCU?
(I have no animus against CCU, despite some posters' comment to that effect.)
CCU has held a mesmeric fascination for years. Why is this?

Who are its leading professors under whom it brings academic challenge and professional/practical cachet to have studied? What are the journal articles in refereed journals which have brought lustre to CCU itself? What are the inter-university links and programmes by which CCU is integrated into the wider field of graduate studies in psychology--or other fields, for that matter? Who are the major theoreticians in psychology and its practice whose ideas and theories distinctively shape the approach of CCU's psychology department? Where have master's graduates gone on to seek doctorates in this period between CCU's accreditation and its future authorisation, should it come, to offer doctorates itself?

These are the sorts of questions, eminently non-rhetorical, which anyone seriously interested in graduate study at any institution ought to be asking, mutatis mutandis. What answers have those of you interested in studying psychology on the doctoral level at CCU found?"""""

http://www.degreediscussion.com/forums/v...&start=135

It's a non-dissertation PsyD they are talking about.  Isn't that something like auto mechanics for the brain.  Isn't the point of a PsyD. professional practice as opposed to research.  I'm sure CCU's research standards will meet those pioneered by the U of Phoenix, DeVry, etc. etc. etc.

CCU certainly didn't invent the non-dissertation PsyD and they're not going to be the last to offer it.  I haven't checked recently but CCU has had pretty well educated faculty.

I love moralists discussing ethics.  Ethicists discussing morals?  Maybe the immorality is the closing of the core of the psychology profession to those with very selective qualifications while leaving the gruntwork to similarly educated people labeled as social workers, family counsellors etc.  I love professions to be reasonably open.  Any undermining of groups such as the APA and ABA is good.  They serve themselves and not the public.  By creating artificial shortages of their skills they drive up their income and prestige to the detriment of the people.  If you want a moral issue to fight, chew on that one.

I had not read many of Kizmet's posts prior to her elevation as mod at DI and the few I had weren't noteworthy. However, as I start paying closer attention to what she is writing, I realized that she is unique among the various characters who inhabit the DL world. Most of the RA only crowd actually believe they are experts and continually offered unsolicited advice. A few others will admit a gap in their knowledge so they ask questions. Kizmet freely admits not being very knowledgeable about DL but then offers her uninformed opinions anyway!!!

That has about as much value as Jimmy C and Brandon opining on macroeconomic policy at Degreediscussion.

DI thread

I haven't seen this fraud posting anywhere. Was he banned or suspended from DD when they found out about his bogus SRU degree?

old Bestul thread at DL Truth

I see Kizmet has been named a moderator at DI though Elmer remains listed as well. How long will it be before they just drop DesElms or do you think that they (Bruce and Chip) will wait for Elmer to drop (literally)? Is this Kizmet thing a net positive for DI? She can't be anywhere near as bad as that pretentious phony DesElms but you never know. Just look at what a jerk Shoto Juku (a/k/a Brian Fey) has become at online.degree.net!

With Gollin being a CHEA board member in the United States, should he be having any activity with regards to investigating "diploma mills" in any public manner such as being used as a resource with investigative newspaper articles etc. ?  He certainly has the right to investigate on his own time, but does it cross the line when he is used in a public manner ? Can this be perceived as interferring with inter/intra state commerce ? International commerce ? Tortious interference ? All the while spreading an Accreditation agenda as a CHEA board member.

Or should this bloke be allowed to do whatever he wants regardless ?

God Bless America is what I say.

Cheers,

Quote from degreeinfo:

" cantafforedit cantafforedit is offline
Registered User

Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 28

Example: you can finish as fast as time will allow you at DETC schools because you are finacing it, and they are no specific credit guide lines such as ( maxium of credit one can get within a certain time frame).

RA schools have certain GPA's you have to have to enter, you are only allowed so many credits within a certain time frame, and you can't finish as fast as you want to."

http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?t=28909

I just love assholes who think they are experts but are simply assholes.

What about 90 day RA wonders like Gus?

I doubt that there is one iota of accreditation regulation relating to speed of taking courses. Different schools have different policies but generalizations like this are nothing but crap.

For anyone who really wants to know, DETC regulations are tougher than most regional accreditors. End of story. There can be no debate.

Quote:by uncle janko on Fri Oct 03, 2008 6:24 am

I didn't watch it; I knew I could find exactly the individual reactions I expected on this thread.
I did DL course assignments instead. Dunno why.