"Accreditation is, by most accounts, very important...in the US, *many employers won't recognize unaccredited degrees, and if you decide to pursue an accredited advanced degree, you *may find that graduate schools will be unwilling to accept unaccredited work."
--Chip White--AED--Dec. 1, 1998  

Now John Bear was telling us in 1997 that unaccredited schools were well accepted by the private business world. The Douglas research paper (2003) showed that 96% of Human Resource Managers viewed state approved schools as positive or better. Only 2% of them rejected them outright.  This statement by Chip White, according to John Bear and Rich Douglas, is wrong. Was Chip lying or just ignorant, or both? who knows, but he was wrong, and provably so.

First of all the word 'may' means nothing. You may find gold or you may not.  But it is apparent that Chip wanted to say unaccredited schools are all but useless and since he had no proof of anything he had to hint and indicate without offering proof.  In fact from 5-10% of accredited schools have processes in place to accept degrees /credits from unaccredited schools.

This is typical of the non-proof used by the gang for years. They say it as negative as possible and fail to quote any proof whatsoever. Lies are a dime a dozen and even cheaper at DI.

By the way Chip doesn't have any degrees, accredited or unaccredited, so he doesn't know what anyone might accept.  He never had a degree of any kind to present to any schools or businesses. He talks about what he has never experienced.  

Where are the research studies, where is the proof of what they say.

Just remember, screaming and hollering doesn't make their unsupported 'Opinions' right, it just makes them LOUD.

There is good usage to unaccredited degrees. Is it the same as from  the better accredited schools? no, but it doesn't have to be in order to be useful and of value.  

Hell, it was never rocket science to know that a degree from CCU or Pacific Western wouldn't be the same as one from the University of Texas or Michigan.  Bear sold the hell out of the unaccredited schools because he wanted our money. He now tells it the other way and for the same reasons, our money.

Summit University would not have and will not substitute for a degree from Harvard, but, it is a lot better than no degree and it is of usable value to MANY people.  Was Summit one of the 100 good schools in the US? of course not, nor is it the lump of coal Bear now whines about. These people will sell you one thing today and another tomorrow. They neither know nor care what you really need or want.  You are the customer (period). They want your money, and they will sell you degrees (from their schools) cancer cures, coffee enemas, books, pornography, you name.  If they can get it they would sell it to you. Now they may well laugh at you for buying what they sell, but not until your check is safely in their bank account.

Kudos to dr. John Bear the degree mill fighter. None knows better than John Bear when it comes to degree mills, milled degrees etc.

Quote:"A degree is often more useful than a good education or valuable skills in your field." (the authors, pg. 3)
"One man's degree mill is another man's alternative university." (the authors. Bears' Guide, 13th Edition. pg 306)
'People rarely check up on other people's degrees." (John Bear, Bear's Guide, 10th Ed., pg 24)
I think these quotes encapsulate John Bear's strategy and view of higher education. "alternative" is altedspeak code for "unaccredited." John Bear is correct on the second point - outright degree mills on the one end of the continuum shade into sincere but unrecognized alternative/unaccredited universities at the other. I myself would say they're all bogus - whether degree mills or "alternative/unaccredited" universities. John Bear by his own admission involved himself in his past with a string of unaccredited "universities/colleges" in states with lax or non-existent laws governing degree-granting colleges/universities.
Such unaccredited schools - according to some sources - were: MILLARD FILMORE (owner); INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES ( President, 3 years); COLUMBIA PACIFIC ( part owner); LONDON INSTITUTE OF APPLIED RESEARCH (owner); FAIRFAX UNIVERSITY ( part owner/founder); GREENWICH UNIVERSITY ( President, 1,5 years ).

It is instructive to consider the case of Fairfax University: John Bear and his wife were two of four founders, but left after the first few students enrolled in 1986. As of 1991, John Bear was calling this an "academically-sound program" in the previous version of this book. Here's what Fairfax University's current website advertising says: "Degree programs offered at Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral levels. Personal supervision by mail, telephone, etc by...highly qualified..faculty. No residency or written examination requirements. Work at own pace from home. Credits awarded for prior learning, training. Average duration of programs is 6-18 months." Sounds a lot like ads for a school for cartoonists. Fairfax is not accredited. The degree-granting authority comes from Louisiana, which has notoriously lax regulations, but the school itself is apparently in England with only a secretarial drop-office in Louisiana (all information from Bears' books). Posting on a message board on 1-28-2003, mr.Bear wrote "Don't even think of applying to Fairfax, unless you are comfortable with a degree whose use would be a criminal offense in New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, etc".

Other alternative education enthusiasts favor loosening the traditional link between the bachelor's degree and the three or four years of on-campus study necessary to attain the degree. They want evaluations of "course equivalents" and credits for "life" experience - John Bear himself suggests that riding a horse, eating at an exotic restaurant, "applying statistics to gambling" (I like that one - a subscription to Racing Form ?...Bear is nothing if not droll) and reading his [Bear's] books "could" be worth credit for life experience learning (Bear's Guide 10th Edition). In my view, this "life assessment model" will have the same effect on university degrees as the dumbing-down of high school education did for the high school graduation diploma - render it untrustworthy. I note the US Armed Forces do not believe the GED is worth even as much as an high school diploma. I believe the same will happen with the bachelor's degree if large numbers of students start earning their degrees by "challenge" or "life assessment" or other bogus non-residential forms advocated by Dr. Bear. Incidentally, the bogus- sorry, "alternative"-degree community has a home on the internet. John Bear is guru-in-residence, but it appears his followers are predominantly trailer park residents and third-rate academics, judging by their incoherent postings.
This brings us to the book - "College Degrees by Mail & Modem." Bear's predecessor to this book - "100 College Degrees By Mail - Good Schools that offer Bachelor's Master's Doctorates, and Law Degrees by Home Study" - was a disgrace, in my opinion. Of the recommended "good" schools, about 97 were accredited, and 22 were non-accredited. Among John Bear's recommended "good" schools was "Eurotechnical Research University" of Hilo, Hawaii. (Hawaii at that time and still now does not have effective legislation to prohibit bogus schools). This school was run out of two rooms in the founder's home. John Bear admits to being a friend of the founder (since deceased) and an advisor to the "university." Yet John Bear didn't notice, until a Hawaiian reporter pointed it out, that an outright diploma mill (Leiland College) operated from a Hawaii post office box opened by the founder. Eurotechnical Research University at last report is now affiliated with a karate school, and the street address is a mailbox rental service. Several other unaccredited schools in Bears list of "good" schools have turned out to be "less-than-wonderful" or gone out of business. Bear himself notes that several legitimate schools have pleaded not to be mentioned in his books.Incidentally, John Bear himself was president of an unaccredited school - "Greenwich University" for eighteen months in Hilo, in the period 1990-1991. This and his other school of that time - a institution-in-planning temporarily called "School Without a Name" were also in Bear's recommended list of good schools.

July 5, 1971, Time magazine

Quote:Spoofing honorary degrees is the four-year-old avocation of John Bear, 33, a freelance writer,
erstwhile adman, and co-inventor of the once popular Beethoven sweatshirt. Having sweated out
a real doctorate in communications at Michigan State University

Quote:"By virtue of powers which we have invented," the baroque lettering
proclaimed, the trustees of San Francisco's Millard Fillmore Institute
were delighted to confer on any applicant a variety of "honorary and
meretricious" titles ranging from "Doctor of Generosity" to "Doctor of
Pinochle Sciences." All he needed was $10. A Latin motto made the point
clear: Ad populum phaleras, ego te intus et in cute novi' (Loose
translation: "You may think you're hot stuff, but we know you, buster.")

Quote:One of the main reasons that fake schools continue to exist is that it is difficult to legally define exactly what is meant by the term "diploma mill" or "degree mill." Surely any school that will send you a Ph.D. by return mail on payment of $100, no questions asked, is a fraud. But what about a school that requires a five-page dissertation before awarding the Doctorate? How about 20 pages? 50? 100? 200? Who is to say? One man's degree mill is another man's alternative university. And nobody seems to want the government stepping in to evaluate doctoral dissertations before permitting schools to grant degrees. Would you want [insert the name of your least-favorite politician] grading your thesis?

Attached Files

  Honorary Spoof -JOHN BEAR MILLARD FILLMORE TIME.pdf (Size: 115.98 KB / Downloads: 9)

Quote:WHERE CAN I FIND MORE ACCREDITATION INFORMATION ABOUT
THE ICHM DEGREE?
The ICHM Degree is listed on the NOOSR (National Office of Overseas Skills
Recognition) register at http://www.deetya.gov.au/noosr/cep/. This means that
the Degree meets Generally Accepted Accrediting Principles (GAAP) as espoused
by Dr John Bear (leading US researcher in non-traditional higher education) and
PIER in the United States. Please refer to Dr Bearís site
(http://www.degree.net/guides/accreditation.html)

Attached Files

  FAQ Degree.pdf (Size: 83.22 KB / Downloads: 9)

BOY OH BOY!

Quote:After operating DegreeInfo.com for over a year, paying for its expenses
out of his own pocket, Chip decided to find a way to make the site pay
for itself, so he recruited some DegreeInfo regulars to transform this
simple discussion forum into a full content portal for distance
education. Et voila!

Quote:We are not unbiased. We don't like fraudulent schools who intentionally
mislead their prospective students about the value or accreditation of
their degrees, nor do we like schools who don't mislead, but
nonetheless "co-conspire" with "students" by providing them with
degrees - for which little or no work was done - in exchange for cash.
And we don't particularly like legal but less-than-wonderful programs
(such as most unaccredited schools operated from Hawaii, Montana or
New Mexico, for example) either. What we do like are quality (which
usually means regionally accredited or mGAAP-accredited) distance
learning programs, from which there are hundreds to choose.

Quote:Occasionally, someone (usually a mill operator) will make the claim
that DegreeInfo as an organization or its moderator/administratiive
team members as individuals advocate only schools that they own,
operate, or are otherwise affiliated with. Well, to start with, none of us
(and this goes for our friend and mentor, John Bear, as well) have any
current affiliation with any school, accredited or unaccredited.

Attached Files

  DEGREEINFO BEAR FRAUD Degree Info - About Us.pdf (Size: 90.98 KB / Downloads: 4)

Just like George Gollin, who uses his position at a major university for his own personal agenda, Ward Churchill was fired.

CU regents fire Churchill after Sept. 11 remarks
By DAN ELLIOTT
Associated Press Writer

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July 24, 2007, 9:01 PM EDT

BOULDER, Colo. -- The University of Colorado Board of Regents on Tuesday fired Ward Churchill, the professor whose remarks likening some Sept. 11 victims to Nazi Adolf Eichmann provoked national outrage and led to an investigation of research misconduct.

Churchill vowed to sue after the 8-1 vote was announced, saying: "New game, new game."

CU President Hank Brown said "the decision was really pretty basic" based on the school's findings of plagiarism, falsification and other infractions involving work unrelated to Churchill's remarks on the Sept. 11 victims. Brown said the school had little choice but to fire Churchill to protect the integrity of the university's research.

"The individual did not express regret, did not apologize, did not indicate a willingness to refrain from this type of falsification in the future," Brown said.

"Do you, at an institution that has a fundamental role in basic research for our society, accept the continued presence of someone who shows a pattern of wanting to continue to falsify research?" Brown said.

"I am going nowhere," Churchill told reporters, calling the academic investigation "a farce" and "a fraud."

Churchill's attorney, David Lane, said the decision was retribution for Churchill's 9/11 remarks and said he would file suit on Wednesday.

"For the public at large, the message is there will be a payback for free speech," Lane said. "It sends a message out to the academic community generally that if you stick your neck out and make politically inflammatory comments, you will be dragged through the mud for two years and you will ultimately have your tenure terminated."

The university's allegations against Churchill included misrepresenting the effects of federal laws on American Indians, fabricating evidence that the Army deliberately spread smallpox to Mandan Indians in 1837, and claiming the work of a Canadian environmental group as his own.

But the essay that thrust Churchill into the national spotlight, titled "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," was not part of the investigation.

That essay and a follow-up book argued that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were a response to a long history of U.S. abuses. Churchill said those killed in the World Trade Center collapse were "a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire" and called them "little Eichmanns."

Churchill wrote the piece shortly after the attacks, but it drew little notice until 2005, when a professor at Hamilton College in upstate New York called attention to it when Churchill was invited to speak there.

In the uproar that followed, the Regents apologized to "all Americans" for the essay and the Colorado Legislature labeled Churchill's remarks "evil and inflammatory."

Bill Owens, then governor of Colorado, said Churchill should be fired, and George Pataki, then governor of New York, called Churchill a "bigoted terrorist supporter."

School officials concluded Churchill couldn't be dismissed because he was exercising his First Amendment rights. But they launched the investigation into his research in other work.

Tuesday's lone "no" vote came from Cindy Carlisle, who Regents Chairwoman Pat Hayes said agreed with the findings but disagreed with the penalty. Carlisle was not immediately available for comment.

While acknowledging Churchill's First Amendment rights, Democratic Rep. Mark Udall declared that Churchill's actions "have gone far beyond giving voice to reprehensible points of views.

"As much as Ward Churchill would like us to believe otherwise, today's dismissal is about his academic conduct. He has been found to have falsified facts and sources and to have outright plagiarized others' work," Udall said in a statement.

A faculty committee and an interim chancellor had recommended Churchill be fired. When a second committee reviewed the case, three of its five members recommended a suspension. The other two said he should be fired.

Churchill remained on the university payroll but has been out of the classroom since the spring of 2006, first because he was on leave and later because the school relieved him of teaching duties after the interim chancellor recommended he be fired.

Now here is a former business partner and a former student of Greenwich University.  Now I wonder if John thinks this degree is real and has weight (OR) is it "Problematic and Too Light?" Did it help Walston sell his book or was that Ph.D. of little or no value.

Rick Walston / Greenwich Link:  

Of course you recognize the author of Walston's Guide to Christian Distance Learning. For now it seems Bear is not inclined to do an outing, but, Walston had best hope no reporter calls up Bear with a request for the dirt on Ric. As we know, in order to get his picture on TV or name in print, Bear is perfectly willing to do him.  But in this case with his own name, John Bear, in the left hand corner of the diploma, perhaps old John would be a little worried about unloading on him.

From degreediscussion:


SteveFoerster
Senior Member
Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 1030
Location: Northern Virginia & Dominica, West Indies




More importantly, however, anyone can delete spurious entries from Wikipedia. If Levicoff weren't generally considered an expert, his entry wouldn't still be up there.

-=Steve=-

----------------------------------------------------------------

Has anyone tried to edit the errors out of Levicoff's Wiki bio? I have. Within hours, it's restored. The bugger(er) must patrol his shrine like a hawk.

Breaking News:


Fake Degrees Alleged at NYC College?
Published: 7/16/07, 6:05 PM EDT
By SAMUEL MAULL

NEW YORK (AP) - Teachers, students and administrators tampered with a college's computer system to change grades and create fake degrees for money, prosecutors charged Monday.

The 10 defendants created or altered records for at least 50 people since January, charging fees of $3,000 to $25,000 for better or deleted grades and for bachelor's and master's degrees, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.

Those indicted include Touro College's former director of admissions, the former director of the school's computer center, three former Touro students and three public school teachers, Manhattan prosecutors said.

Records found at the home of one defendant, a former $68,000-a-year admissions director at Touro's Manhattan campus, showed he was running the scheme as early as 2003 and possibly earlier, Morgenthau said.

"We don't know how many hundreds, maybe thousands, were involved," the district attorney said.





At least accreditation means that your purchased degree is money well spent - you know - the gold standard.

You know John Bear does his best to deny having ever said that unaccredited schools were good or that he ever recommended them to people, but, guess what, he DID, over and over. He also likes to say there were no DL accredited options back then.....20-30 years ago, but again, he is telling the story as best re-colors his history, or should we say, hides it from view, but you are lucky.  His favorite historian has found you a little treat from the past, enjoy.  

Now here is the EXCELLENT statement:

"California Coast University was one of the first of California's non-resident universities.  CCU is the only non-resident school in California to have received state approval of all degree programs offered....each faculty member holds recognized degrees from traditional schools."

"For those persons willing to spend a year or more to earn their (Graduate) degree, California Coast University offers an EXCELLENT alternative."
--John Bear--Bear's Guide--10th Edition--Page 85

You know, maybe statements like this from John Bear was why John Gray decided to get his doctorate from CPU in 1982.  Bear was still part owner back then by the way. So when Bear did the very negative interview on Inside Edition about Gray, he was raising hell about a degree sold from a school (CPU) in which Bear was a minority owner.  

Now ain't that a hat trick. A school in which Bear is part owner sells a degree to John Gray and then Bear goes on national tv and rats out the buyer, in this case, John Gray. He tells the world that a degree from CPU is problematic and doesn't carry enough weight. Since Bear was part owner and helped design the programs it would seem if it was not good enough it must have been Bear's fault. How about that. He sells it and then attacks the buyer, nice that. And makes money both times.  Sweet---