Download - Community College Week

www.ccweek.com March 22, 2010 9
Even Cops Getting Stuck
In Web of Diploma Mills
BY ANTHONY COLAROSSI, ORLANDO SENTINEL
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — When
Fruitland Park police Chief
J.M. Isom considered getting
his education online, he had
plenty of company. Many midcareer
law-enforcement officials
realize that advancement and better
pay may come only one way:
with a college degree.
That makes police officers
such as Isom — and other public
servants working in corrections
and firefighting — part of a prime
pool of potential students for socalled
degree mills, online
“schools’’ that offer authenticlooking
degrees for little cost and
not much schoolwork.
Many of these degrees, however,
are worth only the paper they’re
printed on.
In the case of cops, they’re
being asked to practice what they
so often preach to citizens: buyer
beware.
“These are among the relatively
few professions today that you
can enter and succeed in without a
degree,” said Alan Contreras,
administrator with the Oregon
Office of Degree Authorization,
which has become something of a
national watchdog, warning
unsuspecting students and
employers of bogus degree programs.
“You can enter (these jobs)
without a bachelor’s degree. The
problem is eventually you’re
boxed in and cannot advance,”
Contreras said. “That’s the market
the diploma mills have always
aimed for.”
Isom’s failure to confirm the
legitimacy of Youngsfield University
has Fruitland Park’s top lawenforcement
officer caught in a
public-relations mess. Both of his
degrees came from an unaccredited
program.
He’s not alone.
From 2000 to 2006, at least
three Florida officers lost certification,
got suspended or resigned
because of bogus degrees, Florida
Department of Law Enforcement
spokeswoman Kristen Chernosky
said.
Though the number is low, it
represents only those cases
brought to FDLE’s attention.
An additional 3,000 ``false
statement’’ cases involved lawenforcement
officers during the
past three years, FDLE records
show. Phony degrees would fall
into that category, but FDLE has
no simple way to pull from those
incidents all cases involving suspect
degrees.
Contreras said there are probably
many more police officers and
public officials — in Florida and
elsewhere — with credentials on
their resumes from unaccredited
institutions.
The lure of earning college
degrees in much less than four
years can be hard to resist for those
faced with the demands of work
and family, forced to study in their
spare time and perhaps not knowing
the rigors of true college
coursework. The cheaper and less
time-intense a college or
advanced-degree program is, the
more attractive it becomes to
someone who stands to gain
career-wise by holding that piece
of paper, Contreras and others
familiar with these operations said.
Many Florida law-enforcement
officers take advantage of
programs that offer stipends or
tuition reimbursement for their
degrees and coursework.
The city of Orlando provides
stipends and tuition reimbursement
for police and firefighters
getting degrees. About 700
staffers at the Orlando Police
Department take advantage of
the stipend program, amounting
to about $1,079 per employee
per year, city spokeswoman
EARN AN EdD
TEMPTATION
The lure of earning
a college degree in
much less than four
years can be hard
to resist for those
faced with the
demands of work
and family.
Heather Allebaugh said.
The city checks a special U.S.
Department of Education database
to verify the accreditation of
schools issuing those degrees, she
said.
Isom gained $80 a month in
supplements with his degrees from
Youngsfield, but he didn’t take his
online courses for the money.
Instead, he said, they were meant
to help make him eligible, possibly,
for a higher position elsewhere
in law enforcement.
Now FDLE is investigating
whether Isom did anything criminal
when he presented his degrees
as authentic and began receiving
the incentive pay.
WITH A CONCENTRATION IN
COMMUNITY COLLEGE
LEADERSHIP
AND CHANGE
■ Grow as a campus leader without
leaving your current position.
■ Interact with professional colleagues
nationally and internationally.
■ Combine work and professional
development.
800.340.1099
admission@fielding.edu
www.fielding.edu
A Global Leader in Distributed and Online Learning
Tom Butler, a spokesman for
the state Department of Education,
recommended being prudent and
exercising due diligence when
checking out degree programs.
Students and employers checking
out any school should find out
whether it is accredited and who
regulates the program. Students
also should check to see whether
the program they want to enroll in
is recognized by their employers.
“We warn students: Be careful.
Buyer beware,” said Jane Glickman,
a spokeswoman for the U.S.
Department of Education. “Do
your homework. Be an educated
consumer.”
DOE has an extensive database
with a list of accredited
schools. Another resource Glickman
recommended is called
College Navigator.
Oregon’s Office of Degree
Authorization, where Contreras
works, has a separate online list of
“unaccredited degree suppliers”
with remarks about many of those
operations. The list includes
Youngsfield University and simply
calls it “fake.”
Prospective students and
employers can take advantage of a
few clear signs to distinguish what
is a real degree and what is not.
Several online sites also may help.
For one thing, no legitimate
college or graduate degree these
days is going to cost you several
hundred dollars or even a few
thousand, experts say.
If the institution has no physical
address and doesn’t clearly say
which state or country it is in or
does not provide a phone number,
those are usually good clues that it
is a degree mill.
Legitimate institutions generally
let the public know where they
are and boast about credentials of
their faculty members.
Finally, there is accreditation.
Although some unaccredited
schools are legitimate, accreditation
is big clue to help you determine
whether a school is for real.
“If it is accredited, it is automatically
not a mill,” Contreras
said. “It is easy to identify institutions
that are bogus.”
Experts cite institutions such
as Capella University, University
of Phoenix, DeVry University,
Kaplan University and American
Public University System as
accredited degree programs with
substantial distance-learning or
online offerings.
Comments: editor@ccweek.com
In just one year, our college substantially increased
enrollment; revised the mission statement; wrote
an educational plan; developed a facilities master
plan, and completed an accreditation self-study.
I am relying on the theories and principles of
organizational leadership and change that I
discovered at Fielding to guide me through the
process. Our college is well positioned to continue
its proud tradition of excellence in teaching and
learning and meeting the needs
of our community.
— HARRIET J. ROBLES, EdD
President, Mission College, Santa Clara, California
Fielding Graduate University Alumna