The harm of diploma mills

The US National Consumer Advocacy Commission has an exellent site devoted to diploma mills and fake accrediting agencies.  Diploma mills are a growth industry.

Another well known site attempting to draw attention to the harm of this multi-million dollar business is John Bear’s Degreenet.

One of my inlaws worked for his dad in their printing company when he was going through school. Several Canadian universities and colleges tasked the company with the job of printing up the degrees.

The security was very tight. Apart from lock and key, there was every conceivable check, and re-check. There were overseers at each stage of the process and security guards hired for the plant when diploma printing time came around. Paper, watermarks, signatures, lists, all checked and re-checked by each educational institution all the way through the printing process and back to final delivery. Of course, that paper represents something hard earned, and didn’t come cheap.

Now anyone can set up shop, sell, and hand out degrees to boost their business, and it has become an international white collar crime wave.

Bear identifies the victims and the villains in the booming business of diploma mills.

The first villain is the diploma mill operators.

These folks typically fall into three categories: Lifelong scam artists, who might have progressed from three-card monte on the street corner to running a university; quirky academics who have decided to cross to the dark side; and businesspeople who simply find another kind of business-that of selling degrees.

The second villain Bear identifies is media. They accept advertising revenue. He asked some major publications in the US why. (Broadcast outlets are not immune either) He found three answers.

But surely, the rational mind asks, no responsible publication would continue to run such ads, once they learned the nature of the advertiser.

The media I contacted re acted in one of three ways when they learned they’d been running advertisements for fraudulent schools.

…A. We run them. Period.
…B. We run them. Wait, no we won’t.
…C. We won’t run them. Wait; yes we will.

The third villain Bear identifies is media.

Indifference.

There are occasional exceptions.

The fourth villain Bear identifies is law enforcement. It’s a federal problem, it’s a state problem, it’s an international problem, it’s someone else’s problem.

If I held up a 7-Eleven for 50 bucks, I’d probably be in prison before my Slurpee melted. But if I start a totally fraudulent university, selling degrees by return mail for $3,000 each, and I obscure my path just a little, changing the name from time to time and using various mail-forwarding services, the odds are that I will go unpunished forever. And if caught, I will get little more than a slap on the wrist.

The last villain Bear identifies is the people who buy/use fake degrees.

The question is always asked: Do the customers of these schools know what they’re doing? Are they acquiring what they are well aware is a questionable degree for the purpose of fooling others? Or have they genuinely been fooled by the purveyor of the parchment?

Bear figures it’s about 50/50, no one really knows.
One of the key justifications diploma mill users use is award for life experience.

Their argument is that many universities today are giving credit for experiential learning. If you’ve run a business for 10 years, they suggest, you know more than most M.B.A.’s (heads nod), and so we’ll give you that M.B.A. If you’ve taught Sunday School at church, you know as much as one of those Ivy League doctors of divinity, and we’ll award you the degree you’ve already earned through experience.

Finally Bear looks at the victims, the other 50%.

A. There are people who are genuinely conned, who don’t know how to navigate the system. They get caught, lose their jobs, lose their green card (immigrants are common diploma mill operator targets) and wind up paying fines and doing time.

B. Employers are victimized in two ways: The obvious one is ending up with untrained employees, and the more subtle but potentially devastating one is financial liability when people with fake credentials make mistakes that damage people or property.

C. The next group of people to suffer is us – the public. Trust is eroded, and Bear says the occasional case that reaches court is the tip of the iceberg. The US National Consumer Advocacy group has some horror stories. Bear has some horror stories. We take it for granted the doctor we go to, the mechanic, that minister we listen to has earned their credentials.
We don’t find out they didn’t until the harm is done.

D. The final group of victims are legitimate schools. They lose millions of dollars, and public perception.

If the good guys turn the power of their own credibility, credentials, contacts, and connections on the fake degree sellers, and if they do it the very instant the bad guys’ ads and their Web sites appear, there is a fighting chance to recapture all of the playing field.

When I was a brand new reporter ready for my first on-air gig, I asked the news director what I needed to know. He laughed and replied, “the first thing you need to know is every-one’s favorite subject is them-self.” Now I don’t get a degree for discovering for the most part that is true. If you listen people will talk. Sometimes (not always) people have something to hide.
Another none-diploma lesson I learned is; if you are the bearer of bad news or a different point of view, people shoot the messenger.

2 recent examples: I posted well over a month ago on Canadian Todd Bentley. Then I sat back, let the reaction roll in until the basics were covered and I turned off the comment section. Closed comments didn’t stop the feedback, I’ve had some interesting (and a few heartbreaking) emails. People really want to be heard to the point they’ll take those extra steps to email BDBO.
Who was I, and what did I think I was doing? What the heck did a stupid blogger such as myself know about anything?
Why, they went to see Todd, they had degrees, been in church all their lives, I had no right.
People willing to take a strip out of me call him Reverend, or think he is a priest, all the while quite upset I sound a warning.
How could I know anything about Bentley, how dare I attack what God is doing, I was no Christian.
Some of the react is unprintable, shows profound emotional and spiritual need, lack of character and a deeply lamentable lack of knowledge about various movements in Christianity which have deviated from orthodoxy.
Forget history, forget facts, forget the plumb line of scripture, this really is about them.
The Bentley emailers feel good about their experience, special, and no way is anyone going to talk about bad weather or the spiritual traffic jam.

The second was the information the newly elected President of the SBC had 2 honourary degrees from diploma mills in Georgia, his home state. The reaction has been a classic study in shoot the messenger. Classic.
I know, I’ve done it, I still fire at a messenger from time to time I’m sorry to say.
It’s an easy trap to fall into.

I didn’t just deal with facts I’d researched for the post, I wandered into wondering why, my speculation was rightfully questioned. The rest, well, human beings get a fair bit of exercise jumping to conclusions.
Let’s shoot the messenger. In 3-2-1…

I was the one with the ego/pride pride problem
I hate Johnny Hunt
he’s a man of God, don’t I get that?
I’m questioning diploma mills, ergo I’m questioning Johnny Hunt’s ministry
facts are speculation
I’m accusing
I’m unfair
Jesus would have gone to Johnny Hunt first
I’m making an issue out of a none-issue
I’m unforgiving
media doesn’t care
oh wait, the media that did speak up is suspect, they have an agenda, they aren’t us
I don’t have all the facts
oh, wait, I have some, but
I am just like a Johnny Hunt internal SBC enemy because I’m questioning
the original media source is bitter, they aren’t us
there are no professional/ethical guidelines, ergo let it go
I’m attacking the man’s character not his credentials
oh wait, I’m attacking his credentials too
I’m undermining SBC needs
I don’t care about truth
oh, wait, perhaps I do, but I really misunderstand
just people with degrees get upset about this stuff
the original media source wanted someone else to win
people knew so what, so I have a problem, ergo I am the problem
he didn’t ask for these, it was others handing them to him
lots of people are making personal attacks, ergo, I am too
I’m obsessed
I’m reaching, insinuating, impugning his character
oh wait, no, but I’m really silly to get cranked up about nothing
I’m lying because they aren’t really diploma mills
I’m into attack and hack
I’m responsible for disquiet and discouragement about this issue
I didn’t verify
Johnny Hunt doesn’t deserve this
sour grapes (That is another personal favorite)

As people simmer down, keep talking, messages get sorted out.
To what extent depends on the personal investment of the people talking and willing to talk.

The final example is disquieting and still playing out. At least Johnny Hunt fanboys are talking.
On some level the Southern Baptist Convention has made a collective and institutional decision.

As Canadian bloggers have questioned the academic credentials of one Charles McVety, one Brian Rushfeldt, the silence has been deafening.
No messengers getting shot.
No responses to honest queries about where doctorates have been obtained.
Instead a diploma mill website gets a  re-do.

The wise inherit honor, but fools he holds up to shame.Proverbs 3: 35 NIV

Update: New York Times, June 29, 2008 Diploma Mill Concerns Extend Beyond Fraud