DU IIO
Degree Mills
vs. Accredi ed
Colleges
(P rt r 0)
: Accredi t tion i
v lid tion, t t m nt by
g oup of per on ho re
imp rti I in higher educ tion,
that given choot, or
dep rtment within choot,
h been thoroughly
inve tigated and found worthy
of pprov I.
ccording to B r ' Guide
to Earning Non-tr ditional
College Degree ,on of th
m in re on th t uch plac
continue to exi '\ i th t it is
difficult to define I gaily
exactly wh tim nt by the
t rm "diploma mill" or d gr e
mill. "
ONE M ' degree mill i
another man' alternative
univer ity. And nobody eem
to want the government
tepping in to evaluate '
doctoral di ertation before
permitting chool to grant
degree.
A ther I rge gray area,
ccording to bear, i the one
dealing with religiou chools.
Becau e of con titutional
afeguard in the U.S.
ante ing eparation of
c urch and tate, mo t state
have been reluctant to pa any
law ny law restricting the
activities of churche ,
including the right to grant
degrees to all who make an
appropriately large donation.
In many tate , religious
school are not regulated, but
are re tricted to granting
religious degree .
But in some, like Mis ouri..
if you establi hed your own
one-pe on chu,r;ch ye terday,
you could start your univer ity
today, and award a Ph.D. in
nuclear physic tomorrow.
THREE COMMON
REASONS emerge as to why
degree mills are able to
operate. Any law that tries to
define something that is
subjective, whether it is
obscenity, "Pornography,
threatening behavior, or the
quality of a school is
(considered) controversial.
- Degree mills that sell
their products only in other
states or other countric .• arc
more likely to get away with it
longer.
- The third reason for the
proliferation of degree mills in
the past is that "the wheels of
j �stice" ground very slowly.
By and large, the main
reason for the success of
degree mills is that people
k ep buying their product.
People want degrees and
b�lieve that they can get away
",ith them.
'. It is quite common to read
in the classified section of
many highly respected
business or consumer oriented
publications ads that read
"University Degrees By Mail"
or ,Economical home study for
Bachelor's, Master's, Ph.D,"
It should be noted that not all of
those schools running ads are degree
mills and that many highly re peered
accredited and unaccredited school
offer correspondence and home
study courses. ,
HILTON: ·HIGHER
EDUCATION is designed to be
a dialogue with college and
world readers. Education is
ongoing and certainly. not
I imited to classroom study.
Let's talk. (714) 899-0650.
VIEWS
rin
c r e e r
declined.
yer t-
tributed her
problem to
reve e di -
crimin tion
m 0 n
African-Americans who
achieved prominence in
sports, by contrast, were
known as "natural
athletes" who did not
have to train rigorously
for their successes. ,
c 0
c h
e eel'in thleti
opportuni ti re till limi ted in
prof jonal and corporate cirel
for minoriti and omen. Expand
job ceess and affirmative etlon en­
forceme and fewer Bl would
go into spo •
cial discrimination till ram
pant in college thleti • A recently
released NCAA study indica t
the graduation ra r five
for BI ck athle only 26.6 per-
cent, com to 52.2 percent for
whites. More igni6candy, the v t
majority of white athle drop out of
college during their early ye
while nearly many B athlet
Racial "iolence and the media
Letter To The Editor:
Tallying up the racial violence
scorecard isn't be t manner to
handle the complex issue of racial
harmony. In fact, ometimes I
wonder if people on-)both sides
of the line --are encouraging ra­
cial upheaval by voicing alarming
rhetoric. But, I must say the local
media's lopsided reaction to
recent incidents is.suspect,
For example, the onslaught on
coac
1987,
." In
he
g r e
printer
and
jumper.
Why
hould
wor to
develop
whi alb­
le w en
he doesn't ve to do anything with
a BI c athlete? They j t recruit
them, time them, and they have a
winning team."
Myers' tatemen represent the
"new racism" ofWlllie Horton b b-
ing and B h administration ul
on affirmative action. The argument
i not only racist, i illogical in the
extreme. Because in reality, uccess
by any group inaul avenue of human
endeavor' 1�"lv determined by
the factor ot opportunity,
citizen hip,
bee me
the Metropolitan Center for High
Technology was Objective.
The reporter never gave me
the opportunity to res.pond
pecifically to any of the i ues
raised by other people he inter­
viewed. He asked only general
ci tizen of
Spain and that country' brightest
hope for an Olympic Medal in the
1992 Game in Barcelona.
Joanne Was was elevated to
super-story status by the local
media because it was
VIDEOTAPED racial violence.
Given the Rodney King beating
in Los Angeles and the Black traf­
fic officer beating of a Black
motorist in Texas, videotaped
violence by "amateurs" is almost
as newsworthy on the media's
trendy scale as the latest Maden-
. na video. Somehow it's not good
ere "am'mAts
bein . Anyone ow that ho e renounced
can out run y pe r American
more po erful
eightlifter.
To be Bl-"�"'�·� to be cl er to the
ph leal orld of . And 0
course, hi 00 displ yed phy i-
cal pro e ere id to have
chievcd ocomplisbmen by
their mental po e . WHY W Myers, who could
A more phi ticated racism' _ barely peak a word of Spani b,
evident y at all levels of ath- prepared to urrender er American
lencs, some white athletes who citizenship? In a recent press ac-
fail to chieve are quicker ever count, Myers explained: "For a
to ttribute their shortco . ngs to white sprint r in the U.S" it' very,
"reverse di crimination" olicies very difficult.
f vorin Black. For example, "It' kind of a phobia-you just
there' the recent case of Sandra don't see any white sprinters, and
- WE1.L JUST
S:11HESE.
AS'OE .••
enough to get sucker punched and
sprayed with racist utterances, its
gona be chronicled on tape tool
I detest what. those young
sisters did to Ms. Was, but if I
have to tomach that tape again, I
will hurl my television form a
window. I've seen very limited
analysis and investigation by the
local media on the black girls who
were attacked in Shelby
Township by whi tes, or the young
·Metro Tech Center has good
Dear Editor:
It is a reporter's responsibility
to actively seek both sides of a
story, to double check informa­
tion and present the story in a
balanced manner. We do not
believe your July 7 tory about
�E SUPREM[ CoURTS
SOET-ASIDE PRO(iRAM .
.'
brother who was commanded by
white doctor in Birmingham to
kiss the concrete or else.
So if you're scoring �t home
folks, racial violence recorded by
"amateurs" collects two points
from the local media; just plain
racial violence, gets only point.
Kenneth Coleman Jr.
o troit
rack record
questions to which I gave general
answers, which were not even
used until the last third of the
story. He did not confirm simple
items of fact. He rushed through
our two telephone conversations
"on deadline," after "clearly
having spent a great deal more
time talking with other sources.
Every company in the
Metropolitan Center for High
Technology' incubator is uni­
que. We elect from a long menu
of lease arrangements and ser­
vice to meet each client's
pecffic needs.
ot every ervice i useful to
every client.
The clients who are most uc­
ces ful are those who are willing
to k for help and will hare the
information about their company
that will help evaluate their
needS.
among our clients. Out of 23
comp nies served by the in­
cubator since 1987, 10 were
Black-owned. Only 30 percent of
the minority firms left the center
before graduating, compared to
46 percent of the non-minortiy
firms.
Just three out of every 10 new
companies incorporated an U.S.
survive their first five years.
While an incubator like MCHT
increases the odds of uccess, it
cannot guarantee that II given
busine will urvive.
The Metropolitan Center for
High Technology i making an
important contri ution to the
economic renai s nee of
southeast Michigan. We are �
proud of our work, and happy to
discuss it with tho e who listen
Objectively and report accurately.
harlan Dou la APR
L\1e most
.
p,rt'ciOI-iS!1j:s l"hRt
PRrefits ell fI � i ve
R child is tune
wu:l ronsistent .
_qtAirlana .