Links
Archives
Monday, December 06, 2004
|
FELINE DISTANCE LEARNING
As with the post directly below, about some game GW University won, UD includes the following breaking news story reluctantly. It is about a diploma mill, and it's getting a lot of play, so some of you will send the link to her, and then she'll have to explain why she didn't blog it, etc. So she'll blog it. Pennsylvania Attorney General Jerry Pappert isn't amused... Colby is a pet cat and a Texas-based online college allegedly gave the feline a degree for $399. "I filed this lawsuit to stop a massive illegal spam campaign that not only defrauded consumers and employers, but damaged the reputations of numerous Pennsylvania businesses across 24 counties and a government office," Pappert said Monday. Pappert's office used the pet cat to investigate an alleged scheme designed to promote and sell bogus online academic degrees. The civil lawsuit filed Monday named two brothers -- Craig Barton Poe and Alton Scott Poe -- as well as Trinity Southern University and Innovative Cellular and Wireless Inc. The defendants are accused of fraudulently claiming that Trinity Southern University of Plano, Texas, is a legitimate institution that can issue various degrees. According to investigators, beginning in January 2004, the defendants transmitted more than 18,000 illegal e-mail messages to promote the sale of online academic degrees. A Web site link included in the e-mails claimed that for a fee between $299 and $499, consumers could get a bachelor's, master's, executive master's or Ph.D. degree in several fields including English, business administration and biology. Undercover agents contacted the defendants online to obtain a $299 bachelor's degree in business administration for the cat, Colby Nolan. The information on the student application claimed Colby completed three courses at a community college and worked at two different retailers as a manager. Colby's previous work experience included food prep at a fast-food restaurant, babysitting and a paper route, said the application. The school then allegedly informed Colby via e-mail that the work experience qualified Colby to receive an executive MBA, not the bachelor's degree that was requested. (Currently, the school charges $399 for an MBA, plus shipping and handling, according to its Web site.) The state said within several weeks, the defendants awarded an executive MBA to Colby, along with an official looking diploma with the signatures of the university president and dean. Americans don't care about diploma mills, and this lawsuit won't do anything to put any mills out of business (the boys from Plano are probably already back up and running under a different name). But Americans are happy to laugh at their evening news reporter shaking her head in faux disbelief: "I ask you, Bob, what next? A cat with an MBA degree?" "Hey, Sue, lemme tell you, I think my investment advisor must've got his degree at the same place!" If these viewers thought about it for a moment, they would realize that the story stinks from top to bottom. The cat didn't get the degree; the cat's name did. The cat's owners could as easily have applied on behalf of an amoeba, or a quark, but that wouldn't be all cute. It wouldn't allow you to put on screen, as this tv station did, a doctored photo of a black cat wearing a cap and gown. The only thing accomplished in this sorry affair was the degradation of the cat, who was made to look a liar. This is exactly the sort of unfairness Peter Singer has been writing about. |