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(Tenured Radical)

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Eerie.


More seasonal strangeness. The head of Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice describes getting his master's degree:


'[Walter] McNeil said he could not remember any courses he took at St. John's or the names of any professors or how much tuition he paid. He also was not sure whether he wrote a master's thesis. "I think I did," he said.'


How do you get so fuzzy about things?

You've read University Diaries long enough to know.

You buy your master's degree over the phone.

The school "ran its operations from a converted house near the town of Springfield, La. (pop. 400). Until 2001, the school was listed in Louisiana corporate records as the St. John's University of Practical Theology. The school relocated to a house in Nashville in 2005," reports the St. Petersburg Times.

'McNeil is "putting himself on the same standard as other people with legitimate master's (degrees). It's not morally acceptable," said Allen Ezell, a former FBI agent who has written books on the issue and now investigates corporate fraud as a Wachovia vice president in Tampa. "He's a cop. He's a law enforcement officer. He's supposed to lead by example."'


Yes, it's always a little more striking when someone in law enforcement does it... Sets quite the example, especially if you're working with young people...

'"It's basically a guy in some church," said Alan Contreras, who heads Oregon's Office of Degree Authorization, which closely tracks schools with questionable accreditation.'