Here’s the newly elected mayor of Balch Springs, Texas, Dr. Carrie Gordon. Dr. Carrie, who always calls herself Dr., positively boasts on her campaign web page that she earned the right to call herself Dr. because she got a doctorate at Columbia Pacific University — a notorious, now-defunct diploma mill.
Here’s another campaign web page, in which Dr. Carrie announces her victory in the contest for mayor by saying All Praises and glory to God Almighty!!!
Which makes UD worry a tad about the separation of church and state in her administration. But UD doesn’t live in Balch Springs, so it’s not that big a deal for her…
The Dallas Morning News reports that more and more people are beginning to question that pesky, illegal Ph.D.
…When she ran for mayor of Balch Springs this year, Gordon used the title of “doctor” extensively – including more than 20 times on her campaign Web site, on campaign signs and T-shirts, and in campaign filings. She’s listed on the Balch Springs City Council’s Web site as doctor.
Gordon did not respond to requests for comment.
Columbia Pacific appears on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s list of “institutions whose degrees are illegal to use in Texas.
I think Dr. Carrie should respond to requests for comment. She should say what her hundreds of outed diploma mill precursors say at this point in the process: I will not dignify this smear with a response.
If she follows the well-worn path of all the shabby fake Drs. in this country, she’ll continue with variants of this for awhile: It’s sad that my political foes feel compelled…
After that, the comments will be like this: I’m far too busy doing the people’s work to respond to …
As things heat up for her, Carrie Gordon can be expected to say I entered that program in good faith, worked my butt off for it, and am the victim of a scam.
If things get even hotter, here’s what she’ll say: I was a young, hard-working wife and mother. I had no time to attend a traditional university. If in my haste to improve myself through higher education I made some wrong moves, I apologize to my constituents.
She will graciously announce at the next council meeting that the residents of Balch Springs no longer need feel obliged to address her as Dr.
November 7th, 2009 at 4:44PM
It appears her husband, a musician, also has a Ph.D. Perhaps they got Columbia Pacific’s family package?
November 7th, 2009 at 5:00PM
I wondered about that myself. Diploma milling, we call this.
January 25th, 2010 at 1:47PM
Here is the Comment of Jerry Bergman, PhD, on the Balch- Springs- Mayor’s Doctorate, published in the Dallas News:
1 Mayor earned degree when CPU was legal
2 The court ruled that CPU degrees are legal
3 CPU was accredited (“approved”) by California, a sovereign authority
4 US Department of Education (USDE) recognized CPU as accredited in the 1980s
5 USDE acknowledges that regional accreditation is optional
6 USDE acknowledges that schools can excel without accreditation
7 Texas law re CPU unconstitutional and libellous
January 25th, 2010 at 1:56PM
The Clarification on the Mayor’s degree below by Paul Hartal also appeared in the Dallas News:
“CPU was accredited (“approved”) by the Department of Education in California. It underwent successfully peer reviews and its degrees were equivalent to regionally accredited degrees. CPU’s closure is irrelevant to the Mayor’s doctorate. When she did it CPU was an internationally recognized school, in good standing, and her degree is legally valid.
Texas not only does not recognize CPU but actually places it on a list of “fraudulent” schools. So, allow me, please, to quote respectfully from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. As Mr. Bumble said: “If the law supposes that” …”the law is a ass–a idiot” (chapter 51).
The Mayor holds a legitimate, scholarly and legally valid degree earned through her talent, knowledge, experience and hard work. The Texas law unjustly violates her constitutional rights and wrongfully defames her credentials.”