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Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Diploma Milling...


...is the name UD gives to the tendency of large groups of employees at the same public school, fire house, or federal agency, to buy bogus degrees from the same diploma mill at the same time.

Any business can set off diploma milling by granting pretty much automatic pay raises to employees who can show that they have an advanced degree.

Because of its dramatic nature, however, diploma milling is beginning to attract the attention of employers, as in this San Antonio case:



San Antonio firefighters with degrees in their field won't earn more money.

The firefighter's union ended up on the losing side of an arbitration ruling on Friday.

For years, firefighters were eligible for an increase in pay, if they earned a degree. But with the ease of obtaining a degree online, the city reversed its policy and the arbitration panel backed the city.


... Going back to at least 2001, Chief Robert Ojeda said a degree from Lacrosse University qualified under the incentive pay clause of the union's contract. Lacrosse took "life experience" into issuing their fire safety management degrees and the number of firefighters applying for that degree was snowballing.

"This time there was 12 people. The next year there was going to be 36 people who put in for that degree," [a spokesman] said.



---MySA.com---
Posted at: 1/02/2007 11:57:00 AM