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Saturday, September 15, 2007

One Professor for 15,000 Students


'Warren County sheriff candidate Bud York has a college degree from a school that has been called a notorious “degree mill” and was shut down by the federal government after its founder was sent to prison for defrauding students.

York’s campaign literature lists a 1995 bachelor’s degree in criminal justice management from LaSalle University.

York acknowledged this week the LaSalle he went to is not the renowned college of the same name in Pennsylvania, but rather a mail-order institution in Louisiana that was closed by federal prosecutors after it was found to have one faculty member for 15,000 students. [Sounds like Universite de la Republique.]

The Post-Star asked York about the degree this week after being contacted by a Skidmore College professor, who saw the degree mentioned in a campaign flier and knew of the history of LaSalle University of Louisiana.

“It is most distinctly a degree mill, and it gives accredited colleges a bad name,” said the professor, Glens Falls resident Christopher Whann.

Whann, who teaches government in Skidmore’s “University Without Walls” distance learning program, said the name “LaSalle” jumped out at him because he had followed the campaign and knew York worked in Warren County in the mid-1990s, when he got the diploma. Whann also ran unsuccessfully for Glens Falls City Council in 2005 on the Republican and Conservative parties lines.



York said he wrote numerous papers, studied via the Internet and correspondence courses, and got credit for courses he took at Adirondack Community College and Albany Business College.

He also received credit for his experience with the State Police, where he was a trooper and senior investigator until he retired earlier this year.

He said his LaSalle degree was conferred based on a two-year program that he completed in a year-and-a-half.

He said State Police reimbursed him for the $6,000 to $7,000 he paid to get the degree, and he got an annual stipend from the State Police for having the degree. Troopers with bachelor’s degrees get an annual bonus of $500. [If you're looking for the real scandal, it's here. Note that the police paid for this shit, gave him credit, and gave him a bonus.]


“No one has ever told me it’s not a good degree,” he said. “I’ve never pushed the degree (in the sheriff campaign). It was just something personal I always wanted to do — get a college degree.”

York does refer to the degree in a flier mailed to Republican voters in Warren County and in a candidate questionnaire he submitted to The Post-Star.

He said he recalled getting a letter from the college years after he got his degree indicating there was an investigation, but he said he was assured the investigation did not affect the degree.

‘Degree mills’

The LaSalle institution is one of hundreds that has been singled out by educators as an unaccredited “degree mill” that gives degrees to people simply for paying tuition fees and doing little or no coursework.

John Bear, a California professor and noted watchdog of degree mills — he has written numerous books on the subject of unaccredited institutions offering mail-order degrees and operates the clearinghouse www.degree.net — has cited LaSalle University of Louisiana as the “second-worst degree mill” he’s come across.

“It’s not just my opinion that it was a degree mill,” he said. “It had one faculty member for 15,000 students, and she didn’t have a bachelor’s degree. Beyond any doubt, the man who founded it pleaded guilty to mail fraud, tax fraud and went to prison for four years.”

Degrees from LaSalle have also been questioned by regulators and employers across the United States.

“LaSalle University of Louisiana was an institution that did offer degrees for less than college level work required. They basically were a fraudulent or substandard institution. In fact, it was closed down by the federal government,” David Linkletter of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board said in an October 2006 interview with a Texas television station. A Texas school administrator’s Ph.D from LaSalle was under investigation at the time of that interview.

“LaSalle University (of Louisiana) was a paradigmatic example of a degree mill. There is not a lot of debate,” said Barmak Nassirian, spokesman for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers.

LaSalle’s founder, James Kirk, served more than four years in federal prison after a 1995 raid at the school resulted in an 18-count federal indictment against him.

Bear said the prosecution ended with federal prosecutors sending letters to every student that had paid for a degree at LaSalle. In the letter, prosecutors told students their tuition money would be refunded if they mailed their degrees back to Louisiana and renounced their diplomas.

York said he didn’t get any such letter.

He said he learned of LaSalle University through an advertisement and enrolled because it was one of the cheaper programs he found, and the course work could fit in around his schedule.

“They told me they were accredited,” he said. “To me, they seemed legitimate. If I thought it was wrong, I wouldn’t have put it out there.”'