cas : cas presentations Unconventional University Diplomas from Online Vendors February 5, 2003 Wednesday, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Music Room, Levis Faculty Center University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign George Gollin Department of Physics, CAS Beckman Associate, 1997-98 For a price, it is possible to acquire unearned academic degrees from non-existent universities that market diplomas over the internet. The support services offered by these vendors include "verification" of credentials on behalf of clients and the creation of letters of recommendation written by imaginary faculty. One source of these degrees, the "University Degree Program," has been aggressively marketing its products through advertising windows that appear without warning on screens of networked personal computers. Since the University Degree Program creates web sites for its fictitious campuses, it is possible to recognize them through the shared content and contact information in their web sites. Equipped with the names of sixteen of their "universities," one can identify University Degree Program clients who have allowed their misleading credentials to be posted to the worldwide web. The ranks of customers with purchased degrees include psychologists with clinical responsibilities and faculty at accredited universities. I will describe results of searches for information about fictitious universities and their "graduates." Recent news. On Aug. 20, 2008, George Gollin was interviewed on the syndicated TV program "The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet" view segment one view segment two George Gollin provided this update as of August 20, 2008: 1. The Higher Education Opportunity Act (H.R. 4137) was signed into law by President Bush on August 14. It includes, for the first time, a federal definition of the term "diploma mill." This can then be used in the creation of additional regulations and legislation. The diploma mill content was originally crafted by Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN04), although it went through extensive modification by the House-Senate conference committee before becoming law. 2. California, which has been without a law allowing it to regulate higher education for some months now, has had its Assembly pass SB 823 (California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2008) by a 43 - 32 vote. The bill now goes to the Senate. In recent weeks California has become the "home" to two illegal degree providers, "Canyon College" and "Breyer State University" which fled Idaho in response to a toughening of that state's enforcement activities. Chronicle of Higher Education