Concordia College and University

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See Concordia University (disambiguation) for the various unrelated educational institutions that have similar names.

Concordia College and University is an entity with a primary mailing address in Dominica that represents itself as a higher education institution that awards associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in almost any subject, based solely on the purchaser's work and life experience, without any class attendance, study, or academic examinations. Concordia College and University is widely considered to be a diploma mill.

1 Accreditation
2 Concerns by U.S. state regulators
3 Individual cases
- 3.1 Seneca County, Ohio
- 3.2 Louise Wightman
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Accreditation

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Concordia College and University is not accredited by any accreditation body recognized by its country. According to the US Department of Education, unaccredited degrees and credits might not be acceptable to employers or other institutions, and use of degree titles may be restricted or illegal in some jurisdictions.^[1]

Concordia College and University claims to be recognized and accredited by the governments of Indonesia and Liberia, but it is not accredited by any higher education accrediting body recognized in the United States or most other countries where its degrees are advertised.

The school has been called a diploma mill by Allen Ezell, a retired FBI agent who co-authored the book "Degree Mills". ^[2] According to John Bear, Concordia College and University has an address in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and gives degrees based on "life experience".^[3]

Concordia College and University claims that its degrees are recognized by the National Academy of Higher Education^[4], an entity that is not recognized as a higher education accreditor by either the United States Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation^[5] and that several educational organizations identify as an unrecognized^[6]^[7] accreditation organization or accreditation mill. In 2003 Concordia College and University was reported to be claiming accreditation by the Distance Graduation Accrediting Association, which is not recognized as an accreditor by the U.S. Department of Education or any foreign equivalent.^[8]

In September 2004, The East Carolinian, the student newspaper of East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina reported that "There are at least a half-dozen legitimate Concordia colleges and Concordia universities around the country. But Concordia College and University is a diploma mill that offers degrees in as little turnaround time as 12 hours."^[9]

The article noted, "The fake Concordia College and University admonishes Web surfers to 'be safe and purchase a government approved degree.' The government, it turns out, is war-torn Liberia. The school's offices are in Dominica, and its U.S. mailing address is in Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Its website domain is in Pakistan."^[9]

While Concordia College and University has more recently claimed to be operating from a legitimate .edu domain, this has invariably turned out to be one of a number of ruses:

It has used subdomains of edu.tf - a free redirector operated by unonic.com. While .tf is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the uninhabited French Southern and Antarctic Lands, "edu.tf" itself is an individual .tf site like any other and therefore does not signify that an institution holds any form of accreditation. ^[10] These addresses may be redirected anywhere on the web and may be obtained by anyone with an e-mail address.
It has used shared subdomains of edu.ms - a domain shared through afraid.org's Free DNS. While .ms is the country code top-level domain for Montserrat, "edu.ms" is an ordinary .ms domain like any other and does not necessarily signify an accredited institution.^[11] FreeDNS has shut down both concordia.edu.ms and www.concordia.edu.ms due to abuse.
A name search on smartdots.com's edu.tc web redirector shows a concordia.edu.tc as formerly-registered there but now defunct.^[12] The edu.tc domain itself is registered in Turks and Caicos Islands by Interdots International, a Greek company, and is an ordinary domain like any other.
It has also used freely-shared subdomains of a domain registered to intec.edu, a small computing institute in Panama City. Intec did validly qualify for .edu before Educause's tightened requirements for registration came into force in 2001.^[13] Nonetheless, Concordia College and University is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by Intec in any manner. Afraid.org FreeDNS has shut down two of these shared subdomains (concordia.intec.edu and www.concordia.intec.edu) and, as of 2007, new shared Instituto Tecnológico de Computación subdomains are no longer being made available^[14].

All of these pages were merely redirected (using frames), most often to their main .net domain or to false pages in various free services, such as freewebs.com ^[15]

[edit] Concerns by U.S. state regulators

The Oregon Office of Degree Authorization lists a "Concordia University" in its list of unaccredited degree suppliers, and notes that it is a Class B misdemeanor in Oregon to use an unlawful degree. ^[16]

Concordia College and University also appears on a State of Michigan list of non-accredited colleges and universities.^[17]

In 2003 the North Dakota Legislative Assembly moved forward a bill "that would punish anyone trying to use a degree from a diploma mill as a legitimate credential." In a 2003 article discussing the legislation, The Chronicle of Higher Education stated that "state officials are concerned that illegitimate institutions are mimicking the names of legitimate ones," citing as an example "an entity called Concordia College & University" whose name is similar to that of Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, an accredited school attended by many North Dakota students.^[8] The article further noted that for Concordia College & University "No classes or exams are required. Associate and bachelor's degrees cost $599, master's degrees $699, and doctorates $1,099, including shipping and handling, the site says, noting that degree recipients get a certified diploma and two transcripts, complete with watermarks."^[8]

[edit] Individual cases

[edit] Seneca County, Ohio

In October 2006 a Seneca County, Ohio grand jury indicted John McGuire, the new police chief of Fostoria, Ohio on two felony counts of tampering with records and two misdemeanor charges of falsification involving his qualifications. The Toledo Blade noted he "obtained a criminal-justice degree from Concordia College and University, an online degree program in the Virgin Islands." ^[18]

In February 2007, the paper reported that documents filed in a drug case showed that a police dog of the Fostoria police department had also received a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice from Concordia in 2006.^[19] The dog's degree was planned to be used as evidence in the court trial, but the prosecutor noted "I don't think it's necessary to bring the actual dog"^[20] A few weeks later it was revealed that the degree had been purchased by Greg Peiffer, general manager and president of Fostoria radio station WFOB, who said it was obtained with minimal effort.^[21]

The trial was of McGuire was originally scheduled for March 2007^[22] but was delayed.^[23] In May, McGuire testified that the degree was based on a combination of life experience and transferred credits from courses he took at the U.S. Air Force Community College. The judge in the case ruled that McGuire "earned his degree", noting evidence that McGuire had helped search for bodies at the World Trade Center site after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, had attended the FBI Academy, had assisted in the search for Olympic Park bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, and had served in Operation Desert Storm. With regard to the diploma awarded to the dog, the judge said that "This court finds no similarity between those two degrees."^[24]

[edit] Louise Wightman

In May 2007 Louise Wightman of Norwell, Massachusetts, was convicted of fraud and larceny for misrepresenting herself as a licensed psychologist and for falsely advertising that she held a doctorate in psychology. Part of her crime was claiming to have a Ph.D. based on having received a degree from Concordia. She holds a valid master's degree and devoted five years of study to a Ph.D. program which she did not complete. She is therefore legally qualified to use the term "psychotherapist" but not "psychologist" according to state licensing requirements.

She told the jury that she felt she had earned a Ph.D., so she paid about $1,300 to obtain her degree (Ph.D. with a major in psychology) over the Internet from Concordia College and University.^[25] This credential ultimately proved to be worthless. ^[26]