By Christina Couch
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Having already earned a legitimate Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University, Gollin was intrigued by American Coastline’s claim that “most adults have already earned the equivalent of a degree/degrees through their life learning.” Determined to find out what kinds of new credentials the school would award him without ever having to take a single class, Gollin submitted his physics thesis, and in return was told the school would grant him a doctorate in aerospace engineering he could then use to land an engineering job in the real world.
Instead, Gollin created a Web site and posted about his experiences with American Coastline, officially outing the school as diploma mill. From there, Gollin continued applying to suspicious schools, and over the next three years, exposed more than 80 fake universities, including St. Regis University, operated through the Liberian government and touted as one of the most extensive diploma mill cases in history.
“It’s a different issue from just consumer protection where someone is selling stuff and the stuff is not worth the money,” Gollin says of his diploma mill crusade. “Fake credentials are serious. This is a big problem.”
Big problem is right. According to Allen Ezell, former head of the FBI diploma mill-busting task force, DIPSCAM, and co-author of Degree Mills: The Billion-Dollar Industry That Has Sold Over a Million Fake Diplomas, the diploma mill industry has now become so advanced that you can purchase credentials for literally any and every profession as well as your very own fake transcript, recommendations, and personalized diploma mill operation to go with it.
“Paper opens the door,” Ezell comments. “We’ve seen CEOs lie about their credentials. I knew an assistant secretary of defense that had a degree from a degree mill."
The false degree industry is as vast as it is high reaching. In fact, recent cases like that of Dr. Laura Callahan, a former Homeland Security executive who obtained a bogus doctorate from Hamilton University, as well as the enormous reach of St. Regis University's illegitimacy (more than 6,000 fake college degrees – 40 percent of them to foreign nationals seeking entry into the U.S. – were conferred) show just how powerful the false degree industry can truly be.
And that power is just what whistleblowers like Gollin are attempting to take away from school scammers, by bringing incidents of scholastic fraud to light. Gollin’s investigation was instrumental in American Coastline University being labeled a diploma mill by the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, a leading authority in false degrees. In fact, many believe Gollin's continued fight against worthless diplomas, responsible for charges against 80 phony schools, prevented hundreds if not thousands of scam-artist doctors, surgeons, security personnel, engineers, and Ph.D.s from entering the job market.
“Most people aren’t going to take the time not do they wish to be bothered, but George really stepped up to the plate,” Ezell says. “People have to ask themselves, 'what are they going to do about this problem'?”
For Bennett Packman, a physical education teacher in Miami-Dade County, Florida, doing something meant temporary unemployment. When Packman was asked to teach a driver’s education course he was not certified to teach, he was encouraged by the school principal to skip the 100 hours required to gain the proper certification and instead enroll in a one-day course through a distance education provider, Move On Towards Education and Training (MOTET). When Packman became suspicious of MOTET's validity, he refused to enroll and requested a transfer to a different high school. When his request was denied, he refused to go to work.
“I couldn't work with someone who would trap me into signing student waivers – it would be fraud on my part.” After a full-scale investigation of MOTET, officials discovered that the organization had provided false credentials to more than 650 teachers in Florida. Additionally, through partnerships with at least five colleges and universities, MOTET had awarded illegitimate degrees to more than 750 students, including two congressmen and one state senator. Today, MOTET has been shut down, its founder is serving prison time, and the legal system is still figuring out what to do when teachers are the ones who cheat.
Packman says the despite the turmoil, he’s glad he stepped forward. “I want kids to have teachers that they feel are role models, that they can emulate,” he comments. “You have to follow your conscience… if you don’t, the internal price will be greater.”
Alan Contreras, an administrator in Oregon’s Office of Degree Authorization, says that making a dent in the diploma mill industry will require ordinary citizens as well as state legislators to take a stand.
“When I started this job in 1999, the only two states that had laws about what degrees were legitimate were Oregon and New Jersey,” Contreras states. “Today there are 10 states with somewhat similar laws, the most recent of which is Washington.” Contreras credits his state’s degree authorization office for significantly reducing the number of diploma mills operating in Oregon and encourages citizens to lobby their local representatives for similar laws.
Even with the diploma mill boom of the past few years, there’s still legitimate learning opportunities within the online education community, as the number of accredited online institutions and programs dedicated to providing a high-quality education has risen steadily. Thanks to the Deficit Reduction Act, online institutions have now been granted the same federal aid status as brick-and-mortar schools, meaning more grants and scholarships for e-students as well as more checks for online schools receiving federal aid.
According to Ezell, the key to becoming an effective diploma mill-buster is simply reporting what you see. If you receive a suspect education offer, Ezell recommends first checking to see whether or not the school is accredited by contacting the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (202-955-6126), then forwarding any spam mail you receive to the Federal Trade Commission as well as the FBI. If you can find out where the diploma mill is based, that state’s attorney general’s office should be contacted as well.
Whether or not you feel the need to act as a diploma mill whistleblower during your educational journey, just remember the most important rule – if it seems way too easy to earn a degree, then it's probably not worth more than the paper it's printed on.
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