Talk:Columbia Pacific University/Archive 1

message: Much of the material in this articles seems to have been lifted verbatim from http://www.altcpualumni.org/chronicles/dex5cpuchronicles.html, which is an extremely partisan source. If anyone has time it would be helpful to remove verbatim copying and to check the POV. -Willmcw 22:30, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Can we discuss major changes to the article here, please? Thanks, -Willmcw 21:57, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Copyright violation

message: Over 1.5 years I researched and collected government documents to develop the above website. Those documents were scanned and linked in that website, so that anyone can take the time to view them. I am the originator of that website (http://www.altcpualumni.org/chronicles/dex5cpuchronicles.html). I am also the originator of the the original Wiki article. If it would be of help I can upload scanned government documents to support everything I have written.
Earon Kavanagh, BS (CPU 1995); PhD Candidate, Tilburg University (Netherlands, gov't funded provincial university) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Earon (talk • contribs)  
The new entry at the beginning of the Wiki article claims that CPU was a "notorious diploma mill". This statement is both misleading, nonsense, lacking analysis, and libelous. Court rulings on the CPU matter (both administrative and State appeals) did not make such statements. If it would help I can upload a pdf of the 1991 State review of CPU and the State document of approval which asserts that CPU was equivalent in quality to regionally accredited institutions. I can also upload court documents and rulings. The press selected negative rhetoric from the local State attorney. I can also upload eyewitness statement from John Bear PhD, who witnessed Judge Jean Druyee berate that State attorney for his lack of preparedness and his obnoxious behavior in the courtroom. Most negative publicity on the internet related to CPU is simply persons copying and repeating negative press in their own websites, without doing any actual evident analysis of the situation. 
Incidently, CPU was awarded IRS nonprofit status in February, 2006. CPU Press also published its first book in over a decade.
Earon Kavanagh, BS (CPU 1995); PhD Candidate, Tilburg University (Netherlands, gov't funded provincial university) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Earon (talk • contribs)  
The article is very inaccurate. Below are a few reasons why. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.106.164.181 (talk • contribs) .  (text omitted - see link at http://www.rae.org/racistresponse.html)
:Thanks for your input. I deleted the text you copied and pasted from your website, and replaced it with a link.  -Will Beback 20:25, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Graduate defends school May 3, 2006

message: Will: Thanks, I will rewrite the article providing I can upload the original government documents to Wikipedia as the primary source files. That way, the "red flag" of citing one source will not be occurring. The website was started in 2001 as a way to hold and display these documents.
EaronEaron 03:43, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: From what I read on the BPPVE site and in the Point Reyes Light, the point of view that you are describing appears to be an unusal one. While we need to include all points of view, we should not give too much weight to minority views. -Will Beback 19:48, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

text: Good point, Will. I will make sure that all points and views are given equal value. It will take a bit of time. However those points should reflect sound research and analysis. Simply regurgitating what is found on negative websites that also regurgitate is misleading. I have no qualms with the BPPVE website as it is source material. The fact is that CPU failed its 1995 reapproval visit, and then chose to stay open AFTER being told to close in 1997. However, court testimony from Dr. Betty Dowd, a whistleblower, also impicate higher ups at the CPPVE, BPPVE's predeccor. This will also be placed on the Wiki site.  That is where CPU got into trouble. We need to keep to the facts, and give opinions a lesser weight. P.S. Thanks for the welcome. I do have some non-CPU material to add to Wiki. Cheers, EaronEaron 04:38, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Earon, you might want to look at Wikipedia:reliable sources. Basically, we don't allow forums, blogs, and self-published material as sources. -Will Beback 06:04, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Documents

message: Dirty Politics and Libellous Announcements
 
Irresponsible and libellous media announcements have defamed Columbia Pacific University (CPU) as a diploma mill. In reality CPU was supervised and approved by the California State Department of Education. Effective 1986-1989, California documents confirm that CPU's full institutional approval was the equivalent of regional accreditation.  
 
CPU was a California State Accredited University. CPU degrees are legal and valid! California newspapers, such as the Point Reyes Light and the Union Tribune in San Diego published misinforming articles about CPU but failed to set the record straight when I submitted to the editors letters requesting appropriate corrections.
 
The closing of CPU resulted not from valid educational considerations but from the dirty politics of higher education in California. Mind you, the judicial system is often not about truth and justice but about power and money. Miscarriage of justice is a common phenomenon. CPU was closed on the basis of a fabricated report full of factual errors and insubstantial allegations. For example, it absurdly claimed that Harvard-trained psychiatrist Dr. Richard Crews was unfit to serve as the President of CPU because he was an MD and not a PhD. Another preposterous and prejudiced assertion was directed against the black deans of CPU holding PhDs from well-known European universities. The report falsely alleged that these European universities are unaccredited. There were over 80 errors of fact in the report rendering it completely worthless.
 
Error of Fact Number 28: The Spanish Dissertation
 
Error of Fact Number 28, for example, has become quite famous and mentioned in a variety of media articles. It concerns a Spanish dissertation that allegedly was approved by faculty who did not speak Spanish. In reality, the CPU faculty mentor who supervised the dissertation worked with the student in Spanish and the doctoral thesis provided Table of Contents, Summary and additional information in English. Moreover, CPU policy changed in early 1995, so that dissertations could be submitted only in English.  
Documented refutation of all the false claims against CPU has been published on line in "The Chronicles of Columbia Pacific University", www.altcpualumni.org. Please, note that CPU graduates earned their degrees through competency and hard work. Thousands of them teach at accredited schools or work in research, civil service, business and industry. The defamation of the good name of CPU as a pioneer of distance education is unfair and unacceptable. Today CPU is a federally recognized non-profit educational institution, www.cpuniv.us .
 
Pluralistic Education is a Necessity''
 
I believe that Pluralistic Education advances the Public Good and therefore it is not only a Democratic Right but also a Necessity. We live in the electronic age that can provide the technology for the development of an information society in which education becomes accessible to broad segments of humankind. The rise of cybernetic culture in the global village can bring distance learning even to the most remote areas of the world. It helps education to be more democratic. Knowledge is power. Education empowers people to become an integral part of a well-informed citizenry, enabling them to create a constructive culture of social and political democracy.
 
Today virtual schools allow the realization of the once-utopic vision of education for all. Unfortunately, the development of virtual schools is also accompanied by the proliferation of Diploma Mills, bogus universities that are in the business of selling fake academic degrees. The infestation of the academic world with diploma mills is accompanied by the problem of how to separate the wheat from the chaff,  the wide-spread inability of the public to differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate educational institutions. 
 
Authoritarian Measures Suffocate Creativity
 
It was Albert Einstein who stressed that imagination is more important than knowledge and that the outstanding accomplishments of the intellect are based on the freedom of thought. In Ideas and Opinions (1954) he points out that the development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit require inner freedom, "the independence of thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudices as well as from unphilosophical routinizing and habit in general" (p. 42). And he adds: Schools might play constructive or destructive roles. They may favour inward freedom and encourage independent thought but they may also interfere and repress them through authoritarian measures.
 
Another leading thinker, Nicholas Negroponte, Professor of Media Technology at MIT, maintains that bureaucratic organizations are the enemies of creative environments. In "Where Do New Ideas Come From?" (Wire, 4.01), he observes that governments and corporations are sterile leagues that stifle imagination and creativity. This is a pity, he says, because we need innovative schools to develop, foster and nurture new ideas for human progress. Prof. Negroponte views the university as an unsettled habitat with undefined edges accommodating academics as well as people "who don't fit traditional scholarship" because new ideas come from a muddled creative environment.       
 
A CPU Connection
 
Allow me please to add a note about my affiliation with CPU. After graduating from high school in Hungary, I attended for two years the University of Szeged. I hold a BA and a Teacher's Certificate from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and a Master's (History and Art History) from Concordia University in Montreal ( Canada), , 
. I wrote my thesis on Georg Lukacs: Aesthetics and History, . I completed all my doctoral course requirements at Concordia, did additional work at Columbia Pacific University and wrote my dissertation on The Interface Dynamics of Art and Science (1986). In the process of researching my doctoral thesis I collaborated with a group of renowned scientists and scholars, including P.R. Halmos (Editor of the American Mathematical Monthly), Sir Nevill Mott (Nobel Laureate in Physics) and John Kemeny ( Dartmouth College President). Under the title, The Brush and the Compass, the dissertation was published in 1988 by University Press of America, , an umbrella academic clearing house of Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and others. The book has been internationally acclaimed and also taught in anthropology, art and science and other interdisciplinary courses,   , , , . I am also the author of A History of Architecture (Jerusalem: R. Mass, 1972), 
,
as well as of other critically acclaimed books, , and have published numerous scholarly papers in such peer-reviewed journals as Leonardo, , , Orbiter, Ylem,Pulsar,Contemporary Philosophy, ,  Q.A.M.T. and Lo Straniero.      
 
Paul Hartal 17:06, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Columbia Pacific University (CPU): A Victim of Miscarriage of Justice and Sensationalist Media

message: Someone added several entries to the list of notable alumni. I spot checked a couple and found this odd one. Dr. Brody says on his CV (here) that he received a PhD. from CPU in Novato in 2001. But our article says they had been closed long before that. Any ideas? -Will Beback 20:37, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: No source was given for the additions and many supposed alumni do not appear to be notable, so I've removed the new entries. Let's find a verifiable source before adding more names, please. Cheers, -Will Beback 22:53, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

text: What was the source for these alumni? The same editor added Dr. Brody, who turned out to not be an alumni after all, even though he lists it on his CV. Is there a list of alumni? -Will Beback 03:10, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

text: PS: the names of Gray, Hawkins, and Bergamn were removed in this edit here:. I've reverted it. -Will Beback 03:13, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Steven A. Brody 

message: This entry on CPU is completely non-neutral and ought to be so noted. Most of the material is from the defenders of the discredited and disreputable CPU. There is no balance of viewpoints from others. 
The fact that the article attempts to use the "honorary" conferring of one of its bogus doctorates on a public personage who likely never heard of it speaks volumes about CPU's reputability. There is no evidence anywhere except on CPU-promoting web sites that Harold Wilson, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, ever had anything to do with CPU.
The fact that CPU is defended by a "graduate" who cannot tell the difference between "there" and "their" speaks to the quality of the "education" the "students" of CPU purchased.
24.20.176.2 20:43, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: New comment

message: Hiding behind a pompous pseudonym, “Legitimate Learning” makes irresponsible, false and libellous accusations against Columbia Pacific University. He ignores the fact that in 1986 CPU received full institutional approval from the California State Department of Education and that the school’s approved status was the equivalent of regional accreditation in the US.  CPU degrees earned between 1978 and 1997 are legal and valid. 
Ironically, Legitimate Learning calls “for balance of viewpoints”, which is certainly not his forte, as can be seen from his defamatory conclusions regarding CPU because of a typo made by one of its graduates. 
“Legitimate Learning” expresses his biased opinion and demonstrates his sloppy research skills regarding Harold Wilson’s affiliation with CPU. Contrary to his claim, the former British Prime Minister was an Honorary Fellow of Columbia Pacific University. The award was conferred on him at the CPU Degree Ceremonies held in October 1983 in Birmingham, England. In addition to Harold Wilson, other distinguished leaders also held Honorary CPU Fellowships, among them David Attenborough, the world famous naturalist, and Jill Knight, M.B.E. M.P., Member of Parliament  for Edgbaston, Birmingham. Documented evidence for this can be found, for example, in the 1984-1985 General Catalogue of CPU (page 14). The 1985 edition of Bear’s Guide to Non-Traditional College Degrees by John Bear mentions Harold Wilson’s Honorary CPU Fellowship (page 96). Moreover, in an article of August 5, 1983, published in The Times Educational Supplement in England, Sarah Bayliss reported that CPU was a serious non-traditional university, “which boasts many reputable names among its faculty and honorary award holders”.  She wrote: “Mr. Barry Taylor, chief education officer for Somerset, last autumn accepted an honorary fellowship from CPU”, and so did “Mr. John Tomlinson, chief education officer of Cheshire and president of the Society of Education Officers in 1982”.    
Paul Hartal 03:29, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think the charges of libel require actually being against a person by name in public, and not against a pseudonym on a wikipedia talk page. I think this battle should be de-escalated here on Wikipedia.  Certainly we can all agree that CPU had some controversy and has had its recognition by CA withdrawn.  I don't think the article should contain anything about whether this is just or not.  Just the facts, ma'am. BTW, I am checking out of this debate, on a wikipedia break. Isoxyl 21:13, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

text: Paul, I would like to point out that legal threats are looked upon quite harshly by the administration and other users here, and can result in sanctions as serious as indefinite blocking of your IP.  I'd like to echo Isoxyl's admonition:  please don't escalate this any further.  Cheers, Skinwalker 23:17, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

text: This is not the place to appeal a legal verdict. Our job is simply to summarize reliable sources using the neutral point of view. We cannot decide whether or not criticisms and legal decisoins have been refuted by expert critics. We can only report both sides of the matter. -Will Beback 23:10, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Libellous Claims of "Legitimate Learning" 

message: This article has, as the heading indicates, serious POV problems.  I have appended an NPOV tag, and I enumerate my reasons as follows:
*The introductory paragraph obfuscates the reasons why CPU was closed.  The intro is also fairly bloated:  it does not really matter in what state the organization is currently organized in, nor is it important to note that the institution was "comparable to regionally accredited schools".  The link that describes CPU as a "pioneer" in distance learning leads to an uncited bit of promotional material on [degree.com], where for-profit universities, term-paper/plagiarism clearinghouses, and outright diploma mills are advertised for.  I am also not sure that CPU Press requires mention, as it has only published one book since its reorganization.
*The History section contains many uncited claims.  Someone has already gone through and appended cite needed tags where necessary.  Furthermore, the citations that are provided link directly to CPU promotional material, which itself is largely uncited.  I propose that uncited claims be excised if  proper citations are not provided.  I also believe that citations from altpcualumni.org fail WP:RS criteria for reasons of bias, lack of editorial oversight, lack of replicability, and possibly lack of corroboration.  
*In the "1994 application, 1994 and 1995 site visits" section, recent additions that cite US News and World Report and Times Educational Supplement articles are not properly cited.  The recent change of "records" to "claims" is of questionable validity, since there are presumably records available of CPU awarding degrees for the listed dissertations.   
*The list of "Notable Alumni" is of particular concern.  Many of these alumni are not notable enough to have their own wikipedia entries.  Most of the other alumni have vanity pages that were created by User:Paul Hartal (in particular, Roger J. Geronimo, Rochelle Holt, and Wallace W. Rhodes) presumably for the purpose of making these people "notable".  These individual entries have been challenged (see their respective talk pages) for not meeting WP:N requirements.  I propose that we excise any "notable alumnus" who does not merit their own non-vanity wikipedia entry.
*Finally, I am concerned that User:Paul Hartal's editing of this page constitutes a conflict of interest.  Mr. Hartal is a member of the board of directors of the reorganized CPU, and his edits to this article have consisted of uncritical advocacy for CPU.  I believe that we should incorporate pro-CPU material into the article to maintain a neutral point of view, but the laundry list of questionably notable alumni, misuse of sources, and weasel words that plague this article serve no one except those who have a vested interest in the academic standing (or lack thereof) of CPU.
I have listed my objections in the hopes that we can avoid sweeping, unilateral changes, and that we can discuss how best to put forth a neutral view of this article's subject.  Cheers, Skinwalker 23:37, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: These are legitimate concerns. The overall tone of the article is very defensive. Many, if not most, of the sources are to CPU-related websites. The editing of the article by Paul Hartal does appear solely devoted to promoting a pro-CPU POV. Due to his conflict of interest he should not be so invovled in editing the CPU article. -Will Beback · † · 00:56, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you for your comments.  I have invited Paul Hartal to discuss my objections, as I would like to get his input.  I will wait another 24 hours before implementing the changes I proposed.  Cheers, Skinwalker 23:21, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: That seems fair. He appears to be active so I don't know why he hasn't responded. -Will Beback · † · 01:43, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Serious POV Problems

message: In August 1995 the CPPVE Site Visit Committee inspected the CPU campus and found 88 irregularities, which eventuated in the denial of the school’s re-approval, , .
However, in November 1995 a consulting firm for the US Department of Education and to over 300 colleges and universities, the Corporation for American Education (CAE), , conducted an investigation, which challenges and refutes the CPPVE findings. 
In  the overview of the “Response to the Report of the Visiting Committee”, November 15, 1995,  the CAE says: “The Visiting Committee Report on California Pacific University (CPU) of August 23-24, 1995 is grossly in error in most details, as documented in the 86 errors of fact enumerated” in the Response. The CAE concludes that these errors render the CPPVE Visiting Committee’s Report “to be utterly unreliable as an objective and thorough evaluation of CPU”,  .
To the CPPVE Report’s accusation that the Chief Academic Officers of CPU do not hold adequate academic degrees, the CAE responds: “The duties of Chief Academic Officer are shared by the Dean of Faculty, Les Carr, PhD, and the President, Richard Crews, MD. Both of these individuals are preeminently well qualified in the behavioral and, specifically, pedagogical sciences.” The CAE document also defends the degrees of Deans Tesfaye Ketsela, PhD, and Fikre Tolossa, PhD, graduates of well-known European universities, namely and respectively, the University of Wales and the University of Bremen.
The CAE Response observes that the CPPVE Visiting Committee’s review of CPU dissertations was based on superficial judgments. In “Error of Fact No. 27”, for example, the Response says, that the complaint about the lack of “evidence of competency in statistical research” is erroneous because “many dissertations do not require statistical analysis”. Errors of Fact No. 28 and No.31 concern the claim that a “dissertation was written in Spanish although the instruction of language at the institution is English and the “course work is completed in a language other than English without appropriately qualified staff”.  The Response states that the indicated student participated with faculty who are fluent in Spanish and the university requirements that the abstract be in English were honored”.
The Visiting Committee’s complaint about a student who only completed 17 semester units at CPU is answered in “Error of Fact No. 46”: “The student’s master degree involved completion of 80 semester units, well in access of the 30 required by CPPVE regulations beyond the Bachelor’s Degree”.
The response to the Visiting Committee’s report was signed by CAE president Dan J. Smith. A former adjunct professor at California State University, LA, Smith in the 1980s directed the Fisk University development project and specializes in college management and accreditation. 
Ignoring the CAE response, CPPVE director Kenneth Miller, the council’s director issued CPU a Denial of Application for Approval. The 1995 report of the visiting committee was also used in the CPU trials that closed down CPU. 
A confidential memo of March 15, 2001 sent to for Les Carr by CPU attorney Orrin Leigh Grover presents a former CPPVE employee’s testimony in court that suggests visiting committee members were selected for their bias against CPU. Betty Dow, PhD, a vocational psychologist and assistant dean with National University was hired by the council in the 1980s. As a post-secondary educational specialist she participated in the site review of CPU and at that time CPU met the regulations, “everything was in compliance”, she testified in court. However, she said in her testimony, in 1992 CPPVE deputy director Sheila Hawkins told her that CPU “were in for a big surprise because they’d never re-approved”. This was three years before the actual site visit of the committee, , .
Paul Hartal 04:05, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: CAE Critique of the 1995 Report of the Visiting Committee

message: If I read the history correctly, CPU had been notified by California that they were no longer approved as of 1997. A page dated December 1998 on the old CPU website titled "Accreditation and Approval" says that they were approved and were in the process of seeking regional accreditation. Is this correct? Is it true that the operators of the school did not inform prospective students that they were no longer approved to operate as a school, or even that the matter was the subject of litigation? Other than this notable omission, do we have any other information about how the school communicated with its alumni, students, and prospective students? Did it refund tuition, etc? I think I've seen some mention of this in sources and/or previous versions of the article.  -Will Beback · † · 02:33, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  December 1998 

message: The Wikipedia article on CPU mentions that the 1995 CPPVE’s “review of CPU listed numerous violations of academic standards, including: One master's-degree student was given credit for ‘a learning contract describing how he would continue taking dance lessons and watch dance demonstrations in order to improve his skills as a Country Western dancer.’" 
This nonsensical accusation casts a farcical light on the CPU bashers. It blames the learner for learning! A dancer’s professional development obviously can benefit from “taking dance lessons and watch dance demonstrations”. Art schools of many well-known universities offer programs and credits for dance. 
Paul Hartal 18:02, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: The Tragicomedy of the CPU Witch-hunt: Blaming the Learner for Learning

message: The truth is the most valuable thing we have, observed Mark Twain. And he added: Let us economize it. Well, lying by omission is an old practice and the media are good at it. The misinformation published on CPU on line and elsewhere may serve as a classic case in point. The articles below demonstrate how the media mislead the public by twisting, distorting and omitting the facts.
Posted on February 21, 2003, Jim Parson of Pittsburgh’s WTAE.TV tells how he harassed CPU degree holders at Pennsylvania State University and Clarion University. He justified the harassment with the words of “diploma mill expert” John Bear: “Tens and tens of fake degrees being sold”, . As I demonstrate below, Bear in reality praised CPU. In his writings he stresses that the lack of regional “accreditation need not mean that a school is either inferior or illegal”. For his part, CPU was a model non-traditional university. 
In an article published in The Daily Californian, July 11, 2005, Josh Keller also describes John Bear as “a leading diploma mill expert”.  “Naming a diploma mill to correspond with a prestigious university is common, Bear said”, writes Keller. So the journalist took a list and included among his examples Columbia Pacific University, .
 
The December 11, 2004, editorial in the San Diego Union Tribune (SDUT) was titled, “Academic Fraud: Cracking Down on Diploma Mills”. It describes John Bear as an academic fraud investigator, “who spent a dozen years as the FBI’s principal consultant on diploma mills and fake degrees”. Towards the end of the piece, the article mentions that “in 2001 California cracked down on Columbia Pacific University in Novato, forcing it to shut its in-state operation”. The drift and tenor of the editorial create the impression that John Bear classifies CPU as a diploma mill, . It is noteworthy that I drew the attention of the SDUT editors to the misinformation. Their answer: There is no misinformation in the editorial. They obviously believe that the facts should not interfere with their editorial judgment.The paper refused to publish my letter of protest.
And now let me share with you John Bear’s statements on CPU:
“More than 25 years ago, I consulted in the start-up of Columbia Pacific University, founded by two men with impeccable credentials: a Harvard M.D. psychiatrist, and the former president of three regionally-accredited universities. Columbia Pacific was a state-approved university, with more than 30 full-time employees, whose graduates qualified to take the state psychology and other licensing exams”, .
The 1982 Bear’s Guide to Non-Traditional Degrees praised CPU for the high academic quality of its staff, “the very personal approach, the valuable learning experience, and the comparatively low costs”. It described CPU as “the largest university in the United States and one of the largest in the world offering non-resident Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorates. Despite the size, students report an extremely high level of personal attention from the faculty and staff. (The faculty members more than 200, nearly all with traditional Doctorates). Two former presidents of major accredited universities serve as the two Deans of Columbia Pacific, and CPU’s president, Richard Crews, is a prominent psychiatrist with his medical degree from Harvard”. The author said CPU offered degrees in dozens of subject areas and also operated an innovative School of International Law. He stressed “many major universities, including Harvard, Yale and Princeton have expressed a willingness to accept CPU degrees.”
Reference:  Bear, PhD, John, Bear’s Guide to Non-Traditional College Degrees: How to get The Degree You Want, Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press, 1982, p. 96, 
Paul Hartal 21:56, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Evidence of Media Misinformation on CPU: The Case of FBI Expert John Bear