Diploma Mill Haven
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010The state earned the dubious distinction in a new report on higher education fraud: diploma mill haven.
Verifile Limited, an international employment screening company, says Hawaii is number two in the country for having bogus degree granting institutions. (See:)
The study says that there are 94 unaccredited colleges in this state, which is exceeded only by California, which has 134 diploma mills.
For employers that means that there's a lot of questionable degrees floating around out there. It also means that there are a lot of students who are being ripped off, thinking the college education they are paying for has any value.
Take the case of the 100 or so students who enrolled in the Hawaii School of Pharmacy several years ago. Back then, the Kapolei school passed itself off as legit and collected more than $7 million in tuition, or about $28,000 per student.
Pharmacy schools are pretty tough to get into these days so admission into a solid program is necessary to start a career.
But because this school was not accredited, students would be barred from taking the pharmacy licensing exam in Hawaii and other states. The school later shutdown after state regulators sued the school and its executives for deceptive trade practices.
Jeff Brunton, attorney for the state Office of Consumer Protectio, said diploma mills like the Hawaii School of Pharmacy are able to flourish in Hawaii due to the lax state laws. He said a person can operate an unaccredited school in Hawaii with just 25 students, miminal staffing and a single classroom. They don't have to show expertise in the subject they teach.
Only when the schools misrepresent to students that their unaccredited degrees will allow them to be licensed professionally or when they make other bogus claims can regulators take action against them.
"We have hundreds of them operating," said Brunton, who has taken legal action against dozens of unaccredited schools. "A lot of them are just a mailbox."
* * *
Symphony update. The union representing the Honolulu Symphony's employees says it has no faith that management will be able to reorganize the orchestra and emerge from bankruptcy.
The symphony, which calls itself the oldest orchestra west of the Rocky Mountains, filed forbankruptcy protection in December after laying 89 of its full time and part-time musicians.
In a filing yesterday, the Musicians' Association of Hawaii Local 677, said management has not raised enough money to pay for its skeleton staff, let alone formulate a reorganization plan that will get the organization on its feet again.
They are asking that a trustee be appointed or the case be turned into a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy, which would mean that the symphony would cease to exist.
"Their decison first to cease fundraising, then operations and then to announce (and subsequently proceed with) a bankruptcy defies all logic, in light of the fact that no creditor was forcing the issue," wrote David Farmer, attorney for the union.
"(Based) on its history of gross mismanagement and incompetence ... management is incapable of the task reorganization and a Chapter 11 trustee should be appointed, or, in the alternative, the case should be converted to Chapter 7 or dismissed."

