NATION Few laws exist to put diploma mills out of business

For a price, diploma mills offer degrees -- and not much else
By PATRICIA ALEX
THE RECORD (BERGEN COUNTY, N.J.)
HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Turns out I was wrong when I said my editor was no rocket scientist. It took about 20 minutes -- and a valid credit card -- for her to complete her doctorate in aerospace engineering from Ellington University.
No books, no tests, no classes and no expertise in the subject.
Ellington, which says it's in Belize, is one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of diploma mills thriving on the Internet. They sell everything from high school to postgraduate diplomas at fees ranging from $39 to $5,000.
The Internet has enabled just about anyone with clip art to create a campus, such as the chiropractor who offered health-related degrees from Russia via his Englewood, N.J., office. Operators skitter across the borderless Net, unfettered by local or national standards and restrictions.
Some companies mint knockoffs -- bogus paper diplomas from legitimate schools. For $290, The Record newspaper was able to order a fake nursing degree from Columbia University at www.phonydiploma.com. We spent an extra $10 for magna cum laude.
Others are more sophisticated: They may try to pass themselves off as legitimate distance learning schools by having some actual faculty or requiring some course work. Some, like Ellington, claim to review applicants' self-described life experience but usually have only telemarketers on their "faculty," federal investigators say.
Effects of fake diplomas
My editor has no plans to apply for a job at NASA anytime soon. But others have used the bogus degrees to get jobs -- many at a high level -- in industry and government.
"Diploma mills are unfair to those who work long and hard for legitimate degrees, and who might get passed over for a raise or promotion based on an employer's misunderstanding of what a diploma-mill degree truly represents," Sen. Susan M. Collins, R-Maine, said in testimony before Congress. "If the job is critical to public safety -- like an aeronautical engineer -- or involves significant responsibility -- like a teacher or border-patrol agent -- then bogus degrees can do tangible and substantial harm."
Process
Ellington, like others, claims to award the degree based on an evaluation of an applicant's self-assessment. Susan DeSantis, an assignment editor, submitted a vague but truthful r & eacute;sum & eacute; of less than a page. It mentioned her bachelor's degree from Syracuse University, a job at a shoe store and her tenure as a PTA mom.
Her relevant experience was deliberately general: "Interests include aeronautics, electrical engineering," her letter read. We threw in "well-acquainted with commercial aviation."
Based on this self-evaluation, she received official-looking transcripts that detailed her good grades in classes such as Advanced Propulsion and Computational Aerodynamics. After getting a B-minus in the Aerodynamics of Wings and Bodies in 1995, she apparently caught her stride, according to the transcripts, earning mostly A's before defending her dissertation and being awarded the doctorate degree in 1998.
Few safeguards
Efforts to rein in the $500 million-a-year industry have been sporadic and haphazard. Only four states have penalties in place for those using degrees from diploma mills.
Some of the most egregious operators have been prosecuted under federal mail-fraud statutes but, for the most part, the mills operate under the radar and free of federal regulation.
It's not illegal to operate a nonaccredited university, but it is illegal to send out a fraudulent diploma through the mail. The businesses have even been able to get around federal regulations requiring that schools be accredited by creating their own fake accrediting agencies.
And there seems to be no end in sight:
Hundreds of federal employees -- some using their tuition reimbursement stipends -- have bought degrees from diploma mills, according to an investigation by the Government Accountability Office.
Teachers in a number of states have been found to have fake graduate credentials that boosted their taxpayer-funded salaries. And, although there are no numbers available, experts believe the private sector suffers from the same kind of fraud.
Bogus accreditation
Scores of bogus accrediting agencies and verification services have sprung up to bolster the fake institutions -- most run by the same people, making it harder for prospective employers to spot the frauds.
"These operators are really good at hiding in plain sight -- changing their location and changing names," said Robert White, a congressional aide who helped organize federal hearings on the issue.
The GAO investigation found that 28 high-ranking officials at eight federal agencies hold degrees from diploma mills, including three who have top security clearance at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
In reviewing the records of just three of the unaccredited schools that cooperated, the agency found at least 463 federal employees were "graduates."
They included more than 200 working for the Department of Defense. Investigators for the GAO said they didn't know whether those employees faced any penalties as a result.
In an effort to tighten up on diploma fraud, the federal government is changing its application forms and the Department of Education is creating a Web site of legitimately accredited institutions, said Paul Desaulniers, the GAO investigator who worked on the report.