Posted on 06/02/2003 3:45:48 AM PDT by decimon
HSD official obtained Ph.D. from diploma mill
By Patience Wait and Wilson P. Dizard III Post Newsweek Tech Media
A high-ranking career official in the Homeland Security Department apparently obtained her doctorate from a Wyoming diploma mill.
Laura L. Callahan, now senior director in the office of department CIO Steven Cooper, states on her professional biography that she “holds a Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems from Hamilton University.” Callahan, who is also president of the Association for Federal IRM and a member of the CIO Council, is commonly called by the title “Dr.”
Callahan’s resume says she began her civil service career in 1984. Before joining HSD, she was deputy CIO at the Labor Department.
Hamilton University, according to an Internet search, is located in Evanston, Wyo. It is affiliated with and supported by Faith in the Order of Nature Fellowship Church, also in Evanston. The state of Wyoming does not license Hamilton because it claims a religious exemption. Oregon has identified Hamilton University as a diploma mill unaccredited by any organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Callahan, at post time, could not be reached for comment after repeated calls to her office. Michelle Petrovich, a department spokeswoman, said late Friday afternoon, “We have no reason at this time not to believe Laura Callahan’s credentials, and we will look into the matter.”
Diploma mills and their potential for fraud were the subject of an inquiry by the General Accounting Office at the request of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who now chairs the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. In a November 2002 report, GAO described how it purchased bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Collins’ name from Degrees-R-Us of Las Vegas. It referred the matter to the Federal Trade Commission.
Andrew O’Connell of GAO’s Office of Special Investigations, said of any government employee who purchases a fake diploma, “There’s no doubt in our mind that it’s a scam on the government.”
A search of accredited institutions turned up four colleges and universities with the name Hamilton, in addition to Hamilton University: Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.; Hamilton College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Hamilton Technical College in Davenport, Iowa; and Suwannee-Hamilton Technical Center in Live Oak, Fla. None of the four awards doctoral degrees.
In its printed materials, Hamilton University lists the National Park Service among organizations that employ its degree-holders, or that reimbursed employees who obtained Hamilton degrees.
Hamilton’s material said it provides degrees to individuals who state that their life and work experiences give them qualifications comparable to those of persons who complete academic courses and theses or dissertations to obtain degrees. The bulk of communications between Hamilton and its customers is via e-mails, faxes and postal mail. Calls to Hamilton go to a voice-mail system.
“They bought an old motel and took it apart and furnished it with stucco. It’s very nice,” said Connie Morris, executive assistant at the Evanston, Wyo., Chamber of Commerce. “They are members of the Chamber. They have two or three employees.”
The Oregon Office of Degree Authorization quotes Webster’s Third New International Dictionary on the definition of a diploma mill: An institution of higher education operating without supervision of a state or professional agency and granting diplomas which are either fraudulent or because of the lack of proper standards worthless.
According to a spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management, the penalties for providing false or misleading information, including submitting false academic credentials, include termination or other serious disciplinary actions.
“There is no regulation that addresses diploma mills. You are talking about falsification of academic credentials,” the OPM spokesman said.
Lawrence Lorber, a partner with the Washington law firm Proskauer Rose LLP who specializes in labor and employment law, spoke with a reporter about circumstances matching Callahan’s claim to a Ph.D., though he specifically asked not to be told of the person or federal departments involved.
“There is something called resume fraud, which this would be considered,” Lorber said. “It’s what it sounds like—not the embellishment, but a fraudulent addition that indicates a job or degree.”
It is the accreditation of the program—or lack thereof—that becomes important, Lorber said. “By listing it [on your resume] you are creating the presumption that it’s from an accredited, recognized institution.”
Hamilton University’s enrollment application and enrollment invitation spell out the simple requirements for students who wish to obtain a Ph.D.:
* $3,600, payable up front by bank draft or personal check only. Hamilton does not accept credit cards.
* Completing one course at home on “personal, business and professional ethics.” Hamilton provides the course workbook, and the student must complete the open-book examination that is included. The school’s materials state the course and test require an average of five to eight hours to complete.
* Writing one paper relevant to the area in which the Ph.D. is being sought. The minimum length for the paper is 2,000 words, or roughly four pages, and will “be referred to as a dissertation,” the materials say.
In return, Hamilton promises to deliver “an official diploma in a leather bound holder… of the highest possible quality and carry[ing] the official raised seal of the university.” The organization promises that the “diplomas granted by Hamilton University do not reflect how the degree requirements were met (traditionally or externally).”
Because prospective employers often want to verify a candidate’s education, Hamilton also promises to provide verification of degrees, once the person provides authorization to release the information.
In this case, for instance, when asked via e-mail to verify Callahan’s Ph.D., the registrar’s office of Hamilton University replied, “All requests for degree verification must be made in writing and must be accompanied by an authorization signed by the graduate.”
But Hamilton promises that when it provides transcripts, they will look like real transcripts, even providing numbers, titles and grades for courses the student did not take, because their requirement was waived due to life or work experience. The transcripts will not say the courses were waived, and the grade average shown for an entire transcript will be based on the grades for the at-home test and the dissertation.
A person identifying himself as Dr. R.G. Marn, faculty adviser, said the institution’s privacy policies prevented it from releasing records. He declined to comment on whether Hamilton University is a diploma mill.
(Posted May 30, 2003 - 5:50 p.m. Updated May 31, 11:20 a.m.)
Were you drunk when you wrote that? Did you follow the thread?
I was asked what I was "suggesting." Not a very honest or meaningful question but I did reply with two suggestions that should have sufficed.
Are you sure you followed the thread and understood what was written? The context was within what the Bush administration would do about the matter. The thing has nothing to do with me.
Perhaps what you desire is some endless, acrimonious thread on whether all malfeasant Clintonites, Reaganites etc. should be prosecuted. Or all malfeasant government employees. Or all 100 million malfeasant Americans. What exactly do you want, Braveheart?
That may come. From the few things I've read on the matter, not many public or private institutions have been checking credentials but are beginning to. I guess it's come to light that too many phonies of all stripes are getting over.
Say, did I mention my Medal of Honor from my time with Special Forces? :-)
I think all corrupt politicians should be prosecuted.
I assume you mean the "Bureau of Mines" or "Bureau of Land & Mines", presumeably the one on (or formerly on) Forbes Ave in Oalkland, just East of Panther Hollow, and immediately west of the campus of Carnegie-Mellon University (the latter having already absorbed the Naval Reserve Center and the Coal Research Institute, which lay between the campus and the BoM building on Forbes.
Anyone installed in such a sensitive position would have been vetted to hell and back. So it's inconceivable the WH missed catching Callahan's falsified degrees. It's much more likely that her capacity for deception is precisely what made her so attractive for the position. Callahan's little secret would make her amenable to whatever was asked of her. (They probably would have preferred an idealogue, an ends-justifies-the-means type, but it was crunch time, so controllable would have to do.)
That's what I was thinking..... the Clinton WH had a modus operandi of picking "flawed" apparachiks, precisely for this reason: they dared not speak out, for fear of their dark secrets being revealed.
I'd be very interested to learn how the WH came to know about Callahan in the first place.
Here's a very long shot: who else in the Clinton WH came from the 'burgh? Hmmmmmmm? Does Craig Livingstone ring a bell? He was a bouncer for a bar that was, what a coincidence, IN OAKLAND, IIRC, a short walk from the BoM building up the street.
Another long-shot: the guy who became the temporary directory of the Patent Office was from the Pittsburgh area, and got his law degree at Pitt, (I think) which is, surprise, in the OAKLAND section of Pittsburgh.
Thanks for lending your recollections and insights into this; it reminds me of the good old days on FR, when folks here still remembered the the reason this website was created was to root-out, identifiy, and expose government corruption.
I'd be very interested to see what happens if Callahan can be charged with fraud for her bogus degrees (any salary increases derived therefrom were arguably fraudulently obtained, and likely run into thoushads of $, thus a felony.) Perhaps she'd like to "sing" about her former associates in the Clinton WH e-mail scandal, in return for a plea bargain.....
I think you can be if you get the Baron of Ashby de la Zouche to adopt you, and then he dies. I have no idea how much is the going rate for that kind of adoption.
Oh, I wouldn't say that's such a long shot. Not a bad connect. On the other hand, we don't know how long she was in Pitts. She may have been transferred there after CL's stint. Thomas Edison State College in NJ is no help in ascertaining where she's from either, as the school offers total distance learning degrees.
And LOL, yes, I did mean Bureau of Mines, not Land Mines. Although this well could turn out to be one for Crabtree-Callahan.
Sounds like you're very familiar with the area.
The operative word, of course, being "apparently." ;-)
Then you are way ahead of some other transparently obsessed others who have missed that she began her civil service career in 1984 and was appointed to HSD in 2003.
And if you had just mailed away for one you could today be the head of some agency that monitors tuna fishing in the Potomac or something.
I don't think it's a hit piece in that she falsified her qualifications for the job. That is apparently "resume fraud."
Whether the qualifications should be performance based or credential based is a good question. But I could not know what has been her actual performance.
In nearly all States you must attend an ABA approved school to represent yourself as a lawyer. And to represent a client in court you must as well have passed an approved Bar Exam. Whether those credentials should be required is also debatable.
I would too. Thanks for your insights.
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