Judge lets diploma mill stay in business

University Business, Sept, 2005 by Tim Goral

"HI, I'M CASEY. GIVE ME 60 SECONDS AND I can show you how to complete your advanced college degree without ever stepping foot in a classroom." So says the animated come-on at the "University of Berkley" website, an online diploma mill that prosecutors believe has issued more than 12,500 bogus graduate degrees.

The website is said to have netted more than $35 million from people who paid between $2,000 and $5,000 for degrees that may be mistaken for genuine degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

The university has complained about the website for two years, and last month Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbelt sued to stop it from doing business, but at press time, the site was stilt up and running. The reason? A Pennsylvania judge gave permission for the site to continue-as long as it promised not to do business with people from that state. The judge also unfroze the assets of the site's operator, Dennis Globosky, a former New Mexico State Police officer.

The ruling did nothing to address the larger, growing issue of false degrees that help people enroll in graduate and professional school, or land high-profile positions in business, education, and government. Two Mississippi high school teachers are currently fighting their local school board, demanding that the "doctorate degrees" they obtained from another unaccredited online university entitle them to pay increases commensurate with their titles.

The bogus degree business takes in, by some estimates, as much as $400 million a year.