DIPLOMA MILL SCAMMER SENTENCED TO PRISON IN MANHATTAN

Quote:By LAURA ITALIANO

Last updated: 3:50 pm
July 31, 2009
Posted: 3:35 pm
July 31, 2009

A second Touro College computer honcho is going to prison for running his office as a literal diploma mill -- pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars from students seeking better transcripts, glowing letters of recommendation and in a few cases completely fabricated degrees.

"This was a horrendous betrayal of trust," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber told the crook, Andrique Baron, 36, of Elmont, L.I., before sentencing him this afternoon to serve between 2 2/3 and 8 years prison.

Baron was the former director of admissions for Touro's School of Career and Applied Studies on West 23rd St.

For at least four years, he and his co-defendant -- Mikhail "Michael" Cherner, the former computer director at the Kings Highway, Brooklyn, campus -- took money from a dozen students, who were also charged, in a "Sawbucks-for-Sheepskins" scandal that became public two years ago.

Some of Cherner and Baron's "customers" merely changed "F's" to "A's" on their transcripts.

Three teachers paid $3,000 each to buy the Masters degree required to teach special ed.

A Queens man bought a bogus psychology masters, while a Brooklyn woman bought her bachelors without taking a single class, and a fake letter of recommendation to law school went for $50,000.

When the scandal broke, prosecutors said they feared the pair had sold doctored degrees to as many as 50 people -- including some for physicians assistants and physical therapists.

The Board of Ed, which issues licenses in these fields, had to sift through the credentials of thousands of Touro alumni to be sure there were no bogus teachers, therapists or medical personnel working in the city, said prosecutor Jonathan Lenzner.

The horrible publicity affected everything from accreditation to admissions to the ability to get bank loans, said Frank Snitow, a lawyer for the college, which has 17,000 students internationally.

Baron apologized in court, peevishly -- bemoaning he didn't get a "second chance" -- before being led out in cuffs.

That`s a post I made on degreediscussion.com in response to levicoff on July 14:

levicoff wrote:
Now, the Bible says we should never say about anyone, "Raca!" - in other words, never call a person a fool. So I won't. I'll just stick to calling Muhammed a fraud and a rip-off. And, despite any knowledge of exegesis he may have, an incompetent nincompoop when it comes to research.

Levicoff, if you quote "raca" from the Bible, please take more care to be exact. Raca for example occurs in the Greek text of Mt. 5:22 but is not a Greek but an original Aramaic word (the Greek word would most likely be moros ). The original meaning of Aramaic Raca could be rendered more precisely as "a brainless person who is incapable of life because of that"...lol. Now, fool would not be the appropriate English translation as there is much more in the original meaning of that Aramaic word. To whom you or I may apply this term is a question that I want to leave undebated here as this seems to be too much far-off topic...lol.

http://www.degreediscussion.com/forums/v...a&start=45


In return, I got the follwing reply from a Jimmy poster on July 14:

Vice wrote:...Levicoff, if you quote "raca" from the Bible, please take more care to be exact. Raca for example occurs in the Greek text of Mt. 5:22 but is not as Greek but an original Aramaic word (the Greek word would most likely be moros ). The original meaning of Aramaic Raca could be rendered more precisely as "a brainless person who is incapable of life because of that"...lol. Now, fool would not be the appropriate English translation as there is much more in the original meaning of that Aramaic word. To whom you or I may apply this term is a question that I want to leave undebated here as this seems to be too much far-off topic...lol.


Actaully, Mr. Schmidt, a number of Assyrian scholars state that "Raca" means "I spit on you."

http://www.degreediscussion.com/forums/v...a&start=60

In the footline of his post, the Jimmy poster has this text:
True evangelical faith cannot lie dormant. It clothes the naked, feeds the hungry, comforts the sorrowful, shelters the destitute, serves those that harm it and binds up that which is wounded. Menno Simons
Jimmy

BTW, that "Jimmy" poster is confusing "Assyrian Studies" with the Aramaic of the New Testament period. Where did "Jimmy" say he got his degree from?

That's the kind of level that pretend scholars at degreediscussion.com use to communicate. Is that something one could call "brainless" and really is non-scholarly-like?

http://www.universityforintegrativelearn...orum2.html

I hadn't read this for several years. I enjoy it a lot. I think the guy's amazing.

http://www.degreediscussion.com/forums/v...6&start=60

Quote:Family tree
by John Bear on Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:25 am

Many years ago, I had a family tree diagram going, that suggested that just about every then-unaccredited school was connected in some way with any other.

Fred Calabro, the founder of Kensington was California Coast's lawyer. Forte left Kensington to start Pacific Western. Tom Lavin left Kensington to start Bedford and a few others. Ray Chasse left Pacific Western to start American Coastline, Summit, and a bunch of others. Frank McConnell left California Coast to start the University of Beverly Hills. Paul Saltmann left Beverly Hills to start Kennedy-Western. Don Breslow left Beverly Hills to start Century. Saltmann's doctorate was from DaCosta's Indiana Northern. Ray Sarna left Beverly Hills to start Louisiana Pacific. The president of one of the big California-authorized schools originally claimed his doctorate from Ernie Sinclair's Atlanta Southern. Sinclair later started California Pacifica and Hollywood Southern. And on and on and on.

It grew unwieldy and I stopped long ago. But I'd love to see it updated.

Quote:Accreditation has been shown over and over again to be wholly inadequate as an indicator of minimal quality.

Quote:The reason for placing the cutlines at regional accreditation and nonprofit status is that it is very rare for our office to receive, and have to process, student complaints about schools with those two characteristics. The state's concern is less with whether accreditors maintain a theoretical commitment to a minimally acceptable academic baseline (they do), but whether accreditors are capable of handling complaints and consumer-related problems in a meaningful way (they are not).

Another candidate, IMHO, is Bill Grover - a senior poster on degreediscussion.com and one on degreeboard.com. In case of the latter board, he did not stay there for long because he could not deny the tone he got used to on degree discussion.com:

http://www.degreeboard.com/forums/Religi...at-t47665/

Despite the fact that I (my real name is Dr. Muhammad Schmidt) have had a fight with Bill Grover and his likes over the past 2 years because of some unfounded accusations they have made on degreediscussion.com, I also find the following highly problematic:

Grover tends to "advise" other posters on theology degree matters on various forums and sells his words as holy and non-questionable, expecting applause from everyone. This may not only mislead those seeking advice in adopting a larger perspective on the issue at hand (by not only following Grover?s way of looking at things) but it also includes an implicit insistence on that he is always right. If the latter (a mere speculation on my part) is true, then this would not be so uncommon: the bitterness of some old men who cannot accept that their time is over. If this applies, consequently, the entire set-up that Grover creates around himself is a "problem" reduced to a problem of his own ego and a self-serving muppet show.

It seems that degreediscussion.com is the home for all such more doubtful figures with some sort of doubtful degrees and and other background details and who in addition are incapable of discussion in a good, i.e. "scholarly", manner. A degree as such - whether "first" or "second class" - does not make one a scholar automatically. Something more is required in terms of intellectual performance (e.g., publications) and a personality that can communicate on controversial issues without becoming "personal". Too many pretend scholars around there at degreediscussion.com.....

The kind of posts that Bill Grover and his likes make tell more about them than what others might say about them - rightly or wrongly. Really revealing!

Anyone have any contact or experience with the Far Eastern National University? Here are the links:

http://www.fenu.ru/
http://en.openuniversity.ru/?section=9

They have some attractive programs, however after repeated inquires I've yet get a response..

I thought that my eyes were deceiving me. Bill Grover departs degreeboard.com and Johann shows up. WTF?

degreeboard.com link

Couldn't we get those two well-respected, experienced posters to post in the same forum at the same time? Or, might it just be a case of Clark Kent and Superman?

What follows is merely anecdotal experience.
I periodically visit a world famous tourist area that even international celebrities visit from time to time.
Now we all hear the claims that schools in the hospitality/tourism business make: that a hospitality and related degree is a surefire way to gain very good employment, especially in areas where tourists flock to.
I dine out at different places and of course I expect to find all those youngsters trained in some hospitality school...
WRONG.
There are many tourists...British, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, German, French, Spanish...
Waiters and other personnel are typically clueless...they may know a few broken phrases and words, if at all, but cannot function in even the most elementary situation...
Recently a Russian couple had a hard time ordering water...
When I got tired after the waitress and a German couple had been misunderstanding one another for a long time and told her what they wanted, she looked back at me with eyes smoldering with hate...
Another time a Dutch couple complained they wanted Coca Cola LIGHT, and the waiter offered to light their cigarette...all restaurants were pretty upscale (no road houses...).
So...
1 They got that famous hospitality degree but slept through classes
2 Most probably they are untrained personnel, which begs the question why hospitality schools exist.
Of course five stars hotels and such typically do employ hospitality graduates with a minimum proficiency, but those make up only a minute fraction of the entire industry serving tourists.

Re: Regarding Dr. Muhammad Schmidt and NationsUniversity
by Jimmy on Sun Jul 12, 2009 5:39 pm

Bill wrote:
...You' have my dissertation. See Hoover and the HTR mentioned on pages 174 & 261


Actually I don't. I loaned it to Janko. Who knows where it is now.

http://www.degreediscussion.com/forums/v...=30#p53358