08-13-2008, 12:34 PM
Someone Wrote:"Amateur"? I don't think so...SRU had obtained "genuine" (genuine not in the sense that they represented the truth, but in the sense that they were signed by the appropriate officials), official documents of accreditation and also a charter that dated back in 1984. To my knowledge, no other mill has ever been able to do that.
An interesting dichotomy. Definitely amateur, but amateur what?
If they really were millists they certainly didn't follow the classic model, or they wouldn't be going to jail.
On the other hand, you have non-academics trying to be establish a "university" using techniques they had used successfully for trade schools (e.g., the long-established and legitimate A Plus Institute).
Toward the latter I see a logical thought process at work. E.g., can't get accredited in the US, how about overseas? Bear says a school recognized by a foreign MoE is GAAP, what country will recognize us? Curriculum development is expensive and time-consuming, but RA schools use PLA. That's a legit concept, so let's try that...
So far, so good. I think that is why a lot of us have trouble with how all this went down. These really aren't classic millists. They followed a more-or-less legit theoretical model. (PLA is a joke but RA schools do it, Liberia is a joke but what third world country isn't?) I can see this as having been conceived, not in sin, but rather as a logical extension of the legit online trade school.
Now of course how all this got implemented is another issue. It sounds like it degenerated fairly quickly to "pay and play," although even at that there was plenty of testimony (such as from the fake-Arab feds) that they had to jump through more than a few paperwork verification hoops, not just a credit card.
So I think that is why there are so many "no other mill" instances such as you cite, because this was not a classic mill. There was an underlying effort to be something more than that. How much more, or at least how much more was achieved, is a good question. That probably is where the "amateur" criticism is most accurately applied. It probably wouldn't have hurt if someone who actually had been to college was involved. It's tough to fly a 747 if you've never seen a cockpit.
This seems more like a bungled "alternative education" operation than a bungled mill operation. Left to their own devices for a decade or two, would this have evolved into a higher life form? We'll never know, thanks to the efforts of those dedicated to protecting the multi-billion dollar RA endowments from competition.