08-18-2008, 09:27 PM
Very astute comments! I think it would be educational on a very personal level for George Gollin to read these posts. Although there's no need to suggest that, we all know he checks this forum every day before breakfast.
It is clear that Gollin is not a dispassionate academic who just happened to come across in his personal experience (as he claims) the way diploma mills operate and, realizing the damage being done to higher education, decided to do something about it. An academic with no other motive but the integrity of higher education, would have first of all alerted academia, then, alerted the proper authorities and, finally, perhaps publish some articles in appropriate publications warning people about diploma mills. Probably, he would have also maintained some contacts with the right people, so that he could be informed from time to time about developments in the process of elimination of the scourge of diploma mills by the proper authorities.
Gollin has done all that, but he has also, at the same time, been conducting himself in a manner uncharacteristic of an objective, cool academic whose only interest is higher education. Some of the telltale signs that his involvement is deeply personal include:
1. The frequency of his posting updated information at degrediscussion, his interviews to the media and other such activities indicate that he devotes a lot of his time in this pursuit. If we also took into account the background work necessary for these public activities, it would seem that he probably devotes most of his time in this on a daily basis. One would wonder whether this has become the main preoccupation in his life, superseding his interest in his profession and his family.
2. Although through his ceaseless research efforts he has been exposing a large number of mills worldwide, he doesn't appear to do anything to initiate action against most of them. Some notorious international mills have only been mentioned by him once or twice and that only in passing. He seems obsessed on a very personal level with specific mills and the people associated with them, even people who may have been associated with them long ago, some of them circumstantially or even accidentally. He seems to be relentless against these people and although he usually tries to maintain a moderate and restrained tone in his writing, the strong undercurrents of glee and malice are quite obvious even to the casual reader.
3. When a mill he is obsessed with and the people associated with it are out of the way, instead of concentrating his efforts on one or more other mills that are still active and thriving, he continues to regurgitate old facts about the defunct mill and the people directly or indirectly associated with it.
4. It seems he is obsessed with specific people who were associated to varying degrees with specific mills. When these people disappear from the picture for a long time, and despite his frantic efforts he cannot find anything new on them, he reminds other posters about these people and inquires whether other people may have any news about them. It would seem that he actually "misses" these people in a certain way.
Of course, the above four signs are not exhaustive of the telltale signs of Gollin's unhealthy personal obsession that has nothing to do with an academic's objective, dispassionate interest in higher education.
It is clear that Gollin is not a dispassionate academic who just happened to come across in his personal experience (as he claims) the way diploma mills operate and, realizing the damage being done to higher education, decided to do something about it. An academic with no other motive but the integrity of higher education, would have first of all alerted academia, then, alerted the proper authorities and, finally, perhaps publish some articles in appropriate publications warning people about diploma mills. Probably, he would have also maintained some contacts with the right people, so that he could be informed from time to time about developments in the process of elimination of the scourge of diploma mills by the proper authorities.
Gollin has done all that, but he has also, at the same time, been conducting himself in a manner uncharacteristic of an objective, cool academic whose only interest is higher education. Some of the telltale signs that his involvement is deeply personal include:
1. The frequency of his posting updated information at degrediscussion, his interviews to the media and other such activities indicate that he devotes a lot of his time in this pursuit. If we also took into account the background work necessary for these public activities, it would seem that he probably devotes most of his time in this on a daily basis. One would wonder whether this has become the main preoccupation in his life, superseding his interest in his profession and his family.
2. Although through his ceaseless research efforts he has been exposing a large number of mills worldwide, he doesn't appear to do anything to initiate action against most of them. Some notorious international mills have only been mentioned by him once or twice and that only in passing. He seems obsessed on a very personal level with specific mills and the people associated with them, even people who may have been associated with them long ago, some of them circumstantially or even accidentally. He seems to be relentless against these people and although he usually tries to maintain a moderate and restrained tone in his writing, the strong undercurrents of glee and malice are quite obvious even to the casual reader.
3. When a mill he is obsessed with and the people associated with it are out of the way, instead of concentrating his efforts on one or more other mills that are still active and thriving, he continues to regurgitate old facts about the defunct mill and the people directly or indirectly associated with it.
4. It seems he is obsessed with specific people who were associated to varying degrees with specific mills. When these people disappear from the picture for a long time, and despite his frantic efforts he cannot find anything new on them, he reminds other posters about these people and inquires whether other people may have any news about them. It would seem that he actually "misses" these people in a certain way.
Of course, the above four signs are not exhaustive of the telltale signs of Gollin's unhealthy personal obsession that has nothing to do with an academic's objective, dispassionate interest in higher education.