11-20-2009, 07:17 AM
Here's the best argument yet for avoiding fake schools. Why bother paying good money for an easily-confirmed-as-bogus milled degree, when you can pass off a fake degree from an RA Gold Standard school for free?
If it's an RA Gold Standard Ivy League Mill like Yale they will confirm your bogus PhD for potential employers all over the world. They won't even notice if you spell the administrator's name wrong. And when they get caught they will lie about it and blame it all on your employer too. What mill goes the extra mile like that?
After Error by Yale, Anger and a Court Fight Ensue
If it's an RA Gold Standard Ivy League Mill like Yale they will confirm your bogus PhD for potential employers all over the world. They won't even notice if you spell the administrator's name wrong. And when they get caught they will lie about it and blame it all on your employer too. What mill goes the extra mile like that?
After Error by Yale, Anger and a Court Fight Ensue
Quote:By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: October 29, 2009
A major Korean university is engaged in a heated legal battle with [regionally accredited] Yale University, bringing a culture preoccupied with honor into a clash with bare-knuckled American lawyering.
Dongguk University, a 103-year-old Buddhist institution based in Seoul, has accused Yale of negligence and a cover-up after it mistakenly confirmed a Dongguk professor's claims of having a Ph.D. from Yale. Robert A. Weiner, the lead lawyer for Dongguk, said Yale's response to the ensuing scandal added insult to the injury, and he denounced "the cultural arrogance of not recognizing the harm you're doing in Korean culture."
Yale argues that while it had made mistakes, it did nothing that merited court action.
The controversy began in 2005, when Dongguk hired Shin Jeong-ah, a rising star in the art world, as a professor. Shortly after her hiring, questions about her credentials arose and Dongguk sent a letter to Yale asking for authentication of a document provided by Ms. Shin. The document, which appeared to have been signed by a Yale administrator, stated that Ms. Shin had earned the doctoral degree.
The confirmation letter was a fake, but the Yale administrator whose name was on it confirmed its authenticity in a fax to Dongguk, apparently not checking the university's records or even noticing that the administrator's name had been misspelled.
Dongguk officials and Korean reporters pressed Yale on the question of Ms. Shin's degree again in 2007 as rumors persisted. After checking its records, Yale announced that Ms. Shin had no degree but also initially denied having received the original inquiry from Dongguk and said documents suggesting otherwise had been forged.
The growing scandal made headlines in Korea and became known there as Shin-gate. Ms. Shin resigned and was eventually convicted of falsifying records and of embezzlement. Yale did not reveal its mistake in confirming the 2005 letter until later that year, saying the error had occurred "in the rush of business." Yale issued an apology to Dongguk on Dec. 29, 2007.
Dongguk filed suit for $50 million the next year in Federal District Court in Connecticut, saying Yale had engaged in "reckless" and "wanton" conduct, and had defamed Dongguk, which "was publicly humiliated and deeply shamed in the eyes of the Korean population." The university said it lost millions in contributions and the opportunity to build a new law school.
Yale fought back with briefs arguing that despite the error, it had caused no harm. "Instead of facing up to its own responsibility for hiring such a person," the university argued, "Dongguk seeks to shift the blame for its own inadequate efforts on to Yale."
Settlement negotiations broke down last year, and earlier this month Dongguk filed new papers with potentially embarrassing internal e-mail messages from Yale showing anxious discussions of the growing scandal, including a professor's warning that the incident "seems to have 'litigation' written all over it."?
Mr. Weiner said "the documents we have prove that Yale was not only grossly negligent, but lied once they knew the truth."
Tom Conroy, a Yale spokesman, said there was no negligence or recklessness. If the case goes to trial, Mr. Conroy said, "we think the jury will certainly consider the fact that the chairman of Dongguk's board was convicted of soliciting and receiving an illegal government subsidy from Ms. Shin's lover, who was an adviser to the Korean president."
Mr. Weiner said he was outraged by the Yale tactics, which he said constituted "attacking the victim"? and "an effort to deflect attention from Yale's wrongful acts" with titillation that has nothing to do with the lawsuit. If Yale had responded accurately when first asked about Ms. Shin's claims, he said, the worst of the scandal could have been avoided.
Lanny Davis, a White House official in the Clinton administration and a partner of Mr. Weiner at the law firm McDermott Will & Emery, said he was disappointed in Yale, which is his alma mater, and in its president, Richard C. Levin -- who, he said, had "dishonored the slogan, 'light and truth,'"? that can be found in Latin on the university's seal.
Mr. Conroy, the Yale spokesman, said, "I have no idea what that means."
The university, he said, made "an innocent mistake, and we apologized."
