I, too, get upset

I get half a dozen spams a week offering "degrees". Makes me want to track down the offers and force the perpetrator to write a book report.

clipped from chronicle.com Diploma Mills There is something particularly offensive to me in the forging of academic credentials. It compromises and devalues scholarship and the effort that it takes to earn authentic academic recognition. In some ways it is more troubling even than counterfeiting currency, which has less personal integrity on the line. I’ve been troubled by diploma mills for a long time and recall a few years ago opening The Economist and seeing a small advertisement offering for sale a degree from George Washington University. George Washington University! I couldn’t wait to get on the telephone to the general counsel; he immediately took remedial steps. The ad (and the degree granter?) disappeared. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder and worry about it. about 20 states have enacted laws to deal with this type of trafficking. But the federal government seems to be tossing the responsibility for action back and forth between the Department of Education and the Justice Department.