Doctored Doctorates

"Dr." Laura Callahan, a deputy CIO at the Homeland Security Department, apparently got her Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems from a diploma mill called Hamilton University.

Stringent requirements for the degree, as listed in the school's application material, include taking one open-book exam, writing a four page paper which will ?be referred to as a dissertation," and, oh yeah, ponying up $3,600 cash. Check or money order, no credit cards, please. Callahan is supposed to be in charge of "initiatives such as disaster management and Project SafeCom, a communications network linking first responders."

Comments

[James Merritt]

That must have been some four-page paper … er … “dissertation.” By that yardstick, I ought to have a dual PhD in Rhetoric and Poli Sci, merely on the basis of postings to “Hit and Run” comment threads. Hey Reason, are you a degree granting institution? You might have a way to sweeten up those fundraising letters: “And for an extra $4000 and a four-page paper (which we will publish in our magazine and on our website), we will send you the thank you gift of a prestigious PhD from the Reason Institute!” Think of the possibilities!

[Gene 6-Pack]

…and for $500.00 more, they print your diploma on something better than a dot matrix printer.

[scott]

Boy, my phd in sexology only cost me $10…

[Dave Weigel]

How did the Brookings guy put it, again?

“More troubling, [college] seniors do not see government as the best place to go for helping people.”

Those poor, deluded students. *sigh*

[Tim Stich]

Oh man, this is classic!

[Douglas Fletcher]

I know where you can get a really good massage for $3,600.

[Mike Van Winkle]

Check Out the university’s “Academic Philosophy” (emphasis added):

Hamilton University provides self-paced external and campus based programs that are custom tailored to meet the needs of the individual degree candidate. Our programs are structured to allow our adult degree candidates much greater time flexibility when compared to traditional classroom based education. Our programs are candidate-centered which allows for one-on-one interaction with faculty and staff.

I’ll say…!

[Anonymous]

It was just an honorary degree given 20 years in advance.

[Croesus]

I bet my MA thesis would get me ten PhDs there. 🙂

[Tom]

Actually, this just further confirms for me the utter uselessness of the vast majority of college degrees.

[Goliath]

David, wouldn’t “accreditation” by a gubmint “authority” be just as tautological?

[Slippery Pete]

Goliath – you perfectly demonstrate what’s wrong with libertarianism today. In your pathological hatred of the government, you’re reduced to saying that there’s no meaningful difference between FION setting up a FION “university” accredited by FION, and the government setting up accrediting agency(ies) that have produced an educational system that, while certainly imperfect, happens to be a mecca for university students all over the world.

Get a grip, dude.

[Goliath]

Best YOU get a grip, Slippery — of your ankles — after you’ve done your daily genuflections before Gubmint Allmighty.

Gubmint is no more and no less than a hired gun. We hired it to defend us from “enemies foreign and domestic” and to administer justice in our courts.

Period!

It has no business being in education, health care, studying frogs or prairie dogs, and a whole host of other pies it presently has its sticky fingers in. The list is long. And I’m sure you are very capable of adding to it and extending its length to beyond a gross or so.

Accreditation (among other such services) can be nicely performed by reputable, private institutions, thank you.

[joe]

“Accreditation (among other such services) can be nicely performed by reputable, private institutions, thank you.”

Maybe so, Goliath, but saying the government shouldn’t be doing something is very different from saying it can’t do that thing well. You seem to have your reasons for believing the gov-ern-ment shouldn’t be accrediting colleges; ok, fine. Just don’t pretend that “they can’t do it right” is one of them, because they obviously can. Your assertion that they can’t is theology.

[Madog]

What we have here is a competition between different accrediting bodies. Do you as a hypothetical employer trust a government accrediting body more than the ACPCU?

It’s not too much different than branding really.

[Goliath]

Joe, my point was that it SHOULDN’T. I don’t know where in my post you deduced that I said otherwise. Of course they can! It can do anything we slavishly ask it to do (and, believe me, it’d be more than willing to do so, after reaching for ever more money in your pocket.)

But that’s exactly the crux of the matter; we should not ask it to do anything other than what is was bound by in the Constitution.

The reasoning apparently went like this: “Let’s see, it’s pretty good at kicking out dictators (King George and his henchmen) maybe it’ll also be good at teaching our kids! And, hey, if it’s good at that (fat chance) then maybe it can deliver our messages for us, too (post office.) And if it can do that, then maybe it can accredit institutions of higher learning, and maybe even own a few, and also feed the poor (sure.) Oh, look! This creature built some roads for us! Maybe it can also be good at paying our medical bills! And if it can do that, maybe it can provide us with shoes, and clothing, and parks, and actually care for our kids, and give us cars (why not!)

For Pete’s sake — can’t you see we’re creating a MONSTER!?

(It?s been tried before, you know? Just look across the big pond.)

[David]

It gets even better:

The Hamilton University website proclaims that it is affiliated with the – “Faith In the Order of Nature”. What is FION? It is “an international religious fellowship of people who share a belief in and respect for Nature,” according to the FION site.

Back to Hamilton: the HU website states that the university is “accredited by the ACPCU” – which is the “The American Council of Private Colleges and Universities.”

I checked out the ACPCU website, and surprise, surprise: “The American Council of Private Colleges and Universities is sponsored by the FION Fellowship family of theocentric nonprofit educational organizations.”

Circular “logic” doesn’t get any better than this.

[Anonymous]

I am the one who busted callahan. I waited 3 years for her bitch ass to get high enough where someone would care. I leaked the info to GCN, FCW on May 18. took em 3 weeks to verify it.

hell all anyone has to do is type “Laura Callahan Hamilton University” in google and it is all right there in front of you.

Watch it unravel when it’s done high up’s at labor and DHS will be sent packing. bye bye steve cooper, patrick pizzella and Ed hugler.

Oh and by the way Callahan was led out of DHS on thursday in handcuffs.

Remember that terrible movie turk 182? paybacks are a bitch and her name is laura callahan.

[Nikki]

Consider me the “dumb” kid on the block but I was going to attempt this “Hamilton” thing until I started to read this section. Tell me, is it actually “illegal”? Because I looked through things such as the BBB, scams.com and many more and never came across anything. I only chose this route because I very simply, have the experience but just dont have the actual time to attend a regular method of study because of my job. I’m asking this genuinely so please help me and dont slam me.

[Rich]

I think what Laura Callahan did was a terrible, and most likely, unnecessary thing. She didn’t get promoted to her senior positions just because she had a “Doctorate”. She has received a number of awards that couldn’t be bought, such as the 2003 Federal 100 Award.

[Calmaker]

Callahan got where she is for hidding millions of emails from the special council. Those who defend her would not want one of thier children to ever experance her, work for her ect. She was ruthless and she has gotten what she gave.

[Dave]

Has there been a resolution of this case? How long does it take for the government to investigate a PhD from a “university” in a converted motel in Evanston, Wyoming that has 2 or 3 staff members?

[daniel]

i don’t know why you are bad-mouthing the school. i got my degree from there. and i had no problems with other countries recognizing it. It is a legal facility to give accreditations. There are not many places doing it. I already had an AA and Technical degree, but i needed a bachelor degree. I plan on recommending another friend to this progran. what reason do you have to put this system down. it is a shortcut around the main road and its legal.

[Carl]

I too am interested in Hamilton. I applied and filled out a long app online.

A friend has a degree from there and told me about his app process, his long paper and research, the school’s process of review of proposed thesis, paper, ethis exame, etc.

I thought it was ligit. Then I started to have doubts after I saw the well-layed out and thorough albeit anemic brochure– and worse, the almost non-existent website of the APCPU.

I then looked them up at a website of accrediting institutions and found nada.

Your posts both interest and intrigue but actually also sound a bit defensive. Are you all sure they are not up to snuff?

[billy]

I bet the person who blew the whistle –see June 8 at 10:15pm posting–either worked for her and got some bad deal, like transferred or ignored by IG– this was good way to get back at her. If so, and person sees this response, please confirm my guess for pure curiosity purposes. Why did GCN and FCW take so long?? Did DOL ever act on tip?

[crm]

Hmmm….I too am looking at Hamilton to complete my degree program. I have over 140 hours of undergraduate work from various institutions and 20 years work experience. I have no desire to return to a traditional school, retake courses in order to feed the coffers of the accredited universities, and receive no consideration for my considerable real life experience. I see traditional schools as unbending mills that refuse to adjust for the non-traditional learner. Until traditional programs bend to include all kinds of students, I say hooray for Hamilton and others like it.

[bill]

To respond back to Billy, yeah I worked for her. I was one of her golden boys too. However the first time I disagreed with one of her “managers” on a technical issue, my golden boy status was tarnished. Personally I had no negetive interaction with Callahan, she was always quick to kick some cash via a good job award if you had to stay at work past midnight. She was evil but she also knew who to run over and whom to leave alone. The bottom line was she attempted to foist herself off as a PhD and that showed she was willing to deceive to get what she wanted. Would you want someone like that as Dep CIO at DHS? I think not. Don’t cry too much for her, she is still collecting a salary of over 125k a year to sit at home, while her appeal of her denial of clearance is pending.

The IG pooh poohed the tips. GCN and FCW took 3 weeks to verify what I gave them before they ran with it as if they were incorrect they as well as me, cause Callahan knows it was me, would be up to our asses in defamation lawsuits. When Callahan’s second clearance was done for DHS this time they (OPM investigators) interviewed me and I laid out exactly what I found when I searched on “Laura Callahan Hamilton university” on google.

[billy]

to person who blew whistle and responded to my inquiry: I understand your intense dislike for Callahan and will not defend issue of diploma mills — even if she was duped into thinking it was valid, as many people do — but my question is this for you: since this tunred into a security clearance investigation, do you think she is a threat to national security and cannot be trusted with classified material or rather that she is a bad manager…are you aware of any evidence she acted at cross-interest with job duties??

[bill]

back to billy. Its funny now that the GAO report has come out, EVERYTHING I hage them turened ot to be true. Gee a suprise huh? Anyway, to repsond to question about cross-interes with job duties. There were the usual claims that she was dirty and pocketing money from contractors. the DOL IG did some investigations however I do not know the outcome. Her modus operandi was when she would swithc jobs, her Fed “staff” (lackies actually) would leave their jobs where she was 6-8 weeks before she left, go to work for Booze Allen Hamilton (BAH) at higher salaries and when callahan would show up at her new job, she would hire them as feds again at higher salaries. When callahan left to go to HHS, the 4 lackies went to BAH, but I screwed them too cause when Callahan got suspended, BAH did not get any contracts and they cut the lackies loose. Oh well.

As far as her being in a position of national security. I will say what I told the OPM clearance investigator. By getting those degrees and foistign them off as real, it shows a willingness to deceive. A person who would use deception to advance themselves I would not consider trustworthy, especially with the IT infrastructure of the USA. Apparently the adjudicator of her clearance agreed and denied it.

She resigned before the GAO report came out becase she had run out of rope. The funny part is, her latest spin is that she was duped, even if it were true (which it isn’t) no one would belive her anyway.

Sucks to be her.

[billy]

back to bill. interesting. how do you know she says she was duped??? that never came out in press…how do you get over Abell at DOD also with bad degrees and no one cares..why the difference with Calahan?

[Arnold MarieAnge Payet]

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[packard aaron]

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[Jeff Moon]

I saw the CBS report (60 minutes) this evening about the “FAKE UNIVERSITIES” and the guy in Florida making nearly 2 million dollars just to print out fake degrees. The show also featured Richardson University that is doing the same thing as Hamilton University. All Fakes!!

[Jeff Moon]

I saw the CBS report (60 minutes) this evening about the “FAKE UNIVERSITIES” and the guy in Florida making nearly 2 million dollars just to print out fake degrees. The show also featured Richardson University that is doing the same thing as Hamilton University. All Fakes!! Check them out and fill their emails with “Fake Applications”

http://www.richardsonuniversity.us/
http://www.hamilton-university.edu/index2_f.html