Does State Health Plan Executive Administrator Jack Walker have a bogus PhD?

This guy is an embarassment, clearly.
It is time to go, Jack Walker, Ph. D (sic).

hmmmm….Hope this issue is raised at the next meeting of the House and Senate committes that have oversight responsibilities for the State Health Plan

Time to fire this sorry phoney!!!!!

What a rotten imposture this “doctor” is. Not only should he be immediately terminated but he should also reimburse the State of North Carolina for the “doctoral salary” he has received from his very beginning employment, early in this decade. People like this creep represents yet another example of those in high places (NC Senate) not doing the proper examinations, prior to implementation in vital areas.

Maybe we have our own AIG-type situation and just haven’t discovered it yet; time will tell!!!! I bet we do!

The 1985 Bear’s Guide, which Wilson Library Bulletin says is “the authoritative guide in the field”, highly recommended Columbia Pacific with the following words:

Columbia Pacific is the largest university in the United States and one of the largest in the world offering non-resident Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorates. Despite the size, students report an extremely high level of personal attention from the faculty and staff. The faculty numbers more than 400, nearly all with traditional Doctorates. Two former presidents of major accredited universities serve as two of the deans of Columbia Pacific, and their president, Richard Crews, is a prominent psychiatrist with his medical degree from Harvard…. Degrees are offered in dozens of subject areas, including business, administration and management, engineering, psychology, education, holistic health, health sciences administration, architecture, and nutrition. Special programs are created for students wishing to work in specialized areas… Work may be done in almost any language…. The University has two campuses: a million-dollar university-owned urban campus in downtown San Rafael (just north of San Francisco) and a 13-acre North Campus in northern Marin County, with library, student housing and other facilities. There is an office in England, where a special program in travel and tourism is offered jointly with British Air, and where former Prime Minister Harold Wilson is one of many prominent people serving as honorary fellows of the university (Bear, 1985, p. 96).

Bear concluded his detailed review of CPU with the following recommendation:

No other non-resident doctorate-granting institution has a staff with the credentials, reputation, and experience of Columbia Pacific. Many major universities, including Harvard, Yale and Princeton have expressed a willingness to accept C.P.U. degrees. Hundreds of C.P.U. alumni have written me (more than from any other school) to praise the very personal approach, the valuable learning experience, and the usefulness of their degrees (1985, p. 96).

Bear also rates schools from 1-5 (5 being fully regionally accredited), Columbia was rated a 4, which meant it was given the authority by “the superintendent of public instruction of the state of California” to award the degrees they offered. In other words, it was accredited by the state of California. Among other things, Full Institutional Approval pursuant to California Education Code Section 94310(b) means: “The course for which the degree is granted achieves its professed or claimed academic objective for higher education, with verifiable evidence of academic achievement comparable to that required of graduates of other recognized schools accredited by an appropriate accrediting commission recognized by the United States Department of Education or the Committee of Bar Examiners for the State of California”. The key word in the clause is ‘comparable’ which is synonymous with the adjectives ‘similar’, ‘matching’ and ‘equivalent’. Almost 50 accrediting bodies exist and for this reason one must specify which accrediting body is of concern. The United States Department of Education recognized CPU as a fully accredited institution, as evidenced by its inclusion in the Higher Education Directory, The HEP, published by Higher Education Publications, Washington, DC, 1984. CPU was also listed in Petterson’s American Education, Vol 82.

The 1981 edition of Bear’s Guide says the founders and staff of CPU “have, by a wide margin, the most impressive credentials of the people associated with any such school” (1980, p. 49). The school was founded in 1978 by three senior academics, two of whom were former presidents of regionally accredited American universities (see http://www.altepualumni.org). CPU, was the first California approved institution to gain full Institutional Approval in 1986. It now has over 7,500 alumni in 60 countries. When operating it was the largest distance learning institution in America. Bear adds that no other alternative non-residential Doctorate-granting institution has officers who approach the reputation, prestige, and experience of those of C.P.U. I have had more positive, enthusiastic feedback from students and alumni of C.P.U. than from any other school, accredited or not. These people praise the very personal approach, the valuable learning experience, the comparatively low cost, and the value of the degree to them. C.P.U. operates from a large leased building just north of San Francisco and from a 13-acre residential retreat center (with library, student housing, etc.) in Northern Marin County. There is also a residential psychology program in Santa Cruz, and offices in England.

True, Jack Walker doesn’t live in California. However, since a PhD is not a requirement for the job, the defamation attempts at him as State Health Plan Executive Administrator are a mean-spirited political witch-hunt and not a scholarly debate on adult education.

The court that closed CPU in 2000 also ruled that CPU degrees are legally valid. Today CPU degrees are internationally recognized and they continue to be legally valid in most parts of the US. Founded by former presidents of established American universities, CPU delivered high quality education in accordance with the pedagogical vision of its president, Dr. Richard Crews, the Harvard-trained psychiatrist. In view of the fact that CPU graduates worked hard for their degrees and gained a most valuable educational experience, it is the shame of states like Texas and Oregon that they persecute people for their scholarly accomplishments. Moreover, these states act unconstitutionally because they don’t recognize the authority of California to grant academic degrees. In fact, the Texas law also implies that California is a “fraudulent” state.

We have to take of course into consideration the realities created by the judicial system. Yet the judicial system is not about truth or justice. It is about power. Furthermore, to call CPU “unaccredited” is a misleading and false characterization . It is like saying that Master Card is not a real credit card because it is not American Express. Accreditation is a voluntary process in the US. It is a fact that CPU was not regionally or nationally accredited. However, there exist other forms of legitimate school authorization as well and CPU was a California State accredited (“approved”) school.

CPU was indeed a pioneer in higher education. They were way ahead of their time. They allowed a wide variety of majors and llowed students to work with (validated) experts (with traditional degrees) close to their home location in many cases. in addition all students had to complete certain core competencies in order to graduate.

The powers that be did not know what to do with non-traditional schools at that time. They admitted that CPU’s degrees wer ” fully equivalent” t o those from regionally accredited universities. These were the words of the California agency that accredits schools.

Due to a personal vendetta (according to an inside expert at the state agency that made site visits) CPU was ordered close.

It was NEVER a diploma mill and degrees gained form CPU are legal and valid.

It’s interesting that many schhols including Columbia, Harvard, University of Phoenix and others have distance learning programs now. Many schools speacialize in total distance learning-Capella, Nova, Walden and many others.

This job does not require a PhD, much less one from a regionally accredited college. Dr Walker has not done anything ethically or legally wrong. This is tabloid journalism and the trendy public outrage (based on ignorance and hysteria) gone awry

Conspiracy Theories?

Beyond legality everything is an opinion. So let me point out again that CPU degrees are legally valid, internationally, and in most parts of the US. The persecution of people for learning, namely with CPU degrees, reveals the narrow-mindedness and tunnel vision of politicians and their supporters in certain states.

So, why was CPU closed? Well, we know what happens to those who dare to confront conservative societies. Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilei are famous in this regard. The renowned British scholar, composer and European-American University president John Kersey http://www.johnkersey.org/jk.html observes:

“Not so long ago, in the mid-1990s, the largest distance-learning university in the USA was a private, independent, non-traditional institution (Columbia Pacific University), which was definitely not a part of the educational establishment and that stood for radical change in almost every aspect of its provision. The mainstream saw to it that CPU was suppressed, closed and posthumously trashed. But the ideas that drove it to success won’t go away, and nor will the people who believe in them”, http://europeanamericanuniversity.blogspot.com

We have to bear in mind that traditional universities are part of the economic system and monopolists don’t like competition.

In any case, the prosecutor of CPU, who called it a “diploma mill” at the trials had no expertise in distance learning, and for the nature of his education, please, see his own description:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/alumni/connection/connect/mycu/12.html.

Dr. Betty Dow testified in the CPU trials that the CPPVE instructed members of a visiting committee to produce a fabricated report. It was used in the trials to shut down the school,
http://www.altcpualumni.org/chronicles/dow.html.

CPU underwent successful peer reviews of visiting committees, had full institutional accreditation (“approval”) http://www.altcpualumni.org/chronicles/1986approval.pdf and for the high quality of its educational environment, see for instance this:
http://www.thedegree.org/henderson.html. In order to understand more the innovative nature of CPU’s educational philosophy and the concept of Competency Education, please, go to http://www.thedegree.org/cer21.html .

The enforced closing of CPU was based on a untenably erroneous report in most details and independent critics refuted it completely! It contained 86 errors, which rendered it utterly unreliable, http://www.altcpualumni.org/chronicles/cpurespb.pdf . It absurdly claimed, for example, that Dr. Richard Crews, MD (Harvard) was unqualified to serve as CPU president, ignorantly denied the academic validity of academic degrees held by CPU deans from leading German and British universities and falsified the facts regarding a student’s Spanish dissertation.
http://www.altcpualumni.org/chronicles/cpurespb.pdf

For serious and responsible people interested in the real, strange and multi-faceted story of CPU and its closing, please also see Prof. Jerry Bergman’s account
http://www.rae.org/cpu.html , as well as my article, why the medical establishment does not like CPU http://www.altcpualumni.org/wholisticed/hartal2001.html.

I could add, if CPU was closed due to incompetent attorneys, that says a lot about our broken justice system, which I used to be part of, but decided sleeping at night was more important then making a lot of money. I am now a poor educator but I can now sleep at night. Adam, you need to attack the problem, not CPU.

The closing of CPU resulted not from valid educational considerations but from the dirty politics of higher education in California. Mind you, the judicial system is often not about truth and justice but about power and money. Miscarriage of justice is a common phenomenon. CPU was closed on the basis of a fabricated report full of factual errors and insubstantial allegations. For example, it absurdly claimed that Harvard-trained psychiatrist Dr. Richard Crews was unfit to serve as the President of CPU because he was an MD and not a PhD. Another preposterous and prejudiced assertion was directed against the black deans of CPU holding PhDs from well-known European universities. The deans in question were Dr. Ketsela, graduate of the University of Wales, and Dr. Tolossa, graduate of the University of Bremen, [3]. The report falsely alleged that these European universities are unaccredited. There were over 80 errors of fact in the report rendering it completely worthless.

Error of Fact Number 28: The Spanish Dissertation

Error of Fact Number 28, for example, has become quite famous and mentioned in a variety of media articles. It concerns a Spanish dissertation that allegedly was approved by faculty who did not speak Spanish. In reality, the CPU faculty mentor who supervised the dissertation worked with the student in Spanish and the doctoral thesis provided Table of Contents, Summary and additional information in English. Moreover, CPU policy changed in early 1995, so that dissertations could be submitted only in English. Documented refutation of all the false claims against CPU has been published on line in “The Chronicles of Columbia Pacific University”, [4]. Please, note that CPU graduates earned their degrees through competency and hard work. Thousands of them teach at accredited schools or work in research, civil service, business and industry.

Please, read carefully:

“Thousands of them teach at accredited schools or work in research, civil service, business and industry.”

There are over 7,500 CPU alumni with legally valid CPU degrees.
They are accomplished professionals working in all levels of education and other fields.