LAST NIGHT at the board meeting, and then again today in a district email, we were informed that Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur has received an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree in business administration.
Sounds impressive.
So, who gave it to 'im? —Well, Pacific States University did. Recently, Raghu spoke at PSU's commencement in Los Angeles.
I've never heard of Pacific States University. Have you?
I looked it up.
According to the PSU website, the college has seven full-time faculty (other sources give the number four) and four administrators.
Well, at least that tiny crew of instructors is well paid.
—Well, no, they're not. According to Stateuniversity.com, "Pacific States University ranks 3757th for the average full-time faculty salary." They list an average full-time salary of $26,592.
Ouch.
Well, they've got students, right? The Carnegie Foundation classifies PSU as "very small." According to several sources, PSU now has about 140 students (undergraduate and graduate). According to Collegetree.org, in 2005, PSU awarded 15 Bachelors degrees and 38 Masters degrees. That's 53 graduates.
PSU is an "open enrollment" university. I think that means that grades aren't an issue.
Well, at least PSU is accredited. PSU's website declares that it "is accredited [not by WASC, but] by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools."
Never heard of them. I looked 'em up. ACICS is pretty small-time. It accredits the Golf Academy of San Diego, Professional Golfers Career College (Temecula), and Kitchen Academy (Hollywood).
Not that there's anything wrong with those places. I mean, if you're gonna teach golf, you oughta do it right, I say.
Maybe next year Raghu can snag a free set of golf clubs.
18 comments:
In Randall Jarrell's Pictures from an Institution, the president of the college never had gotten past his bachelor's degree, which was in diving, but proudly divulged that he was in possession of an honorary Ph.D. from Menuire. If you wished to make an enemy of him for life, you merely had to note that in 1948, that small Florida institution had awarded the degree "Doctor of Humor" to Milton Berle.
PSU seems to have liberally conferred "earned" doctorates on many of its faculty, thereby enabling them to advance to the rank of professor. I believe in the trade this is known as "bootstrapping."
Sour grapes, Chunk?
That's wonderful ... !!! ;-)
You guys are just jealous, that's all.
The Chancellor is really elevating the district, isn't he?
We should be so proud.
I need a Ph.D. Do you know how much do they charge for a Ph.D. ?
If I got a PhD from Pacific States - then I could move up on the salary scale!
Does Raghu get an increase in salary now that he has TWO phDs?
Jonathan, tell us more about this "bootstrapping"!
My own research seems to suggest that the PSU President sells insurance. Maybe a different guy.
But I can dream, can't I?
What a joke. No matter what bullshit honorary PH.D Mathur may recieve he will never have the respect or confidence of most of the faculty. Don't believe it? Let's have a confidence vote.
Raghu does not have a Ph.D., aside from this "honorary" one.
His other doctorate is not a Ph.D.; it is an Ed.D., a degree that becomes more scandalously meretricious with each year that passes.
--Especially if it comes from Nova Southeastern, among the lowest ranked colleges in the country.
Several years ago, I read an article about fly-by-night universities. The thesis of the article was that about twenty degree mills are run by an interlocking directorate of the same five people. Each of these people established one or more universities, installed each other on each other's boards, and granted each other Ph.D's. An accrediting agency was created by these same people to accredit the resulting colleges. They recruited their friends to teach at the universities, granting them PhD's in order to hire them as professors. Many of these universities catered to the military and to the ignorant, who were amazed at the lenity of the coursework.
As it turned out, a good friend of mine is friends with one of the principals, and has gone and gotten himself a PhD from one of these institutions, purely out of vanity. He is an otherwise intelligent man, and would never use his "degree" to deceive others, but it comforts him in some way.
What's interesting is that the large for-profit universities, such as University of Phoenix and National University, though they adhere a little more closely to the forms, work on some of the same principles.
Jonathan:
Have you any reason to suspect PSU of, as you say, working on these principles?
I am a little curious about the full-timers. Clearly, they can't survive--not in LA--on those salaries. So who are they and what are they about? Inquiring minds want to know.
IVC seems guilty of bestowing its own questionable "honorary degrees" without much--if any--faculty input and awards them at off-campus locations with only the usual suspects in attendance. On what basis were THOSE people granted one of your own degrees?
Or is that evidence that the district is engaging in this mutual backscratching?
As far as I can tell all these guys do is shake hands, pose for picture, give each other awards and degrees and write each other checks when necessary.
Politics, right?
Business. The way things are done - just boosting each other up so each looks bigger and better than they really are - because no one ever looks too closely or connects the dots.
1:56--
I never seem to get off campus. Tell us more about these occasions, would you?
1:56--
I never seem to get off campus. Tell us more about these occasions, would you?
The occasion that 1:56 refers to are often found in the PR emails sent to all of us from the district - smiling mid-level elected officials and business people clutching diplomas while Ragu smiles madly next to them.
Scroll down next time one arrives in your mailbox and you'll see.
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