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Courier-Journal: U of L could face sanctions over one-semester Ph.D.

One-semester degree violated agency policy

By awarding a doctoral degree to a student enrolled for only one semester, the University of Louisville violated an accrediting agency’s rules and could face sanctions, the agency’s president said yesterday.

The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which accredits schools in 11 Southern states, including Kentucky, requires candidates for graduate degrees to earn the majority of their credits at the university awarding the degree.

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Tri-Town News: State says administrators must end use of Dr. title

Official wants board to review degrees of other employees

Two current administrators and one retired administrator from the Freehold Regional High School District can no longer be called doctors following the state Commission on Higher Education’s decision to issue a cease and desist order to stop what it deemed to be the illegal use of the titles.

FRHSD Superintendent of Schools James Wasser, Assistant Superintendent Donna Evangelista and Frank J. Tanzini, a retired assistant superintendent, were all issued cease and desist letters from Jane Oates, the commission’s executive director. The letters were dated Aug. 21.

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Courier-Journal: Matchbook degrees?

President James Ramsey offered a rather rosy picture of the state of the University of Louisville on Tuesday, and, to be sure, much is going on there to make the faculty, students and community proud.
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However, as the scandal at the College of Education and Human Development continues to widen, there is a stain that glowing words cannot eradicate.

The latest chapter, reported yesterday by The Courier-Journal’s Andrew Wolfson, indicates that ex-Dean Robert Felner turned the school’s Ph.D. program into the equivalent of a diploma mill. Dr. Felner, who is under federal investigation for possible mishandling of federal grants to the university, rewarded a California educator with a doctorate in a matter of one semester, flouting U of L rules and national standards.

It gets worse: John Deasy, the recipient of the degree, was superintendent of a school district that had recently awarded Dr. Felner’s National Center on Public Education and Social Policy a $375,000 contract.

Dr. Felner was a busy man. But what of the U of L college of which he was the steward? How many other doctorates awarded during his tenure were quickies? And what of the hard-working students who earned theirs according to the rules? Has their work been discredited?

Only a few weeks ago, Dr. Ramsey characterized charges against Dr. Felner as a lot of “anonymous crap.” Those hasty words, uttered in anger, indicate that the state of the university, at least in one major aspect, is not rosy at all.

His decision to appoint a blue-ribbon commission to review the Deasy matter is a good step. But correcting the Felner affair and repairing the College of Education’s reputation is going to take much more than that.

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Washington Post: Pr. George’s Schools Chief’s PhD Under Scrutiny

Prince George’s School Superintendent John E. Deasy received a doctorate from the University of Louisville, where he completed only nine credit hours.

The University of Louisville announced yesterday that it will investigate the awarding of a doctorate to John E. Deasy, now superintendent of Prince George’s County schools, after reports that he completed his graduate work there on an unusually fast track in apparent departure from the university’s standard practice.

Deasy, leader of the 130,000-student system since 2006, was awarded a doctorate of philosophy in education in May 2004 after completing nine credit hours of work at the university — equivalent to one semester — in addition to 77 credit hours he earned from other schools. Deasy also wrote a 184-page dissertation.

At issue is the relatively small number of credit hours Deasy earned from the University of Louisville and what kind of exception to university policy might have been made to award his degree.

The university’s graduate handbook indicates that doctoral students typically complete their work in a minimum of three years, including at least one year — 18 credit hours — in full-time residency.

This week, Kentucky media reported on questions raised about the awarding of Deasy’s doctorate as part of news coverage of a federal investigation centered on Robert Felner, the former dean of the university’s College of Education and Human Development. Felner was also Deasy’s academic adviser and chairman of his dissertation committee.

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