What's in a Name?

What's in a name? Everything is in a name and doing things the right way is more important now than ever, with the scandals at Enron and World Com, legitimate credentials and integrity matter more today than ever before. I think the following is a case of gross misrepresentation of a material fact and how sooner or later the truth will be found out.

Prof demoted due to diploma-mill credentials By Betty Parker Originally posted on October 09, 2007
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Misunderstandings over a Lehigh Acres candidate’s academic credentials led to an employment demotion at one of his jobs, but Keith Richter said Tuesday he plans to start over soon on getting a Ph.D from a recognized U.S. institution. As for repeated references to him as “Dr. Richter” in minutes and other documents of the Lehigh Acres Community Planning Corp., of which he’s a board member, Richter said he has asked others not to refer to him by the doctoral title, “but they just like to do that,” he said.After being hired this fall as an adjunct faculty member at Hodges University, Richter’s status was recently lowered to “teaching assistant” after university officials realized he claimed a master’s degree in math from Canterbury University.Located in England, Canterbury is referred to in professional education journals and elsewhere as a group that functions essentially as a diploma mill.The state of Oregon, for example, warns job seekers on its Web site that degrees from Canterbury and other similar institutions will not count toward employment.Richter never claimed to have a Ph.D., said Jeanette Brock, Hodges’ executive vice president for academic affairs. But his master’s came from Canterbury, and his Web site and press releases regarding his candidacy as a Republican for state House District 72 say he is working on a Ph.D. from Canterbury.His bachelor’s degree in math from the University of South Florida is acceptable for the assistant job, working under a faculty member’s supervision in a freshman math class, Brock said. Whether Richter is re-hired next semester remains to be seen, she added.When contacted Tuesday about his academic background, Richter first said he’d finished his Ph.D. from Canterbury early this year.But when asked about recent campaign materials saying he’s still working on it, Richter said he had not finished paying for it and is still involved in a complex completion process that he thought might make the degree acceptable in this country.He then said he hopes to go back and get both a masters degree and a Ph.D. from a Florida state university.“I’ll go back and do it all over again just to make sure there is no impropriety,” he said.“I’ve lost about $7,400, but sometimes you have to chalk things up as a lesson and move on.”Richter said he thought the Canterbury degrees would be good even though the school is not accredited or recognized in this country. He did not attempt to “scam” Hodges, he said, nor did he mean to mislead others who heard about the degree.Brock, from Hodges, also seemed willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.“I’m not sure he knew the difference,” she said of her discussions with Richter about his credentials.Florida law makes it a crime to claim falsely to have an academic degree or title; the offense is a first-degree misdemeanor.“Wow, this sounds like quite a deception,” said Rep. Paige Kreegel, R-Punta Gorda, who Richter is challenging for re-election. “If he’s been lying about all that, it makes you wonder what else he’s lying about.”Richter, 39, said he’s also spent 11 years as a public school teacher in Lee, Hendry and Glades counties, and now owns a business called Computer Solutions of Southwest Florida, Inc. He filed papers Aug. 17 to start fundraising for the state House contest. In the reporting period that ended Sept. 30, documents show he raised about $610, including $160 of his own money, and spent most of it.