Senator calls on HSD to investigate official’s doctorate (Update)

Government Computer News ^ | Patience Wait and Wilson P. Diazard III

[decimon]

A senate committee chairwoman today turned up the heat on the Homeland Security Department’s investigation of a senior government career official’s claim of a Ph.D. from a Wyoming university that, according to its literature, requires no attendance and scant course work. Hamilton University, the source of the official’s doctorate, grants bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees based on life and work experience.

"I am very concerned by allegations that a senior Department of Homeland Security official may have misrepresented her academic credentials," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees Homeland Security. “I have written today to DHS in order to determine whether this official did in fact breach the government's trust and, if so, what actions the department plans to take."

[decimon]

"Post Newsweek Tech Media reporters confirmed today that, in addition to the doctorate, Laura Callahan, senior director in the office of CIO Steve Cooper at HSD, said on her official resume that she obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Hamilton University."

That answers a question from the original thread Degree Mill

[Ed_in_NJ]

Interesting, though, that noone seems to have faulted her job performance.

Can we conclude from this that someone in this position with 'real' degrees is indistinguishable from one with phony degrees?

The deceit should be punished, certainly, but perhaps we'd do just as well to hire high school graduates and pay them accordingly, if the results will be (nearly) the same.

[decimon]

Can we conclude from this that someone in this position with 'real' degrees is indistinguishable from one with phony degrees? The deceit should be punished, certainly, but perhaps we'd do just as well to hire high school graduates and pay them accordingly, if the results will be (nearly) the same.

gcruse made a similar point in the original thread. Durn good question.

Interesting, though, that noone seems to have faulted her job performance.

Ouch! That could get you into real trouble on FR. She's a Clintonista:

"-- White House officials acknowledged Thursday they asked contract staffers not to discuss computer problems that caused thousands of e-mail messages to escape the reach of a congressional subpoena, but rejected claims that those staffers had been threatened. The statements came Thursday afternoon at a House Government Reform Committee hearing on the controversy. Earlier in the day, three Northrop Grumman contract employees, charged with operating the e-mail system, said White House officials Mark Lindsay and Laura Callahan had threatened to have them jailed if the problem was disclosed -- claims the two officials vehemently denied."

[TaxRelief]

Great link to 22 reasonably legitimate on-line universities at Business2.com.

[dennisw]

Ouch! That could get you into real trouble on FR. She's a Clintonista.

Let the law come down on her like a ton of bricks. She should forfeit all extra pay she received based on her sham degree. She's been a Washington bureaucrat feeding at the federal trough for 20 years. Enough is enough.

[TaxRelief]

From the article: ,p.Diploma mills do real harm, said George Gollin, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. “The wrongdoing is that they are providing fairly good tools that stand up to a cursory background check, where [purchasers] can get good jobs where they are assumed to have knowledge that they in fact do not have and can harm other people.”

Does this professor have a legitimate diploma?

[visualops]

Professor George Gollin received his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1980, after having received an A.B. in physics from Harvard in 1975. He was a McCormick Fellow at the University of Chicago in 1980-82, and served as as assistant professor at Princeton from 1983-1989. He came to the University of Illinois as an associate professor in 1989, and was elevated to full professor in 1996.

Looks like it ;)

[decimon]

Regents College has for a few years been Excelsior College.

There are many regionally accredited colleges with distance learning courses and/or degrees. I'm surprised that more FReepers aren't interested in them given the discontent with what goes on in the brick and mortar schools. College by distance learning is much like home schooling. And Excelsior, Thomas Edison and Charter Oaks colleges have programs allowing you to "test out" on entire degrees. Some military people have been taking that route for some years.

Anyone interested (need a new job, anyone?) should check out the Bears' Guides and this website - Degree Info . It is, in fact, on that sites forum that I picked up on this thread.

[decimon]

Let the law come down on her like a ton of bricks. She should forfeit all extra pay she received based on her sham degree. She's been a Washington bureaucrat feeding at the federal trough for 20 years. Enough is enough.

No problem with that unless [cliche alert] she becomes the scapegoat allowing the greater problem to be swept under the rug.

[Ed_in_NJ]

I was using 'job performance' in the sense of what her
job description reads -- I'm well aware of her crimes under i42, which seemed to trouble people less than lying about her degrees.

[TaMoDee]

Amen! Try that Degree BS on an Armed Forces background check
and you'll end up OUT of the SERVICE!

[TaxRelief]

All those years studying and he couldn't grammatically structure a simple sentence:

Diploma mills do real harm, said George Gollin, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. “The wrongdoing is that they are providing fairly good tools that stand up to a cursory background check, where [purchasers] can get good jobs where they are assumed to have knowledge that they in fact do not have and can harm other people.”

[visualops]

Too many quarks before bedtime...

[TankerKC]

From the article:

”Post Newsweek Tech Media reporters confirmed today that, in addition to the doctorate, Laura Callahan, senior director in the office of CIO Steve Cooper at HSD, said on her official resume that she obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Hamilton University.

According to the resume, she earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science in 1993, her master’s in computer science in 1995, and a Ph.D. in computer information systems in 2000.

In March 2000, when Callahan was subpoenaed to appear before the House Government Reform Committee on breakdowns in the White House e-mail system, she testified under oath that she was “a graduate of Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J.” She did not mention the two Hamilton degrees.

The alumni office at the New Jersey college confirmed that Callahan obtained a two-year associate’s degree in 1992; her major was liberal arts/general.”

So, the only degree she has is an associates in liberal arts?

[decimon]

So, the only degree she has is an associates in liberal arts?

Looks like that's the only Regionally Accredited degree she has. But Thomas Edison State College is an interesting school and especially so for those interested in distance education.

[TankerKC]

Congressional scrutiny of Homeland official steps up (Laura Callahan update) ^

[tracer]

"Interesting, though, that noone seems to have faulted her job performance."

It has been my observation that the measurement of job performance of Federal executives is a very subjective process and quite often is influenced by the ability of the the executive in question to steal and take credit for, with a straight face, the work of his/her competent subordinates and associates.

Such also is the case (IMO)in the private sector, I might add. Anyone who doubts the foregoing observations need only read the newspaper or tune into/log onto the electronic media......

[Ed_in_NJ]

I agree - though I'd also add that (particularly in DC) it seems to have to do with what goes on over cocktails and/or between the sheets.

[visualops]

"the ability of the the executive in question to steal and take credit for, with a straight face, the work of his/her competent subordinates and associates.

Such also is the case (IMO)in the private sector, I might add. Anyone who doubts the foregoing observations need only read the newspaper or tune into/log onto the electronic media......"

Heck all you need to know that is have a job lol