Hamilton University was an

unaccredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

institution based in Evanston,

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

. According to the

Oregon Office of Degree Authorization The Oregon Office of Degree Authorization (ODA) is a unit of the Office of Student Access and Completion, with responsibilities related to maintaining high standards in private higher education institutions in Oregon. ODA administers laws and prov ...

, it was first established in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

as American State University.Unaccredited Colleges
, Oregon Office of Degree Authorization (accessed October 14, 2007). It has since been closed by court order in Wyoming and has relocated to

the Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

under the name Richardson University.

History

Since it had no real students and no faculty and was housed in buildings which had once been a

Motel 6 Motel 6 is a privately owned hospitality company with a chain of budget motels in the United States and Canada. Motel 6 also operates Studio 6, a chain of extended-stay hotels. The hotel brand is owned by The Blackstone Group's real estate busi ...

, Hamilton was widely thought to be a

diploma mill A diploma mill (also known as a degree mill) is a company or organization that claims to be a higher education institution but provides illegitimate academic degrees and diplomas for a fee. The degrees can be fabricated (made-up), falsified (fa ...

.Diplomas for Sale
CBS News, 60 Minutes (2004-11-10) The school issued degrees based on "life experiences." Candidates for a degree were required to answer a few questions and write a small project of 2,000 words (about seven typed pages). The school issued

Bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...

Master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

, and even PhDs. The presence of a small

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

built in the parking lot had served to make the activity

tax free Tax Free was a Dutch band from Amsterdam. It was founded by singer Wally Tax in 1969 after disbanding of The Outsiders. The group also featured David Oliphant (guitar), Jody Purpora on vocals, guitar and keyboards and Leendert "Buzz" Busch (drum ...

due to federal and state laws, even though the church building had no pews; people in Evanston had never seen services there.

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

reported in 2004 that Hamilton was operated by Rudy Marn of

Key West, Florida Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Isla ...

. Marn, an art collector and philanthropist, has a history of running diploma mills. In 2008, Marn pleaded guilty to

tax fraud Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

and was sentenced in October 2008 by Casper federal court to two years in prison and ordered to pay $620,000 in restitution to the IRS. Marn,

Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...

# 10728-091, served time in Federal Correctional Institution, Beaumont Low in the

Federal Correctional Complex, Beaumont The Federal Correctional Complex, Beaumont (FCC Beaumont) is a United States federal prison complex for male inmates in unincorporated Jefferson County, Texas. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Depart ...

, and was released in September 2010. The website used the

.edu The domain name .edu is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The domain was implemented in 1985 for the purpose of creating a domain name hierarchy for organizations with a focus on education, even abl ...

domain, because unaccredited institutions were allowed to use such domains before October 29, 2001..edu FAQ: Eligibility for the .edu Domain
, EDUCAUSE website, accessed August 3, 2008

Academics and accreditation

Hamilton claimed to be

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

by the American Council of Private Colleges and Universities (ACPCU). The ACPCU, which was "set up by Hamilton, for Hamilton" has no authorization from the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

or the

Council for Higher Education Accreditation The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is a United States organization of degree-granting colleges and universities. It identifies its purpose as providing national advocacy for academic quality through accreditation in order t ...

. Former

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

consultant John Bear called it a "fake accrediting agency set up by the Wyoming-based diploma mill, Hamilton University."

Criticism and controversy

An investigation by the TV news program ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

'' revealed that some people in positions of power actually held phony degrees issued by Hamilton University, such as

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Jack J. Pelton Jack J. Pelton is the Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), and the former CEO of the Cessna Aircraft Company, a subsidiary of Textron Inc (and now a brand of Textron Aviation). Before becoming Cessna's ...

. A statement by the company did not deny the allegations, asserting that Mr. Pelton was chosen for his field experience more than for his academic achievement. The most notable "graduate" of Hamilton University was former U.S. government official

Laura Callahan Laura Callahan ( née Laura L. Crabtree)Project X" email scandal involving the disappearance of thousands of

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

emails which had been subpoenaed by

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

. Callahan's diplomas from HU had enabled her to get a high position in the

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the I ...

. A probe of her claims evolved into an investigation by the

Government Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal govern ...

of Federal employees who had paid diploma mills with taxpayer funds. When the CBS ''60 Minutes'' video crew visited the campus, there was no evidence of any students or faculty, but three office workers present.

People with Hamilton degrees

Laura Callahan Laura Callahan ( née Laura L. Crabtree)NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

television show ''

Treasure Hunters Treasure hunter is the physical search for treasure. For example, treasure hunters try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with market value. This industry is generally fueled by the market for antiquities. The practice of treasur ...

'', claims a Masters and PhD from Hamilton University *

, former CEO of Cessna Aircraft Co and current Chairman of the Experimental Aircraft Association

Connected institutions

* American State University (Moved to Wyoming and renamed Hamilton University) * Richardson University (Bahamas) (Hamilton University, renamed and relocated again after Wyoming shut the operation down)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Hamilton University's website
from

Archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Unaccredited institutions of higher learning in the United States