WAUC / American World University / Dr. Maxine Klein Asher degree ripoff fraud, false representation, immoral, unethical, bogus, crooked, dishonorable, misrepresentation, lies, arrogance, rip-off, devious, confidence trickster, evasive, pretentious, Pascagoula Mississippi, Henderson Nevada *Consumer Comment ..YOUR ACCUSATIONS ARE UNFOUNDED
64.233.167.104
WAUC - AWU - American World University - Dr Maxine Asher
Address:
Nationwide, U.S.A.
Phone Number:
228-762-9020
Fax:
PRESS RELEASE
by
Stephen T. Manning / Checkpoint Education Services
In Reference to Notification of Redress of Grievance
against
Dr. Maxine K Asher as President;
World Association of Universities and Colleges / International Association of Universities and Colleges / American World University
and
An Appeal to Current Member Institutions of WAUC / IAUC to Confirm Their Individual Institutional Integrity and to Formally Denounce the Illegal, Unethical, and Immoral Activities of Dr. Maxine Asher as Listed Herein
Updated September 2004
Background statement:
Having had recent occasion to request consideration of transfer of credits from a WAUC accredited degree course to a New York (traditional) University, I was not very surprised to hear that the NY school would not accommodate my request. I fully understood the current debate concerning U.S. regional accreditation vs. accreditation for non-traditional schools. Nevertheless, because I had previously studied at the NY school for over two years and was still in good standing there, I had hoped that the NY school would consider evaluating pertinent coursework from my WAUC degree based purely upon the standards outlined on the WAUC website – and upon the policies and guidelines of the member school where I received my degree.
However, in her explanations as to why the NY school would not recognize those WAUC accredited courses, the registrar at the NY school directly accused WAUC of being “a fraudulent organization”. In response to this implication that my degrees were not ethically valid, I immediately set about the task of proving the merits of my degrees, and of the inherent professionalism of WAUC. Writing to Dr. Maxine Asher as president of WAUC, I was pleased to receive an initial stout (albeit generic) rebuttal of the charges, but despite repeated requests for a clarification on three specific points relating to the implementation of WAUC accreditation standards for member schools, could not secure a satisfactory response from Dr. Asher.
Although I continually and cordially affirmed my support for the principles of non-traditional education, and explained at length that I needed the information to combat the apparently slanderous allegations made by my former NY University, I was met with increasing evasiveness and disdain from Dr. Asher, which to my dismay, eventually descended into personal rudeness. Despite twelve such requests over a six-week period, promised information was never sent, and I was redirected time and again to sources that either did not reply, or sent inadequate or inappropriate responses.
First bewildered and then offended by her lack of forthrightness, I eventually realized that Dr. Asher had no intention of addressing the issues in a frank and honest manner. I then decided to investigate the accusations of fraud for myself. The following is a brief summary of my findings.
All of the following facts have been independently verified by trusted sources, and can be viewed by searching the links listed at the end of this document. As further proof of the veracity of the content, I formally challenge Dr. Maxine Asher to disprove any of the following statements and / or take legal action against me personally for libel. I for one would welcome some public ‘clarifications'. Any subsequent airing of the supporting facts should serve as a direct warning to any prospective WAUC students or member institutions – as well as to past or existing ones – of the shabby, unethical, immoral, and illegal activities of Dr. Maxine Asher as the President of WAUC and of the American World University.
This warning also extends to the IAUC (International Association of Universities and Colleges) also headed by Asher, which has made its appearance on the Internet recently. The establishment of the latter is probably yet another deceitful attempt to evade responsibility for her past and current criminal activities as President of WAUC, and to extend the fraudulent activities of her operations that are now increasingly being focused under various names into China, India, Pakistan, Africa, Korea, South America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East – most notably in Palestine.
All current WAUC member schools will be receiving this statement. Most, no doubt are unaware of many of the following facts. It is my sincere hope that any and all institutions of repute currently affiliated with Dr. Asher and the WAUC / IAUC, will immediately and publicly declare their intention to withdraw on ethical, if not also moral grounds. There can be no possible excuse for any member school to continue affiliation with Dr. Asher unless they are involved in similar practices, those that do not separate run the serious risk of being presumed guilty by association.
Based upon the exposure of the following facts, and in conjunction with a growing dissatisfaction with Dr. Asher's methods and modes of operation, the DTMSI, the educational agency in South Africa (recognized by the South African government) which is listed as the premier authentic institution that ‘recognizes' the WAUC – is withdrawing said recognition forthwith. It is telling that despite being informed of this, Dr. Asher has not yet removed that claim of DTMSI recognition from WAUC websites. In addition, of the two current member schools of WAUC already directly contacted by me, each has expressed grave concerns about WAUC / Dr. Asher, and one of the two schools has already stated its intention to withdraw. The second is awaiting the details of this statement.
Persons viewing this statement and any related links are invited to forward the contents at will to any individuals or organizations that will benefit from a reading thereof. Any current member institutions who make it known to me that they are disassociating from affiliation with WAUC / IAUC / AWU may have the fact recorded on this updated statement which will be displayed at color-of-truth.com (under “articles”) for public consumption. Due to time constraints however, I apologize if I may not be able to reply personally to all postings. STM.
List of Illegal / Immoral / Unethical Offenses include:
· False representation
· Non-enforcement of accreditation guidelines
· Breach of WAUC operational guidelines
· Exaggerations, Lies, Deceptions about her own status
· Misleading statements about location and status of ‘campuses'
· Misleading statements about value of WAUC degrees
· Lies about size and qualifications of faculty
· Failure to respond to requests for documentation either from government officials or students
· Failure to pay fines for illegal activities
· Misleading use of names and titles of institutions of repute
· False / pretended / non-existent grading of papers
· Fraudulently operating a business as a non-profit entity
(Items marked * are extracted from press articles or emails from industry professionals including some ex-WAUC schools who already withdrew on ethical grounds)
1. Dr. Maxine Asher consistently refers to herself in public and in private as being “of impeccable standards”; of having made “substantial contributions to education”; and of being personally “beyond reproach”, and portrays herself as a “pioneer in distance-education”. “My reputation in education is without a single flaw” says Asher. These, as we shall see, are just a few of the many deliberately misleading statements put out by Asher, designed to solicit the trust and confidence of any who can contribute financially to her increasingly suspect operations. For example, in her first email to me she stated indignantly and unequivocally; “We certainly are not fraudulent in any sense of the word” - I ask the reader to please read the following and then decide for themselves.
(Feb 26th 2004) “Maxine Asher, the Henderson woman who runs a highly criticized college accrediting association, has been forced to shut down her Hawaii operation. A Hawaii circuit court has ordered the World University of Iowa to cease operations, refund all student tuition and pay $240,000 in penalties. Asher has been accused of accrediting mail drops and diploma mill operations in the United States and overseas.”
2. Despite over a dozen written requests to do so Dr. Asher would not directly answer the following questions:
(i) By whose authority is WAUC accrediting its member universities?
(ii) Other than honorary degrees, does WAUC sanction the sale of unearned degrees?
(iii) Does WAUC practice a policy of offering accreditation to so-called "diploma mills" without checking and confirming their adherence to the standards and principles laid out on the website?
Eventually, a staffer at NOVUS University sent some belated replies that were either direct lies or skirted the issue with ambiguous rhetoric – another hallmark of Asher operations.
3. The WAUC website advises informs enquirers of a list of organizations worldwide that honor WAUC degrees which can be forwarded upon request. As a graduate I respectfully asked for this list. It never arrived.
4. * A Web site for (Asher's) American World University's Latin American Division falsely claims a downtown Iowa City apartment building as its "academic headquarters."
5. * A degree-fraud expert who works with the FBI describes AWU as a "dreadful, useless, and terrible" institution.
6. * A former student of AWU says he was tricked and that the school refused to give him his money back.
7. * A former temporary employee insists that she was offered a job "grading papers" after only one day on the job.
8. * “Asher's AWU students - 98 percent of whom are from foreign countries - generally fall into two categories: those who are duped into enrolling and those who hope to use a diploma to trick a future employer into believing they have an American education.”
9. * “President Maxine Asher almost always ran the school from California, checking in with workers in Iowa City. …the “campus” was the site of Answer Plus, a secretarial service that merely fielded its inquiries.”
10. * A government official in Brazil believes AWU is defrauding Brazilian students and operating illegally.
11. * When AWU was essentially run out of Iowa, it relocated in Rapid City, S.D. When South Dakota enacted a bill similar to Iowa's, the operation moved to Mississippi, where it resides today. AWU's affiliate in Brazil asked for a special exemption to be able to operate in Iowa this year; it was rejected in May.
12. * An Iowa City phone number from the AWU business' Web site transfers callers to an answering service in Waterloo. Workers there insist they have no knowledge of AWU and that they cannot give any information out but only leave a message for the school's president. "The only information I can give out is that I answer calls for international education," one woman said. "I know it sounds really odd, really horrible, but that's all I know." The calls are to a business called International Educators Inc., which was incorporated as a domestic nonprofit in 2001 by James Sayre, AWU's attorney in Iowa. Asher and two other AWU officials are listed as corporate officers under an address that no longer exists, 312 E. College St. No. 205 -- the old location of AnswerPlus in the Masonic Lodge Building. Workers there say they still handle quite a bit of mail addressed to AWU
13. * One Iowa City observer said: "'International Educators appears to be a phony corporation designed to allow Asher to continue operating out of Iowa and Iowa City in exactly the same way, with Iowa City continuing to be the main hub or spoke for her extensive mail fraud."
14. * Some say it's just another example of the sly way Asher does business. They describe her as a clever woman who has made a career of bending the law, tricking people, dodging authorities, and getting rich in the process. "She has had much experience in track-covering."
15* A local temp agency sent Alanna Shaikh to work for AWU in 2000 at the College Street office, where vertical blinds did not allow people to see in the windows. She says she quickly came to the conclusion that it was a "total fraud." The office consisted of three staffers, including her, and some graders who read students' assignments. Asher would call from California about once an hour to see what was going on. At the end of her first day, she says, Asher offered her a job grading students' papers, telling her "to write comments on them so that students would feel like they were being read."
16. * "She (Asher) said that the [World Association of Universities and Colleges] accredits a school in Saudia Arabia, and that she knows a member of the royal family, and that the degree would be recognized there," he said. When (ex-student) applied for the job, he found out that neither the degree nor the school were considered legitimate in the country. "In fact, they told me that I was wasting my time and money studying with that school," he recalled. He says AWU repeatedly refused to send him the books he needed, and he quit the program. Asher refused his request for a refund.
17. * When WAUC accredited LaSalle University in Mandeville, La., it was shut down by the FBI. Then, its founder set up a new diploma mill, called Acton University, from his prison cell in Beaumont, Texas – also WAUC accredited. Columbia State University, also in Louisiana, was recently closed after 10 years of bilking students.
18. * Employers may not be the only victims of diploma mills. The students themselves may be deceived into thinking the colleges are legitimate. Sally St. John, a longtime drug counselor and local television personality, says she was lured into getting her doctorate in psychology…. "I paid several thousand dollars……. I was told LaSalle was a fully accredited college….”
19. * “…we blew the whistle on Dr Asher having illegally re-registered what was a non-profit membership association to a share-based organization, the control of which she then proceeded to entrust with the owner of a range of unaccredited institutions against a substantial personal income. Dr Asher tried to bribe myself and a colleague to stay quiet about this…”
20. * “I have scarcely any information, apart from hearsay, on which to base a current evaluation of what WAUC stands for. However, I would suggest that as long as Dr Asher and/or any of those involved in the re-registration and subsequent attempt at keeping this hidden from the then membership is still involved, then I would have severe personal reservations about the integrity of WAUC, its general membership and any claims or statements they may be making in any connection.”
21. * “I recall the time when WAUC was vigorously promoting an event in New York, “sponsored” by the United Nations. As I recall, Asher had hired some minor UN functionary to address a symposium, and then promoted it as if the Secretary General himself were endorsing them. They even suggested it was being held at the United Nations . . . but in fact it was at the United Nations Plaza hotel, which has no connection. When notified as to what was going on, the appropriate UN office issued a stern "cease and desist" order.”
22. * …“a man in Iowa, who posts to newsgroups claims that Asher makes up her own threatening letters and pretends they are from lawyers.”
23. * During the course of discovery in connection with the lawsuit brought against them by William Howard Taft University, WAUC was unable to provide a single piece of correspondence with the Department of Education, bylaws for the organization, or minutes of Board meetings. “Most disconcerting - they were not able to provide any documented evidence they had ever conducted a site visit at any member institution.”
24. * Once it receives membership fees, WAUC does not appear to do much more than host an annual convention… When Asher and two other defendants made the promises "they knew them to be false ... with the intent to defraud and deceive," according to the lawsuit. The two sides reached a confidential settlement to the lawsuit, which also alleged that Asher used assets of the corporation for her personal use.
25. * “There's a popular magazine called Spy, which did some very good investigative reporting, …they did quite a feature on Maxine Asher and WAUC. In addition to the investigative reporting they wrote to a cross section of WAUC-accredited schools. My recollection is that every school contacted was willing to discuss or negotiate awarding an instant degree or made an outright offer of a degree.”
26. * The founder of WAUC accredited Columbia State University has pleaded guilty to 8 counts of fraud and is in prison.
27. * When the founder of LaSalle University, James Kirk (Thomas McPherson) was indicted on 18 counts of fraud, pleaded guilty, and was sent to federal prison in Beaumont, Texas, within a few weeks he was running his next phony, Edison University, from the prison . . . and with full accreditation by WAUC.
28. * Experts say AWU offers little instruction and that almost anyone can get a degree -- even a doctorate -- by paying the $1,650 tuition and handing in easy assignments.
29. * Laureate University in England did not answer an e-mail inquiry, nor did Lucy Han Lee, listed as the president of the Oriental Medical Institute in Hacienda Heights, Calif. A call to her listed phone was answered by a receptionist who said she never heard of the woman or the institute. A final call to the Rev. Sandy Clark, head of the Universal Church of the Master, was answered by a clerk in a Sharper Image store in Campbell, Calif.
30. * One of Asher's favorite topics is that of accreditation. She frequently refers to a government conspiracy against schools such as hers, which she says offers the same services major universities do but at a much cheaper price. The universities feel threatened, and because their representatives sit on the boards of the major accrediting agencies, they make sure schools like hers are considered fraudulent, she argues. Officials in Washington flatly dismiss that idea with a chuckle. Lambert said Asher applied for accreditation for AWU to his organization in 1996. He said she complained about the requirements and the paperwork and challenged him to visit her in person. He recalls flying to Iowa City and meeting her in a few empty rooms that were the headquarters of AWU. After a 30-minute meeting, Asher withdrew the application for accreditation. "She has dropped off of our radar screen since then," he said. "But apparently things haven't changed."
31. * Asher lists many established organizations as if they have formally accepted WAUC degrees, but in fact it is just happenstance that people who work at those institutions have taken a WAUC course……….
32. * Some member schools do not adhere to the accreditation guidelines anyway – making the whole WAUC thing a façade for soliciting monies from unsuspecting students. Several of its member institutions have been closed down by state or court actions (e.g. American International University of Management and Technology, Columbus University, Lacrosse University)
33. “As far as I can ascertain from reports, the value of WAUC accreditation is negative, the standards have not improved, and Asher is still very much using WAUC as a moneyspinner and a way to hold an umbrella over her own outfit (AWU). Even more interesting is doing a google search on WAUC + Asher, juicy stuff.”
34. * “As expected, what Maxine does is deny everything, while keeping the boat afloat in whichever jurisdiction will have her. What concerns me most is that there could be parties accredited by WAUC who really believe in the hype. One would think that the evidence brought to the surface in the WHTU debacle would show without a doubt that WAUC has no intention to do things the right way. That's a pretty significantly sized 'skeleton' to have roaming about one's closet, I should say. There are others, of course..”
35. “Little did we suspect that WAUC was essentially Asher's vehicle to have AWU invested with some sheen of respectability, nor that she would later sell the thing to Clayton. Once we realized how things were put together, we flew the coup.”
In conclusion; considering the fact that all WAUC member schools' literature makes at least SOME mention of the accreditation issue, pointing out (in varying degrees of clarity) that students will very likely encounter ‘difficulties' in having said degrees recognized by any reputable or well-informed establishments, then it should be clear that those students who choose to avail of WAUC affiliate degrees, do so primarily for their own personal satisfaction, fully aware of the limited applications of most such degrees. It goes without saying therefore, that the ONLY intrinsic merit that any WAUC affiliate degree can claim, is in the integrity of both WAUC and any respective member school in adhering to the stated accreditation guidelines.
If that accreditation procedure is proven to be suspect because of (a) lax enforcement (b) compromised standards, or (c) the questionable integrity of the founder and president, then obviously that so-called ‘accreditation' is absolutely worthless. The only possible merit left in any such degree is in the individual efforts and results that occur in-and-by the individual as a result of their own personal application in earning that degree. And if that is the case, then why bother paying Asher & Co. thousands of dollars for the dubious privilege of being lied to and mislead, and then celebrate the deception by displaying one's ‘certificate of deception' (diploma) as a testament to one's foolishness and naïveté? One might just as well embark upon a self-made course of study and allow the results of one's learning to speak for itself.
In a recent posting on the WAUC website, proud WAUC students are now being encouraged to pay an additional $50 for the recommended “sticker of approval” that will “forever guarantee one's degree”. Dr. Asher's contempt and disdain for those of us who unwisely trusted her and believed her many false and arrogant claims is apparently only increasing with time. STM
You are positively encouraged to contact Dr. Asher for clarification on any of these points at any of the following email addresses
WAUC
701 N. Green Valley Pkwy #200
Henderson, NV 89014
www.wauc.org
wauc.org
akoza60200@aol.com
trackjen400@yahoo.com
natcor01@yahoo.com - NOVUS University; Dr. Thomas Kirk - still awaiting a response…
info@novusu.org
cont@novusu.org
Recent articles for further information:
lasvegasmercury.com
lasvegasmercury.com
degreefinders.com
copyrighted article with several links exposing dubious degree-selling operations
quackwatch.org
Dr John Baer's findings on a range of education-related topics – particularly ‘diploma mills'.
William Howard Taft University
050400 WAUC Press Release.doc (21k) Taft U
You may also search www.degreeinfo.com and www.collegehints.com/boards for more ‘enlightening' references to WAUC.
WAUC heads the list of ‘bogus' accreditation agencies as defined by U.S. Government and Educational Authorities:
ACCREDITATION FRAUD ALERT:
There are many others, but these are well known bogus accrediting agencies that have been created by diploma mills and/or have no recognition by any legitimate organization. No legitimately accredited school would claim affiliation or membership or "accreditation" by any of these organizations:
WAUC World Association of Universities and Colleges
WWAC World-Wide Accreditation Commission
ABHE American Bureau of Higher Education in the State of Nevada
UCC United Congress of Colleges
IAAOU International Accreditation Agency for Online Universities
AOAEX Association for Online Academic Excellence
DGAA Distance Graduation Accrediting Association
CAA Correspondence Accreditation Association
BOUA Board of Online Universities Accreditation
UCOEA Universal Council for Online Education
Accreditation
WOEAC World Online Education Accrediting Commission
EAACHE Euro American Accreditation Council for Higher Education
S.C.A.A. Saints Christian Accrediting Association
ACEA Apostolic Council for Educational Accountability
The following is the supposed list of AWU staff as posted on an AWU Korean website which contains a statement in English that is extremely misleading about the size, credibility, and international prestige of AWU – let alone the extent of its huge and esteemed faculty (see below) awuedu.com
MAXINE ASHER, ROBERT BARNER, IRVING BUCHEN, MOIRA CARNEY, TERRANCE DEVNEY and….
Achtmann,Peretr, Ph.D - Journalism
Anso,Santiago,B.Sc, M.A - Nusing,Occupation Health,Ergonomics
Aragao,Selma, Ph.D - Lew
Baia,Loris, Ph.D - Psychology
Barros,Darcymires Do Rego, L.D - Physical Education
Beltrao,Fernanda B., Ph.D - Educational Administration
Brinker,Thomas, Ph.D - Accounting
Castanbeira,Mauricio, Ph.D - Social Psychology
Estebanez,Juan Carlos, M.A - Psychology,Sociology
Estebanez,Beatriz, M.D - Hospital Administration
Feijo,Olavo, Ed.D - Education
Frantzen,J.Dieter, Ph.D - Visiting Professor-Management
Huymans, Veronique, M.A - Law, EC Law, International Law
Kabir, Muhammed, Ph.D - Consultant: Business,Economics
Kamper,Gunter, Ph.D - Engineering
Katz, Judy, Ph.D - Television and Flim, Information Technology
Klein,James, Ph.D - Accounting
Lazcano, Amaia, Ph.D - Computer Science, Information Systems
Moraes,Jose Luis de, M.A - Education
Moustafa, Alam H.,Ph.D - Arabic and Islamic Studies
Neves, Lecy C Ph.D - Sociology
Ponte, Lowell Ph.D - English,Journalism
Prodonoff, Victor Ph.D - Mechanical Engineering
Regev, Drora,Ph.D - Psychogy.Education
Roldan,Alfonso,MD,Ph.D - Biomedial Science, Environmental Science
Rosen, Bruce Ph.D - Computer Science Consultant
Sampaio, Sergio Ph.D - Systems and Computer Engineering
Serrano, Francisco, M.A - Engineering.Mathematics
Sung-Cheul Cho, Ph.D - Fine Art
Waller, Adrian, Ph.D. - English, Journalism
Now; please read the following statement made in the Daily Iowan in December 2003 by Maxine Asher about AWU's size, scope, practices, and faculty.. see how many lies / exaggerations / inconsistencies / we can find, especially the part about having “over a dozen faculty”; offering degrees “primarily” by correspondence when in reality it is only by correspondence; the “qualified instructors” claim;
“An unidentified "degree-fraud expert," who purportedly works with the FBI, is cited as authority for the allegations. We at American World University do not know the identity of this alleged expert, having never been contacted by him or the FBI.” (Asher knows Dr. Bear and his work very well; therefore this is a blatant lie!)
Asher continues; “We have been in existence for many years and do offer, primarily by correspondence, bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees in certain areas. American World University has more than 12,000 students worldwide, with curriculum guidelines in all subject areas, course syllabuses, and qualified instructors supervising all work. Our faculty includes more than a dozen individuals with doctorate degrees from traditional, residential universities, and these individuals not only prepare the course work, select the textbooks and other curriculum materials, but in addition, review and grade the work of students…” see the rest of the misrepresentations at the following link; dailyiowan.com
The following link lists several WAUC institutions as illegal / fraudulent, including Dr. Asher's American World University, and contains numerous links to related topics: ossc.state.or.us
More links to questionable or downright fraudulent operations:
www.degree.com www.onlineuniversity.com (same as instant degrees)
www.accreditedlife-experience-degrees.com (refer to Ashwood, Belford, etc)
www.afastdegree.com (Americus university)
www.sosimpletobuy.com (instant degrees)
www.instantdegrees.com www.customderegees.com
www.life-experience-degree.com
www.phonydiploma.com
www.1onlinecollegedegrees.com (Americus university)
www.ashwooduniversity.net
www.belforduniversity.org
www.westwood.edu
www.degreebuyerguide.com
www.faringtonunversity.org
www.amsteaduniversity.org
www.atworthuniversity.org
www.iauci.org and www.uhedu.net
The list goes on and on and on........
Finally, for my own comments on the debate about traditional vs. non-traditional accreditation especially in regard to the American market, please read ACADEMIC ACCREDITATION AND DISTANCE LEARNING ; Traditional and Alternative Perspectives by S.T. Manning under "articles" at: color-of-truth.com
Stephen
Naha City, Okinawa
Japan
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