Primrose Road

Yesterday, I directed my Business Writing students to several known diploma mill websites and gave them the following "ethical dilemma" to attempt to resolve:

You are an employer, and you learn that an employee's master's degree came from an unaccredited diploma mill. After speaking with the employee and several colleagues, you determine that the employee genuinely didn't know that what (s)he earned/purchased was not a valid master's degree (i.e. (s)he believed that one could earn a master's degree with three month-long online courses and a 15-page book report). What do you do?

After looking over the websites, several students responded that they would fire the employee, not so much because (s)he had a diploma mill "degree," but because (s)he fell for the diploma mill scam.

"Just look at the 'faculty' pages," one student said (and others echoed her sentiments). "Some of them look like mugshots, and none of them has an accredited degree! How could anyone not know that something's not right?"

And they appreciated my "if it teaches 'Angelology,' it's a diploma mill" rule. Lots of cries of "Angelology? What the hell?" and "What does it mean for my B.S. in Engineering if somebody else can get a bachelor's in Angelology?" My faith in Generation Y has momentarily been restored.