The For-Profit College Follies!

Photo by Randy Tepper/FOXIt's been quite the news-making season for Orange County's lower-rung universities—and we're not talking about Cal State Fullerton. Last month, the Weekly revealed that a Florida-based lawsuit against Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges alleged that the nation's second-largest owner of for-profit schools rewards bachelor's and master's degrees that are the scholastic equivalent of a whoopee cushion [see “Credit Goes to No One,” April 2]. Now, another Santa Ana for-profit school, California Coast University, faces a more serious controversy: a recently concluded eight-month government investigation blasts the academy for bilking the federal government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

On May 11, the United States General Accounting Office presented to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Diploma Mills: Federal Employees Have Obtained Degrees From Diploma Mills and Other Unaccredited Schools, Some at Government Expense. The report alleges California Coast and another college accepted $169,470 in federal money. In exchange, the schools granted bogus degrees to at least 64 government employees.

Under federal law, the report says, government agencies may “pay or reimburse the costs of academic degree training” for its employees “if such training . . . is accredited and is provided by a college or university that is accredited by a nationally recognized body.” California Coast doesn't belong to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), the regional governing body that accredits such colleges and universities as Stanford and UCLA. Even Cal State Fullerton.

A WASC spokesperson told the Weekly that not only is California Coast not accredited by the organization, but also the 31-year-old university has never applied. A call to California Coast confirmed that fact, but the unidentified person who answered noted that the Bureau for Private Post-Secondary and Vocational Education recognizes the institution. This particular agency is not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education but does include as members the Academy of Barbering Arts in Northridge and Los Alamitos' ABC Bartending Schools.

Diploma Mills doesn't explicitly lay the onus of the law breaking on California Coast, also blaming lax government oversight and career-driven employees looking to bolster their résumés. It does note, however, that “diploma mills and other unaccredited schools modify their billing practices so students can obtain payments for degrees by the federal government” and that the hundreds of thousands of dollars accepted by California Coast “understates the extent to which the federal government has made such payments.”

And if you're too busy watching reality TV to care about government waste, consider this: on May 14, the muckraking website the Smoking Gun (thesmokinggun.com) reported that the Fox reality show The Swan employs a doctor who really ain't a doctor—California Coast alum Lynn Ianni. As the show's official therapist, Ianni dispenses patronizing advice to women who have just undergone plastic surgery.

Fox's online biography of Ianni notes that she received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from California Coast in 1998 and thus constantly refers to her as “Dr. Ianni”—never mind that California Coast's non-accreditation makes her doctorate worthless. Ianni told the Smoking Gun that her degree was legit “to the best of my knowledge,” meaning that either California Coast officials lied to Ianni about the validity of her studies or that she dispenses advice worth of another Fox property, The O'Reilly Factor.