Need a Doctorate? Hire Felner. Let him Chair your Committee.

I thought I was expecting the worst from the Felner Investigation. But I didn't expect this little bombshell from Adam Walser at WHAS TV:

This from Page One Kentucky:

...someone tightly connected to Robert Felner received a doctoral degree from
the University of Louisville without really stepping foot on campus, while
holding down a job as a school superintendent in California… in just four
months. Yeah, it’s that scandalous.

John Deasy [Superintendent of Prince George’s County Public Schools, Maryland’s second largest school system and the nation’s 18th largest district] is the guy in question. One of the individuals he thanks for his rapid rise to power is none other than Robert Felner, who was the chair of his doctoral dissertation committee in 2004. But it gets better.

• He lists the University of New York as a school he attended– but that university doesn’t exist.
• UofL requires 60 hours of credits toward doctoral research. He had a whopping 9.


• The title page of Deasy’s dissertation lists the date of May 2003– seven months before enrolling at UofL.


• During the time he was enrolled at UofL he never missed a bi-monthly school board meeting– in California.


• Deasy was at the University of Rhode Island for five years as a student but for some reason doesn’t list those classes on his resume. Not surprisingly, the Dean at the College of Education there was none other than Robert Felner.


• And Deasy’s school district hired Felner’s National Center on Public Education for a study that cost about $120,000 in 2003.

This Felner story just gets crazier and crazier.

Over a Page One the victim-class is screaming for some top-shelf heads...."Ronau in CEHD and Atlas in the graduate school" ... James Ramsey... and more

As commenter "WC" said,

Good god. This might be the worst thing Felner has done to the university as a whole. Who ever heard of a reputable institution allowing ALL classes to be “transferred” from another institution (one that doesn’t exist or the one the student doesn’t list) toward a PhD? How many other PhDs has the university given away? ...

Novena states,

Wait ’til the accreditors get a load of this one. There are heady whiffs of academic fraud all over the place in this escapade... Indeed, this example might be the death blow for UofL as an “academic” institution...

"ED" says,

Where does it all end? I have a feeling that long after Bobby is out of HIS big house and in THE big house, revelations of his misdeeds and machinations will continue to pour out.

It was so much easier, and less complex, a couple of months ago when all we had to hate him for was for being a low life, amoral and evil bastard.

And "SC" says,

Academic Integrity is not a trifle. John Drees response that student records are private is an inadequate response. This is an issue of institutional control and once again it is being handled as a PR problem...

Mike Jones adds,

Sounds like a letter to NCATE and SACS will be going in the mail. This is an abomination and a complete insult to those who worked hard, gave the time, and actually earned their PhD...

Questions about whether there was an IRB application and all of the other processes abound. This one isn't over by a long shot.