University Accused of Being a 'Diploma Mill'

  (IMAGE: The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead ) BY BLAKE HANSON A suicide, campus lockdown and fake degrees. All those elements are making for a dramatic storyline at a small university in North Dakota. Fox News has more... “Imagine getting a college degree, without doing any work. That is apparently what’s happened at Dickinson State University.” “Since 2003, the school awarded diplomas to more than 500 foreign students, mostly from China, who did not earn them.” The discovery came as the result of an audit. And shortly after it’s finding were released, a school dean and professor committed suicide. KFYR has details... “Authorities have confirmed that they have found the body of Doug LaPlante” “They had reason to believe he left his home carrying a high-caliber rifle and as a precaution locked down the campus at DSU.” LaPlante’s name was not in the audit report but he was Dean of the College of Education, Business and Applied Science — and some of the degrees that went out were to business students. A blogger for Mobile Tribune says the degree incident is another example of a growing amount of bad school news... “If you are Chinese or Russian, have the money and want an easy way to score a real college diploma, Dickinson State University could have been the place for you … I don't know about you but I have grown weary of schools in the news. Sounds like we need to see more news about prisons.” Meanwhile — Bloomberg ties the incident to another rising issue: taking advantage of Chinese students. “Dickinson’s practices may fuel the growing debate about the recruiting and exploitation of Chinese students increasingly sought by U.S. colleges. About 57,000 Chinese undergraduates attended American colleges in 2010-2011, six times as many as in 2005-2006, according to the Institute of International Education.” According to the audit, Dickinson State University could face penalties from the U.S. Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State.