| Diploma Mill Police > Breaking News & Consumer Alerts |
| By GetEducated.com Consumer Reporting Team | June 15, 2009 |
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 Sixty-seven former students of Warren National University have filed a lawsuit in the Laramie County District Court in Wyoming claiming they were misled by the distance learning university, reports the Associated Press.
Warren National, which was headquartered in Cheyenne, shuttered its virtual doors this spring after failing to achieve regional accreditation and having its license revoked by the state of Wyoming. As a result, former students have been left holding worthless pieces of paper, rather than the degrees for which they paid thousands of dollars. The lawsuit states students paid average annual tuition of $6,000 to $12,000, while Warren National's owners took in $25 million to $30 million in tuition revenue each year.
The former students claim they were misled by the university into thinking that either the school was properly accredited or soon would be, and that their degrees would be recognized retroactively after accreditation was achieved. Some claim they were told that accreditation simply did not matter in the state of Wyoming.
Warren National University was previously known as Kennedy-National University. It changed its name in 2007 after being spotlit in a government sting operation targeting suspected college degree mills. The university was cited in the government report for accepting tax dollars and issuing college degrees by mail to unqualified government employees.
Wyoming is one of several states that once allowed distance learning "colleges" to operate without accreditation. The state used to have a licensure system in place that allowed educational entities to operate legally as "licensed" schools. GetEducated.com founder and CEO Vicky Phillips termed the state a "degree mill ghetto."
However, in 2006, Wyoming changed its laws. It no longer allows unaccredited colleges to operate.
Consumers searching for online education providers should consider this case a cautionary tale—and question whether a "licensed" distance learning university, as opposed to a legitimately accredited one, is a safe bet, says Phillips. The disgruntled graduates of Warren National state that attending an unaccredited college has harmed them in ways not made transparent by their formerly licensed, but never accredited, alma mater.
Related Resources
Warren National University, Unaccredited Online College, ClosesGetEducated.com's Diploma Mill Police (SM)Top Ten Signs of a College Degree or Diploma MillCollege Degree Mills: What They Are and How They Work© 2009 GetEducated.com, LLC |
