Higher Education officials at Bishop State Community College in Mobile, Alabama are under investigation for securing top positions using fake degrees they earned online from two rumored degree mills: Lacrosse University and San Francisco Technical University.
An online report published by the Alabama Press-Register details how James Lowe, appointed president of Bishop State in 2008, earned his doctorate life experience degree from San Francisco Technical University, an unaccredited online college that no longer exists.
Latitia McCane, Lowe’s Dean of Instruction, who was charged with overseeing and improving Bishop’s own academic accreditation standards, holds a doctorate from Lacrosse University.
Like San Francisco Technical University, Lacrosse operated online, offering correspondence doctorates for many years without any accreditation. Lacrosse was cited as a degree mill in a national sting operation against unaccredited diploma mills in 2004 by a Government Accountability Office report.
Lacrosse claimed accreditation but was “accredited” by the “World Association,” an agency not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (See List of Fake College Degree Accreditation Agencies).
Alabama passed a rule in 2008 barring the use of degrees from unaccredited universities for state employment purposes.
Both Lowe and McCane have been credited with improving academic quality at Bishop State during their tenure. Both officials earned their life experience degrees online prior to the passage of this law.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools—the regional agency that accredits Bishop State—has investigated and cleared the college of any issues that would have threatened their own institutional accreditation standing.
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