By Paul Neimann
Chileno Valley resident Dr. Les Carr, whose property was briefly home to an illegal "north campus" of San Rafael-based Columbia Pacific University, is once again under fire in connection with the correspondence school.
The state attorney general's office last week filed suit to compel Columbia Pacific to close down, pay civil penalties, and refund tuition fees. Carr is named in the suit as owner, dean of faculty, and the institution's chairman of the board.
Carr had finally settled his earlier squabble with Marin planning officials early this year.
Carr co-founded Columbia Pacific in 1978 to offer "non-residential" degree programs up to the Ph.D. level.
Deputy Attorney General Asher Rubin blasts the school in his complaint, calling it "a diploma mill which has been preying on California consumers for too many years." The suit also calls Columbia Pacific a "phony operation" offering "totally worthless [degrees]...to enrich its unprincipled promoters."
In addition to his role at Columbia Pacific, Carr is currently a permanent part-time psychologist for San Quentin correctional facility.
Neither he nor Columbia Pacific representatives responded to phone calls this week.
In 1994 the county discovered eight permit-less dormitories on Carr's property at 148 Wilson Hill Rd. He was cited for multiple zoning, safety, and health violations.
Additionally, Carr had applied for - and been denied - a permit for "institutional use" of his property, which is zoned for agriculture. In a memo to county planners, Carr wrote: "For the record, no university educational functions or any other institutional functions are currently taking place or are intended to take place [on the property]."
However, as The Light subsequently revealed, promotional literature for Columbia Pacific touted a "retreat center on a beautiful 14-acre ranch in northern Marin County," with offices for the dean of faculty and alumni affairs located there. Columbia Pacific also maintained a phone listing for the property as its "North Campus."
In a process that zoning officer Ladonna Thompson called "long and drawn-out," Carr last March received approval for a main dwelling, guest house, and office-library. Other structures have been removed.
As part of planning negotiations, Carr had to show Columbia Pacific does not operate on his property. Additionally, he was required to remove references to the ranch from university literature and telephone listings.
The current lawsuit addresses Columbia Pacific's defiance of a ruling by the state's Council for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, which approves the operation of all private, post-secondary schools in California.
Columbia Pacific last applied to the council in 1994. After a period of review and response, the council denied the school permission to operate as a degree-granting institution in Dec. 1995.
Nevertheless, the lawsuit charges, Columbia Pacific "brazenly continued to operate, taking in fees and accepting new students."
"There's a real aspect of contempt to this," attorney Rubin said Monday.
The suit is particularly harsh on Columbia Pacific's operators, calling them "greedy and unprincipled."
Owner Carr's ventures have a history of drawing censure.
The state shut down Oakland's Highview Convalescent Hospital, which Carr owned until 1990, after inspectors found serious health violations. A health care workers' union subsequently accused Carr of refusing to negotiate and misdirecting benefits payments.
Carr briefly lost his directorship of the American Endurance Ride Conference when accused of mistreating a horse in 1990. Carr sued to retain his position, but was suspended from competition as a rider. The same horse died in 1992 when entered in two consecutive races, the first of which was 250 miles. Another grievance was filed against Carr, but the conference found no grounds for action.
Columbia Pacific has provoked no less criticism. Alarming anecdotes punctuate the education council's findings:
The state's case summarizes the university's alleged violations of the Education Code by noting there is "not even a semblance of compliance with the statutes which govern such institutions. The curriculum had no substance behind its lofty description; faculty was virtually non-existent; course work was laughable...degree requirements were routinely ignored..."
Nevertheless, Columbia Pacific continues to imply the school offers state-approved degree programs.
The University's promotional materials include a letter, dated March 20 1997, from Mill Valley-based John Gray, Ph.D., author of the pop-psychology best-seller Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
Writes Gray, "As a satisfied alumnus of Columbia Pacific University, it is my pleasure to endorse the University and urge you to become aware of your opportunity to earn an approved graduate degree on a totally non-residential independent study basis."
He adds, "I truly enjoyed my academic program...You deserve to receive recognition and credit for your accomplishments."
However, some noted alumni of Columbia Pacific have had substantial difficulty getting public "recognition" for their degrees.
In 1992, "Big John" Stephenson, a 380-pound Kentucky political figure, had his Columbia Pacific degrees fall under scrutiny when he attempted a power-grab in that state's education system.
Stephenson had been elected Kentucky's Superintendent of Public Instruction - in that state a titular office stripped of all powers. According to Louisville's Courier-Journal, Stephenson's campaign was boosted by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brereton Jones, who often called on Big John to sing at public events. Stephenson raised a furor when he threatened to assume real duties and proposed a $2 million budget for himself.
When Stephenson's Columbia Pacific credentials came under fire, Kentucky Democratic Chairman Grady Stumbo referred to him as "this wart we have on the ticket."
Another Columbia Pacific graduate, Dale Griffis, an Ohio policeman-turned-consultant on cult and occult issues, had his education ridiculed during a 1994 high-profile Arkansas murder trial.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that Griffis provided prosecutors with such expert testimony as "occultists typically wear black clothes, black hair and fingernails, earrings, and tattoos."
Defense attorneys "scoffed at" Griffis' expertise and his degree, for which he traveled to San Rafael "four or five times." He was permitted to testify as to motive, but not facts of the case.
The attorney general's case alleges Columbia Pacific has perpetrated a fraud on the public by awarding degrees nobody values. It seeks to at least partially restore tuition fees students "paid to a school they did not know was illegal."
The attorney general's office was unable to speculate how much money, in refunds and penalties, might be at stake.