Point Reyes Light - December 30, 1999
Chileno man's 'diploma mill' ordered shut
A Marin judge last week ordered a controversial correspondence college co-founded by Chileno Valley resident Dr. Les Carr to shut down and pay restitution to its students.
The state had been trying for more than two years to close Columbia Pacific University in Novato, which has been issuing bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees through the mail since 1978.
Orrin Grover, the attorney representing Les Carr and Columbia Pacific, said the university has no plans to close. Judge Lynn Duryee's ruling was a "tentative decision" that cannot be enforced until it's actually signed by the judge, he said.
"If the judge adopts the decision then we will appeal," offered Grover, who said the decision then would be stayed until the appeal is resolved.
For his part, Carr also continues to work parttime as a psychologist at San Quentin State Prison, though prison administrators declined to offer any details on his duties there.
Carr could not be reached to confirm his activities within or outside of Columbia Pacific University.
The university has been operating without state permission since June 1997, when a judge upheld a stinging review of the school's academic standards by the Council for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, the state agency that formerly regulated private education.
Judge Duryee on Dec. 2 granted a request by state deputy attorney general Asher Rubin to impose a permanent injunction against the school's operation, and to refund fees to all of its students.
In addition, Duryee issued four separate fines totaling $10,000 for the university's "deceptive and unfair practices" in continuing to operate without authorization and make false claims about its status.
The ruling upholds a preliminary injunction issued in a Dec. 1997 suit against the school by the state attorney general's office.
Despite this month's ruling, the university has continued to provide its "distance learning" programs for an estimated 500 to 600 students.
Attorney Grover told The Light he thinks the state's case against the university is not particularly strong, and that Judge Duryee may have felt "she didn't have the authority to overturn the Council's decision."
Deputy attorney general Rubin called only two witnesses during the two-day trial, Grover said. One of them was Carr, who is the Dean of Faculty.
"The most important thing I see here is that the state has not presented in any proceeding a student or a graduate that was dissatisfied with the university," he said.
Among the satisfied graduates of Columbia Pacific is Mill Valley author John Gray, Ph. D., who is well-known for his best-selling self-help bible Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
Gray's favorable comments about the school's programs have often punctuated Columbia Pacific's promotional literature.
However, records of the state Council's records in reviewing the university list numerous violations of academic standards, including one instance in which a Ph. D. dissertation written in Spanish was approved by four faculty members who could not speak the language.
An independent administrative law judge in June 1997 upheld the Council's call to shut the school after finding that Columbia Pacific administrators awarded "excessive credit" and "failed to employ duly qualified faculty."
The following December, Rubin with the Attorney General's Office sued Carr and Colombia Pacific "to compel [the university] to stop illegally operating." Rubin called the school "a consumer fraud, a complete scam," and "a diploma mill." The suit finally resulted in the preliminary injunction against the university which was appealed in March of this year.
In rendering her decision, Judge Duryee noted that the testimony of satisfied graduates doesn't amount to complying with the law. "The decision is not whether or not the students are dissatisfied," she said. "I mean that is not the test. It's like saying, you know, that prostitution should not be illegal because the customers are satisfied. It's not the test."
Carr, a resident at 148 Wilson Hill Rd. in Chileno Valley, and Richard Crews of Mill Valley founded the university. Carr has also drawn criticism for his role in other ventures.
The state shut down Oakland's Highview Convalescent Hospital, which Carr owned until 1990, after inspectors discovered the facility violated health codes on several counts.
Carr also briefly lost his directorship of the American Endurance Ride Conference in 1990 after being accused of mistreating a horse. He sued to maintain his position, but was suspended from competition as a rider.
In 1994, the Marin planning department discovered eight permit-less dormitories on Carr's Wilson Hill Road property, and he was cited for several zoning, safety, and health violations at the so-called "north campus" of Columbia Pacific.
He was forced to remove the illegal structures, as well as to strike references to "a retreat center on a beautiful 14-acre ranch in northern Marin county" in Columbia Pacific's promotional literature.
Marin principal planner Dean Powell said this week there are currently no outstanding violations on Carr's property.