Sham Universities

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 20, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 20.

Sham Universities

An editorial in the Independent of New York for April 10 points out that there are a large number of sham universities in the United States, many of which have their headquarters in Washington, D. C. It gives us one instance of this,—the Oriental University, the president of which claims the degrees of Ph.D., S.T.D., S.O.D., and LL.D., and is also dean and professor in a multitude of departments in its Orientalistic Seminary, West Asian, Indian, African, Oceanic, and Amerindian, and is the head of a multitude of other departments, as diverse as religion, classics, theomonistic theology, the civil service, professor of literature, journalism and drama, international law and diplomacy, and offers degrees in anything, even to aeronautics. The Independent asks what “S.O.D.” is. That may cover professorship in all these other things. One of these “universities” has certified to property of $272.50 value, another to $700, and the whole object of the fake universities seems to be the granting of degrees at a very cheap rate to those who care more for the magic letters after their names than they do for real education.