[PW] Columbia Pacific U / theses and dissertations

[Leslie Kay Swigart]

Hello Cathy:

A WorldCat keyword search lists 182 items with the bound phrase 
"columbia pacific university" of which 173 also have one or more of the 
words: thesis or theses or dissertation(s). None has Stewart as an author.

While I didn't closely examine all of the complete records, many (most?) 
said they were microforms or reproductions from University Microfilms 
International. _Dissertations and Theses_, the UMI/ProQuest d/b 
combining _DissAbsInt_ and _MastersAbsInt_ shows only one CPU. Perhaps 
UMI used to carry CPU dissertations until the uh, well, hummm, 'nature' 
of the institution was revealed?

Most are held at one, two, or three libraries (some very odd for the 
subject matter). The subject matter of these is all over the map, and 
some *are* suspiciously short for the alleged subjects and degree level: 
ii + 38 leaves on "organized crime in the food industry"--tho' *that* 
was for a B.S. degree [no comment]? ii+22 leaves for a Ph.D dissertation 
entitled: _The United States Navy's Project Handclasp program: a grasp 
of publicity_? This appears to follow the short 'n' sweet pattern of the 
president of the former CPU, now Columbia Commonwealth U, Les(ter N.) 
Carr, who appears to have written a psychology Ph.D dissertation of 79 
pages at Vanderbilt in 1963; to be followed by three short, co-authored, 
articles in the J of Social Psych in 1965, and 1968 (2 articles).

Since the website for the renamed institution indicates that they have a 
library (no # of volumes noted, no link to an online catalog, but 
several d/b noted as available to students), perhaps that is where these 
'dissertations' might be found . . . not holding my breath however (tho' 
perhaps one ought to given the fragrance of the background provided by 
the link to Wikipedia's article).

A search of the major papers section of Lexis/Nexis for the names of 
these two 'institutions' shows a mixture of articles pointing up the 
unaccredited and/or bogus nature of this and other similar degree mills, 
and obituaries noting that the deceased had a degree (usually doctorate) 
from CPU (very sad really).

Good luck!

Leslie

Message: 11
Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2007 09:24:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Cathy Coffman <cat509_98 at yahoo.com>
Subject: [PW] looking for a thesis

I have a patron who is looking for a copy of the doctoral thesis written by James B. Stewart. He wrote it while attending Columbia Pacific University.  I guess they were a diploma mill and are now closed. If anyone has any suggestions on how I could obtain a copy of this I would really appreciate it.
 
Thank you!
 
Cathy Coffman, Librarian, Peoria Public Library

-- 

Leslie Kay Swigart <http://www.csulb.edu/%7Elswigart/>, Librarian
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