Talk:Madison University

Let's stop this incipient revert war

Some users are removing sourced content from this article, and others of us are persisting in putting that content back. It appears that we need to discuss the situation....

The edit summary for the latest removal of content says that the "Oregon State Office Of Degree Authorization refers to Madison University ONLY AS AN UN-ACCREDITED school", not as a diploma mill.

It is true that the List of Unaccredited Universities on the Oregon website does not identify Madison (nor any other school) as a diploma mill. However, that Oregon website list is not the only item that Oregon has ever disseminated on the subject of unaccredited schools and diploma mills, and the material removed from the article did not reference the Oregon website. Instead, the removed material referenced published articles (specifically, Bartlett, Thomas and Scott Smallwood, June 25, 2004, "Maxine Asher Has a Degree for You" http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i42/42a01201.htm The Chronicle of Higher Education and James Varney, "Mailbox U: After Louisiana cracked down on diploma mills several distance-learning institutions moved to Mississippi". Times-Picayune (New Orleans) August 1, 2004 Pg. 1) that stated that Oregon had identified this school as a diploma mill. Changing the wording of direct quotations from these sources, deleting the source citations, and/or replacing the URLs with links to the State of Mississippi is neither intellectually honest nor acceptable Wiki-practice.

I believe that these changes are vandalism and I will continue to revert them. If the supporters of Madison have reliably sourced information that points out problems with the information from the Chronicle of Higher Education and the New Orleans Times-Picayune, please provide it here so we can discuss it. --orlady 17:38, 13 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Response to "orlady": Please use the wording precisely, otherwise, YOU are the problem. You wrote MU school was identified as dipploma mill by the state of Oregon. The website of state of Oregon only refers to MU as un-accredited school. So the wording you used was not precise. If you replace state of Oregon by a name of a newspaper, that's another story. My wife got a job as a fast food restaurant night shift supervisor using a AA degree from Madison University, she feeds three young children age from 4 to 11 with income from her job. She feeds my family with her job and she is a good mother with all she learned from Madison University, I am very pround of her.

Regards, Exmarine

- Response to the above comment signed "Exmarine": The disputed passage in the article does not quote or cite the Oregon website. It cites the Chronicle of Higher Education (see link), which states (in part): "Although some member institutions, like Columbus University and Madison University, have been labeled diploma mills by the state of Oregon, Ms. Asher defends her members, saying they generally provide more individual attention than traditional universities do." When you change the wording in the article from "diploma mill" to "unaccredited," you are not accurately quoting the cited source. Nothing against your wife; we are merely trying to provide sourced information accurately.--orlady 16:32, 14 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Response to Orlady: 1. You wrote "Columbus University and Madison University, have been labeled diploma mills by the state of Oregon". Please provide the state of Oregon website that said so. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.199.250.29 (talk) 01:32, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

Go to the article. Read the sentence about the state of Oregon calling this a diploma mill. You will see the number 6 next to that sentence. This indicates a footnote. Click on the number 6; that will take you to the note in the References section of the article. That note includes a link to http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i42/42a01201.htm, which is an article that was published in printed form in a periodical called the Chronicle of Higher Education. That article, in a reliable source, states that Oregon had called Madison a diploma mill. The words do not currently appear on an Oregon website, but they are in a reliable source. Much worthwhile information is found in outlets that are not websites. --orlady 02:10, 28 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

2. Dr. Asher was born in Chicago. Her family moved to Southern California, where she earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles. She became a public-school teacher, got married, and had three daughters. She later returned to college, earning a master's degree in ancient history from California State University at Northridge. Dr.. Asher holds a doctorate in education from Walden University and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Granada, in Spain, both of which are accredited by government-approved agencies. -- The above comment was added at 21:39 (EDT), 27 August 2007 by 151.199.250.29

Added reference, removed reference

I removed the following reference:

<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.chea.org | title=Accreditation Database and Information | publisher=[[Council for Higher Education Accreditation]] | date= | first= | last= | accessdate = 2006-08-18}}</ref>

Because:

It is not news
It does not point to a specific page.

I added the following reference:

http://www.madisonu.com/accreditation.html

Because

Madison University itself discloses the government status (lack there of) of the World Association of Universities and Colleges.
Madison University itself discloses this causes problems for students who use federal funds.

I would like to see the first reference improved and added back in (e.g., with a link to a specific page.) Headdream 04:57, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]