Let me answer some questions you probably didn't think to ask...

Posted on 2009-04-10 by Oliver DeMille

Dear Friends,

I thank you for your well-wishes and support during these difficult times of my extended illness. I look forward to the time when I can return to an active schedule. The Leadership Education journey has, for me, been formative of my life, and I consider you to be among my mentors and friends. Thank you!

I have always considered my history and personal educational journey to be foundational to my understanding of Leadership Education. I have referred to it often, and feel that the knowledge and experience that I gained through that process could not have been gained in any other way.

I learned in both traditional and non-traditional educational settings, and from institutions of great renown and also of ill repute. I believe I have experienced much of the best and some of the worst of what modern educational options have to offer. I have not tried to hide from my educational history, but rather to highlight it, even while I have tried to encourage others to consciously personalize their own education to empower and prepare them to make a contribution that is uniquely theirs--a life's mission.

As a young man, I deliberately left a fully-accredited university, BYU, where my education and living expenses were entirely paid by two concurrent full-ride scholarships. I instead engaged a private mentor and a non-traditional school. Why? Because, in spite of the "opportunity cost" of having to pay for my education out of pocket, in spite of losing the additional funds that were paying for my young famiy's expenses, and in spite of the fact that my studies would not have the endorsement of a recognized institution, it was worth it to me because it afforded me a significantly better educational experience. I would do the same thing again.

This is not to disparage the education I was receiving at BYU, for it met its purposes; I had several professors at BYU who took special interest and time with me, and who contributed great value to my education. It's just that the closely-mentored guidance through original sources was so much better in terms of helping achieve my personal educational goals.

I did some work with other mentors, but mainly Dr. W. Cleon Skousen; and the quality of my student experience with him I count as the best of my life up to that time.

I offer now the answers to a few recurring questions:

Q. What was your role in the establishment of George Wythe College/University, and what was its relationship with Coral Ridge Baptist University?

A. During the summer breaks from my studies at BYU, I had been a counselor for Youth for America (now YFF), a youth conferencing arm of the Institute for Constitutional Education (which was closely related to Meadeau View Institute [MVI] where I worked as an intern).

In the summer of 1992, after the regular run of YFF youth conferences, a YFF college-prep conference was held at MVI. My mentors and I, as well as the students and many parents, were so happy with the energy and enthusiasm for scholarship there that it was proposed that MVI hold classes for young adults starting in the fall of 1992.

The name "George Wythe College" was chosen in honor Thomas Jefferson’s mentor. What began as a youth conference was soon established as a school, with Coral Ridge Baptist University (CRBU) as the sponsoring institution and GWC operating as a branch.

Whereas GWC was fledgling and charting its own course, in the early years administrative, academic and methodological decisions were made largely on CRBU policy. As a result, degrees were granted to students in a some areas that the school no longer offers.

As time went on, our own standards and procedures became more and more established, and ultimately a board of trustees was empowered to govern the policy and administration of the school.

In the early 2000s, GWC registered with the State of Utah independent of CRBU. From that time forward, degrees were granted by "George Wythe College", and later, "George Wythe University", with no further affiliation with CRBU.

Q. What about the your degrees?

A. I attended BYU in 1986-87 for my Freshman year, and then returned to BYU in late 1989 after a 2-year LDS mission to Spain. While at BYU from 1990 on, my educational focus was divided among several areas:

1. progress toward my degree in International Relations
   
2. fulfillment of my responsibilities to the Air Force ROTC
   
3. work as a professional researcher and writer for a conservative think-tank, Meadeau View Institute, for which I published two books during my college years
   
4. directed independent studies with Cleon Skousen

In early 1992 I left BYU with just eleven credits left to graduate in order to give my full attention to the directed studies that were proving to be the most meaningful to me.

While studying under Cleon I met Don Sills, a baptist minister and crusader for a religious freedom whose even-handed advocacy had benefitted a diverse sampling of religious minorities around the world, running the gamut from evangelical Christians to the Mormons and the Moonies.

Reverend Sills was also a board member for the small baptist seminary in Florida called Coral Ridge Baptist University. He was well-versed in the content of my research and writing, and suggested that my abandonment of a degree in pursuit of a better education need not be so.

At his urging, I submitted documentation of my intensive prior work with Skousen and my MVI work as well to CRBU. Drs. Jeff Burnsed and Anthony Fox sat on the committee that reviewed this work. The submissions were applied to actual courses with grades and credit given, and in 1992 I was awarded a bachelor's degree and later that year, for additional coursework, a master's degree.

I will comment further below on the study schedule required to achieve this in the three years over which these studies took place.

As GWC struggled in its early years, I considered that perhaps my having an accredited post-graduate degree might be a benefit for the school, and I inquired regarding admission to graduate schools. I was told that my CRBU degree did not qualify me for admission, so in 1994 I completed the remaining 6 credits toward my BYU degree. (I had taken a technical writing course and some religion courses by correspondence for my own enrichment during the intervening period, reducing the number of credits needed to graduate accordingly.)

The degree awarded was a B.A. in International Relations, with a minor in Aerospace Studies (reflecting my coursework and involvement with the Air Force ROTC--not a technical degree in aeronautics or engineering, as I have been told that some have attested on my behalf).

I graduated Magna Cum Laude (an empirical benchmark verifiable with the university) with a GPA of 3.89. I ultimately never enrolled in a regionally accredited graduate program. I looked into many, and never found one that convinced me to leave my work and privately mentored studies.

Q. What about LaSalle and the Technical Institute of Biblical Studies?

A. While under the private tutelage of Dr. Skousen, my personal studies were rigorous and fulfilling. I wrote numerous papers and monographs, and participated in the development of seminars, conferences and courses on a variety of subjects. The rumors that I often studied over eighty hours a week are, in fact, true.

During this time I came across a school that claimed they would evaluate life experience and publications with academic merit for credit toward graduate work, and so I inquired. I was told to submit my work for review and that later I would be contacted and informed of additional requirements to earn the Ph.D.

While it is true that I was immature and naive, it had been said to me by many, and I also honestly believed, that the quantity and quality of work I did was of doctoral level; so I was thrilled, but not shocked, when I was told that the work I had supplied was sufficient. I paid the required tuition of $1500, as I recall, and proudly accepted the Ph.D. credential. My wife warned me that it seemed "fishy" to her, but I avoided scrutinizing it because I was just happy to be recognized for the great amount of study I had done and the writings I had slaved over.

I had heard of diploma mills; but in my inexperience as a young 23 year old, I thought they just gave diplomas for money--not for actual academic work. I reasoned to myself that because I had done the work, what difference did it make who it was that awarded the degree?

Some time later, I was contacted by a representative of the "school", offering "a lucrative opportunity to open a Utah branch". All I had to do, I was told, was accept applications, approve whatever was sent in, and take the tuition money--a portion of which would be mine to keep.

I was furious; my wife's suspicions were confirmed. My work hadn't been evaluated for its academic merit, and the "degree" was a joke. I was humiliated and angry with myself, and embarrassed and ashamed at my willingness to be deceived in order to gain credibility and recognition.

I want to be very clear on this: Did I buy a diploma mill degree? Yes, and I have regretted it ever since. Did I think I was exchanging money for a paper diploma without doing the academic work? No, I did not. I did not want a fake degree for money. I was a dedicated, successful and well-respected student; I wanted to be recognized for my work, not look like an idiot.

I was told and had believed that my work had been closely evaluated and found worthy of academic credit. When I found out it was just a worthless piece of paper that I'd purchased for money, I rejected and disavowed it. But it was too late. I had been an idiot and will probably always look like one for this.

Whose fault was this? It was mine, pure and simple. I should have visited the school and met the faculty (it undoubtedly didn't even have any, and a visit would have shown this). I should have known something was wrong when they made no additional requirements or coursework. Above all, I should have listened when my wife said something seemed fishy.

LaSalle was a different story--parts of which I have only been able to piece together in retrospect. I learned about their program in an airline magazine while flying. It was a name I had heard of (I later learned that there is another school with the same name), and they were offering a correspondence program in law. In this case, rather than seeking to have my previous work recognized I was actually embarking on a new educational experience, and it seemed like a great opportunity.

The subject matter on the list of courses was what I would have expected--torts, case law, corporate law, etc. There were required texts, prepared booklets with essay questions, research projects and the like. Work I submitted was returned to me with grades and instructors' comments. By every indication of my interaction, it was facilitated by a legitimate educational institution—in fact, it was similar to other correspondence courses I had taken elsewhere.

I learned later that the school's founder had been jailed. His misdeeds apparently did not relate to the operations of the school as it was not impacted by this, and continued to operate as a degree-granting intitution for many years thereafter. After a change of ownership, and later a change of name (to Orion University), it ultimately went out of business.

While I did not find the program challenging in the extreme--it certainly was nowhere rigorous as my work with Dr. Skousen, but more on par with other distance learning classes--neither did it constitute a degree-mill experience.

For my part, I actually did gain some valuable knowledge through my studies with LaSalle. Due to the unfortunate association with the school's founder and my previous ill-chosen experience with a "correspondence" program, the LaSalle degree will always have a taint.

Now that twenty years have passed, I am now quite philosophical about it; I consider it a life experience. And for all the silly mistakes I could have made as a young man in my early twenties, I am glad that my "controversial" choices were motivated by an earnest search for an education. I am even grateful for the experience and depth of understanding of the American educational system these choices afforded me.

I learned that:

• the very best and the extreme worst of what is available can be found in alternative education
• traditional education has a great purpose in career preparation
  
• conscientious students cannot rest solely and securely on their university experience for a broad and deep educatio
• wherever great education occurs, the Seven Keys of Great Teaching are being applied.

While these were valuable lessons for me, I am still pained by these choices--the first, a lapse in judgment, the second, an unwitting collateral "victim by association" of an apparent scam artist--where I did nothing wrong.

I was an energetic and idealistic young man with a hunger to get an education and make a difference in the world; and as young men will do--I made mistakes.

I have never tried to hide from my history; these matters have been publicly disclosed for many years. There is no question that I was stupid and naive in my involvement with TIBS, and was disappointed on many levels, to say the least, with LaSalle.

In contrast to these negative experiences with other non-traditional education, my studies with CRBU under Dr. Skousen were extraordinary, and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

Q. Where can I read a copy of your dissertation?

A. My CRBU Ph.D. was awarded in 1994, with the Doctoral Project being the instructional design and implementation of George Wythe College based on researching the education of the American founders. Doctoral projects are used by some schools when the "original contribution to the body of knowledge" for the degree in question is best represented with the inclusion of a practicum that demonstrates the research.

Some may argue that such a doctoral project could not have been of the same quality as a regionally-accredited written dissertation. I would counter that of the many "accepted" dissertations I have read, few show such a unique application of original research or make such a demonstrable real-world contribution to the advancement of the field as this project.

In fact, the project originally did start out as a formal dissertation seeking to detail the educational philosophies and methodologies of the founding era. I began with a great deal of dissertation research on the educational experiences that shaped the American founding fathers (including the mentoring techniques and styles of Benjamin Rush, George Wythe and John Witherspoon), the major educational systems and practices of the day, and the specific educational history and process of a number of American founders.

I had already used much of what I was studying to establish the curriculum, systems, syllabi and early teaching philosophy to start George Wythe College; as my research continued I put more and more of the founding model into the GWC program, such as:

• commonplace books
• one-on-one mentoring
• assigned reading with small group discussions
• simulations (George Wythe introduced moot courts to the American educational tradition)

I also researched the philosophies of education prevalent at the founding, and studied other time periods for comparison.

I was no stranger to writing (my research and writing had supported my family for several years by then), and certainly not shy about putting the findings of my studies into a published format. In fact, it would have been much easier for me to write a dissertation than to complete the practicum I undertook. But as I attempted to revise my outlines and plans, I realized that the more meaningful culmination of my research was its real-life application in an educational setting.

With the guidance of my mentor, I restructured my planned written dissertation into a project--complete with upgraded instructional design for GWC and an improved educational model, utilizing more of the educational practices from the founding period.

I have always readily acknowledged that this Ph.D. was not granted by a regionally accredited institution; the non-traditional and obscure nature of my happy ending has been something a defining element of my “story.” In fact, I consistently represented this without reservation, based on the quality of Dr. Skousen's mentoring and the superb educational experience.

I respect the right of honest dissenters to challenge the merit of a non-accredited program. And I make no apology for the quality of the education I received in this non-traditional setting, nor of the quality of this project experience. I would not change them.

Q. Nobody could do the work for two bachelors degrees and a masters degree in so little time. How do you explain that?

A. Any answer to this question sounds self-serving to me, but here is the truth: Did I do that much work in that much time? Yes, I did.

Like many driven students, I studied into the early morning hours. I studied on dates with my wife. I had a system for study that had my BYU coursework and readings completed, including all papers written, usually by the end of the third week of the semester, and absolutely by the end of the fifth week.

When my BYU work was done for the semester, I spent the remaining three months requesting additional readings from my professors, working on contracted MVI research and pursuing directed studies with Dr. Skousen. I spent dozens of hours per week in the library, reading full shelves of books in the areas that most interested me.

Of course, the occasional a non-syllabus BYU assignment would come up, and I would have to fit it in; but the bulk of each semester was spent on non-BYU studies, which consumed nearly every discretionary moment. I have taught this system of data mastery and test preparation to college-prep students on many occasions through the years, and in my teaching and mentoring I have often suggested the systems and techniques that I used.

My personal study habits do border on the extreme, I admit, and I don't expect everyone to have the same tolerance for it. This has been both a curse and a blessing in my life. Some simply say that I have a "natural aptitude" as a student. My wife and children would call it obsessive. No doubt it is in part due to this compulsion that my health has become compromised at so early an age.

I hope that this has been helpful. I rely on objective individuals to form their own opinions regarding the content of my work, and fully anticipate that honest people without prejudice may disagree with some of my conclusions in the arena of ideas. I defend their right to do so, I welcome the dialog, and I hope that wiser people than I may continue to improve on my contributions in the field of education.

I can say without reservation or equivocation that any discrepancies in this account or previous renderings of my history were a result of faulty memory and not an intent to deceive or in any way obscure the facts.

I undoubtedly made mistakes as the founder of a school for which I knew of no contemporary model or precedent. I wasn't the employee of an established educational institution with long-standing policies, procedures, standards and systems. I also had no wise committees to correlate and approve announcements and the clarity of the way things were said, or experienced executives above me to watch, counsel and correct.

I had excellent academic mentors; but on the business and professional side I was an untried entrepreneur of sorts--the founder of a fledgling, often struggling organization attempting to build something new, valuable and needed. I tried new things and approached even the regular things often with only trial and error to guide me.

While I am pleased with what GWU is becoming as the organization matures, the founding years were difficult in myriad ways. I hope it may be said that we did many things right; I could certainly write a manual on what not to do while founding a school.

I'm sure that many of my mistakes will always seem stupid or even calculated to those who followed the traditional educational track and/or had the advantage of established systems in their careers. I have never claimed to be perfect or close to it--or even to be a professional or a mainstream "academic".

I am a reader, a thinker and an idealist, and I believe that the some of the best educational opportunities now and in the future will often come from new, entrepreneurial and often rough-around-the-edges educational visionaries--heretics, anomalies, outliers and disruptive innovators, to note some recently popularized terms.

And while the best of my educational experience was not accredited per se, I recognize that there are many excellent educational opportunities within traditionally accredited academic programs, and that many if not most people's course will include--of necessity based on career path, or by choice based on other factors that meet their needs--a more traditional course than I have followed.

Some of my greatest friends are individuals with the highest honors and recognition that modern academia affords; I consider them champions and colleagues in the cause of raising the bar of excellence in education, and appreciate the wisdom and insight that their dedication and scholarship afford.

As regards George Wythe University: I believe it has an educational environment that is unique and of excellent quality. I believe its classroom experience is unrivaled. And though it is young, I anticipate that it will continue to improve to achieve the mission it aspires to fulfill.

It does not propose to be all things to all people, and it is not the answer to every problem that ails the American educational system, but it fills a valuable niche and serves the needs of many students who feel a desire for intense mentoring in the classics.

I set forth this accounting with sincerity and candor, and apologize if I allowed misconceptions about these issues to have been perpetuated through lack of response on my part. If in any way I have caused offense or been less than I should have been, please accept my apology. Thank you again for all that you do, and please know that I value your trust and esteem. I hope to always be deserving of it.

As a final thought, I would use this platform to affirm to you my commitment to the idea that the world needs statesmen. In addition to the abundance of training that blesses the world today, we still need more education that engages the timeless discussion of human happiness and freedom.

Whether at George Wythe, Thomas Aquinas, your community college, Harvard or alone in your basement, whether with mentors of great notability or mentors that are simply good at creating environments of learning, get the education that you need to be the person you were born to be.

Use your own intelligence to find opportunities that are of high quality, and that will help you meet this challenge. Do not settle for mediocrity in your educational experience. I mean no hyperbole when I say that our lives depend on it, and that our children's lives depend on it.

Sincerely,

Oliver DeMille