Diploma Mill Issue Grinds On

Questions about whether federal employees are benefiting from claiming credit for academic degrees from non-accredited or illegitimate providers, an issue that arose last year, are continuing to spur actions by both executive branch and legislative branch officials to tighten oversight in that area. The latest came from Senate Governmental Affairs Committee chairman Susan Collins, R-Maine, who has asked the administration to develop an Internet-accessible list of accredited institutions in order to help agencies identify degrees from so-called diploma mills that require the individual to do little or no course work. The General Accounting Office also is investigating the issue; Collins and her House counterpart, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., recently asked the GAO to expand its probe to include the Defense Department.