A Long-Distance Diploma

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Needless to say, my suspicions were growing.

In the enrollment materials sent by Hamilton, the school claimed to be affiliated with and supported by a 55-year-old religious organization called the FION (Faith in the Order of Nature) Fellowship.

This sent me scurrying to the FION Web page, where I happened upon the line: "As part of the Fellowship's Nature directed mission, the American State University was formed..." Could this be any relation to the American State University that was sued by Hawaii's Office of Consumer Protection (OCP) for misrepresenting its accreditation status?

Looks likely. Follow along while I connect the dots.

I called the Hawaii Better Business Bureau to check on American State's status and was told that its business registration is in "good standing." It's important to note, however, that in Hawaii, there are no specific registration requirements for schools, aside from filing with the state and paying the appropriate fee. State registration is in no way a guarantee of a school's academic legitimacy. Of greater interest, though, was what the Hawaii BBB also told me: it seems that both HERI and FION are "doing business names" (DBAs) of American State University. Put plainly, all three are one and the same corporate entity, operating under different titles.

In case you've lost track of where that leaves us, it's right back where we started—with HERI (a.k.a. ARRC), the referral agency that first steered me to Hamilton U.

I followed up with a call to Hawaii's Office of Consumer Protection, which confirmed that it had indeed filed suit against American State, resulting in a stipulated permanent judgement against the university. The gist of the judgement was that American was enjoined from claiming accreditation or state registration in any of its printed materials, it was ordered to pay a $36,000 fine, and it is to remain under the court's permanent jurisdiction.

While it's unclear what all of this means in terms of Hamilton, you should know that about a month after I first visited the FION Web site, I decided to check back for any new developments. Sure enough, I noticed that the words "American State University" had been replaced by "Hamilton State University." Yep, the name's slightly off, but rest assured, it's our Hamilton U.; the fellowship's and the university's sites are hot-linked.

Upon closer inspection of the materials sent by ARRC/HERI, Hamilton, and FION (from whom I eventually requested a brochure), more clues pointing to something amiss emerged:

• All materials, whether sent by ARRC, FION, or Hamilton, bear the exact same Jackson, Wyoming, postage meter mark. To put it even more bluntly, everything's getting mailed from the same location. (So much for that independent referral promised by ARRC.)

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