FORMER VP CALLS SALEM UNIVERSITY A DIPLOMA MILL

(09/18/2007)

A former Salem International University vice president, Debra Mertz claims her employers retaliated against her because she refused to help them run the school as a diploma mill. A trial started yesterday in Harrison County, with Mertz alleging that students who paid tuition up front received passing grades, degrees and diplomas whether or not they fulfilled the academic requirements. Mertz's attorney says her superiors tried to intimidate her and force her to cooperate. She seeks compensatory and punitive damages under employment law but also under consumer protection law. The suit portrays Mertz as a whistleblower trying to protect West Virginia from phony diplomas. "Awarding students degrees based on payment of fees rather than on the quality of their work is a deceptive act or practice," wrote the attorney. Mertz alleges that university owner Informatics Holdings Limited of Singapore intentionally failed to enforce academic standards. "IHL made its money from SIU in selling SIU's online courses to foreign students, and getting a great deal of this money paid by the students for their degree programs, not just individual courses, up front," the suit says. If those students were caught cheating or plagiarizing, which in fact some were, IHL did not want these students to receive failing grades or IHL would have to refund their money, the suit claims.

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