After 17 years of positive state re-approval visits, CPU's 1995 request for re-approval was denied on the basis that CPU was unable to satisfy the new regulations for approved institutions as the school had very low academic standards. CPU's institutional appeal was denied in 1997 and CPU was ordered to close. CPU instead chose to remain open while launching appeals in the higher courts. The state court appeals were unsuccessful.
CPU was ordered to close permanently in October 2000 by the State of California - "The Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education today announced that a final judgment has been issued by Marin County Superior Court, ordering Columbia Pacific University (CPU) of Novato, California to permanently cease operations and pay refunds to all students who have attended since June 25, 1997."
From the Bureau:
"Students Who Received CPU Degrees Before June 25, 1997:
CPU degrees awarded before June 25, 1997 are legally valid. Your degree, and any credential or license you received by virtue of the degree, should not be affected. CPU had legal approval to operate until June 25, 1997, and the degrees it issued before June 25, 1997 are legal".
The Associated Press reported that CPU "had virtually no academic standards." {Link without Title}
California Deputy Attorney General Asher Rubin blasted CPU in his complaint, calling the school "a diploma mill which has been preying on California consumers for too many years." The suit also called Columbia Pacific a "phony operation" offering "totally worthless {Link without Title} ...to enrich its unprincipled promoters."
- One master's-degree student was given credit for "a learning contract describing how he would continue taking dance lessons and watch dance demonstrations in order to improve his skills as a Country Western dancer."
- A Ph.D. dissertation written in Spanish was approved by four faculty who cannot speak the language.
- One dissertation "had no hypothesis, no data collection, and no statistical analysis. A member of the visiting committee characterized the work as more like a project paper at the college freshman level." The dissertation, The Complete Guide to Glass Collecting, was 61 pages long.
The Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education conducted a qualitative review and assessment of CPU's degree-granting programs and denied its application for licensure. The council's denial was upheld by an independent administrative law judge on June 10, 1997. Among other items, the judge found that CPU:
- awarded excessive credit for prior experiential learning to many students;
- failed to employ duly qualified faculty; and
- In 1986 , all of CPU's programs received Full Institutional Approval, wherein the Department of Education cited CPU as comparing favorable with accredited programs in the US: the entire CPU curriculum was described as "consistent in quality with curricula offered by appropriate established accredited institutions which are recognized by the U.S. Dept. of Education ..." after it impaneled "a qualified visiting committee and conducted a comprehensive on-site qualitative review and assessment of the institution and all programs offered" ...
- In 1989 , under pressure from a lobbying effort to change California's Postsecondary Education programs, the State legislated the new Private Postsecondary Education Act, which would drastically change State regulations for approved schools.
- In 1991 CPU received re-approval after favorably passing a site visit from several State and Re-approval Committee representatives. Meanwhile regulations continued to change rapidly and the president of CPU began reporting difficulty keeping up with regulations that seemed to change with the winds under the newly CPPVE (Council for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education). Under the CPPVE, the State's definition of "Approval" was changed to reflect basic compliance with the new regulations.
- In 1992 CPPVE executive Sheila Hawkins told employee Dr. Betty Dow that CPU would not be re-approved, and that CPU "were in for a big surprise" (from 1999 court testimony by Dr. Dow)
- In 1995 the earlier mentioned threat came to pass, and CPU failed its re-approval visit. Among 88 "errors of fact" the Committee wrote that two black African deans at CPU had inferior degrees (both deans were graduates of accredited European universities with distinguished histories). CPU was unsuccessful in making its initial appeal, which it lost in 1997 . Under legal advice, it's leaders decided to remain open while making an appeal in the State Appeals Court. This appeal was lost in 2000 and CPU was ordered to close.
- In 1996 CPPVE was closed down by Governor Pete Wilson for exercising "a pattern of reprisals and vindictiveness" against private post-secondary institutions (letter of Governor Wilson to Members of the California Assembly, Sept. 30, 1996).
- In 1998 CPU's leaders, in desperation, received accreditation with Nevada 's Point Shoshone nation, under a little known development in the USA Indian Education Act . This was a poor and misguided move, which in addition to remaining open during its post-1997 appeal, cost the institution enormously in terms of its image. Soon, websites began spreading the institution's slide downward, many without doing any kind of critical analysis. CPU alumni were infuriated.
- In 2001 CPU alumni founded www.altcpualumni.org, an activist website, and began posting the complete story of CPU, using scanned State documents.
- In 2005 , CPU's alumni, many of which are faculty in other institutions, acquired all remaining assets of the defunct institution and incorporated CPU with nonprofit status. They are currently seeking federal nonprofit status and undergoing a long self-study process.
Students who received degrees or credentials from CPU before June 25, 1997 should not be affected as the school had legal approval to operate until that date. Previous to that time, Columbia Pacific University had been granted "Full Approval" as a university degree granting institution from the , the '''California State Council for Private Post Secondary Education.'''and the '''California Commission on Higher Education'''.
CPU also generally received 'full reciprocity' recognition of its degrees from the vast majority other state boards of higher education across the country. As an example, taking an excerpt from the Texas Administrative Code, {Link without Title} which has oversight authority of all accredited colleges and universities operating within that state, Title 19, Part II..."a university is recognized as being "accredited" as a public or private post secondary institution when its educational programs have been evaluated and deemed appropriate by a state department of education or a recognized regional accrediting agency". Columbia Pacific University fit specifically within those guidelines. In addition, persons who received doctorate degrees in psychology from CPU, up until June 25th, 1997, were fully qualified to sit for the relevant licensing examination in clinical psychology and/or counseling psychotherapy in California, Texas and before the vast majority of other state boards pertaining to those disciplines.
- Bears Guide to Nontraditional Education, 1982 Edition
- California Department of Education Approval Document, 1983
- California Department of Education Approval Document, 1986
- California CPPVE Re-approval Document, 1991
- Independent Educational Consultant's Review of CPPVE Re-approval Process, 1995
- Report of the CPPVE Committee Site Visit, 1990
- Report of the CPPVE Committee Site Visit, 1995
- Stewart, David W., & Spille, Henry A. (1988). Diploma Mills: Degrees of Fraud. New York: American Council on Education and Macmillan Publishing Company.
- Testimony of Dr. Betty Dow: Court of Appeal of the State of California, First Appellate District, Division One. The Appeal # is AO 89826, in reference to Marin Superior Court Case No. 172634
- Chileno doctor in trouble over 'phony' university
- Chileno man's 'diploma mill' ordered shut
- COLUMBIA PACIFIC UNIVERSITY ORDERED TO CLOSE PERMANENTLY California Department of Consumer Affairs
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