New Online Database

URL: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,66476,00.html
Title: Wired News: Database Fights Diploma Mills

The U.S. Department of Education has created a new database that has the 'names, addresses, and enrollment of all schools accredited by organizations recognized by the federal government.' This concept sounds like a really good idea to me. It prevents the distribution of fake degrees. It was created because of concerns that diploma mills are using the Internet to trick prospective students. If a fake degree is used in another state than it was recieved, the person could be sent to jail for fraud. There are a lot of colleges that have similar names, one fake college and a real one. One example the article gives of this Hamilton University, which is just a diploma mill in Wyoming, and Hamilton College, a real school. It is sad that there are people out there faking degrees to try and lure students, but hopefully this new database will help cut that down.