Stupid Policy at a Police Department

[sanantone]

Also, I'd like to know what portion of your degree can be completed online before the scales tip into it being an online degree? For instance, if you attend the local community college, you still have the option of mixing it up to fit your schedule. As you pointed out, the transcript doesn't specify, so if you reveal that you took online classes, how many are allowed? 1? half the degree? What if you took all your classes online through your local physical campus RA CC? What if you attended Harvard? That's a no-go too? You have to GO there for most of the degree, but you can do part of it online, so what's the breakdown?

This is too advanced for them. It would make their heads explode. Even among the college educated, there are a lot of misconceptions about distance education. All you have to do is go to city-data.com/forum to see all of the ignorance in the work and unemployment and college/university sub-forums.

[Jonathan Whatley]

The largest markets for many accredited distance learning degree programs are United States military and veterans.

Hundreds of accredited distance learning degrees are approved, supported, and funded both by all branches of the military and by the Department of Veterans Affairs – and by state governments, including by Texas under the Hazlewood Act – for those who wrote "checks to the United States of America for a value up to and including their lives."

I'm alarmed that the Bexar County Sheriff's Office has a policy that might rule out recognizing the accredited degrees of a population consisting very heavily of United States veterans.

[sanantone]

The largest markets for many accredited distance learning degree programs are United States military and veterans.

Hundreds of accredited distance learning degrees are approved, supported, and funded both by all branches of the military and by the Department of Veterans Affairs – and by state governments, including by Texas under the Hazlewood Act – for those who wrote "checks to the United States of America for a value up to and including their lives."

I'm alarmed that the Bexar County Sheriff's Office has a policy that might rule out recognizing the accredited degrees of a population consisting very heavily of United States veterans.

I agree. Law enforcement agencies, in general, try to be as welcoming as possible to veterans. A lot of my classmates in my master's program were in the military. One of them was in Afghanistan at the time. It would be a total insult for BCSO to tell a veteran that the degree he or she worked on while being in a war zone is not good enough because he/she wasn't on campus. I commend any veteran who stuck it out in the military and managed to finish school at the same time. Attending online is often the only option while in the service because moving around leads to military members repeatedly dropping out and losing credits. Again, these are things that probably didn't come to mind.

[Daithi]

I believe the policy could be interpreted like this--

Qualifying degrees must be from a college or university accredited by one of the six (6)
nationally recognized regional accreditation boards. And, Internet degrees, degrees from institutions
without physical campuses, degrees from diploma mills, or similar institutions shall not qualify.

Or it could be interpreted like this---

Qualifying degrees must be from a college or university accredited by one of the six (6)
nationally recognized regional accreditation boards. So, Internet degrees, degrees from institutions
without physical campuses, degrees from diploma mills, or similar institutions shall not qualify.

I'm guessing the latter interpretation is what they intended, and they just meant that you need a real degree. I could certainly be wrong, but I'd be surprised if they actually intended to exclude degrees from WGU, COSC, Harvard Extension, etc.

[sanantone]

As it is written, it means the former no matter what they intended. It's like saying our restaurant only serves poultry, but we do not serve dove, emu, or ostrich. BCSO will accept RA degrees, but it will not accept RA degrees earned online or from schools without campuses. I once saw a policy from an organization that expressed non-acceptance of degrees from proprietary schools regardless of accreditation. There are still some ill-informed employers who will not even consider graduates of what they think are online schools. If they intended the latter, it just further shows how ignorant they are. It would mean their assumption is that all online degrees and schools are unaccredited. As a legal document, it would be a failure. If they only want to accept RA degrees, that's all they have to say. The other wording would be unnecessary.