Whittier College Diversity Scam Applied to Law School Backfires

NOTE: For New ETHNIC CLEANSING AND GRADES AND BAR PASS RATE STATS MANIPULATIONS AT WLS EXPOSED and PROF AND STUDENT SUE WLS FOR FRAUD, ADMINISTRATOR FILES EEOC COMPLAINT Content CLICK HERE Or Scroll Down.

In Whittier College v. American Bar Association, U. S. District Court, Central District of California, Case No. CV 07-1817 PA (FMOx), Whittier's request for orders to prevent the ABA from revoking Whittier Law School's accreditation, to enjoin the ABA from extending Whittier's probation, to revoke the ongoing 2005 two-year probation determination re Whittier Law School, and, most disturbing, to cause the ABA "to delete all references to Whittier's probationary status from all ABA websites and publications," were all denied by U. S. District Judge Percy Anderson on May 7, 2007.

Whittier College's diversity scam applied from the Whittier campus to the Whittier Law School may be the scam's undoing. While bachelor degree graduates from Whittier College don't have anything like the high school senior exit exam in California to test whether or not a student should be graduated, Whittier Law School graduates have a bar examination to test whether a graduate has been at least adequately educated in the law. Whittier can get away with graduating students who haven't really earned a college degree in the liberal arts, but Whittier hasn't found a way around the bar exam.

"...Whittier could lose its accreditation as soon as...August [2007]..." - Michael H. Rubenstein, Adjunct Professor at St. Johns and New York Law Schools, and Senior Counsel, New York State Unified Teachers.

Judge Anderson points out that Whittier has known all along that the bar exam pass rate is the standard by which all law schools are ultimately judged. While agreeing that diversifying the attorney pool is praiseworthy, the Court found that interest doesn't outweigh the facts that no one is well-served by inadequate standards, nor by censorship.

"Although being placed on probation has resulted in no small amount of difficulty for Whittier, the integrity of the ABA's accreditation process, and the interests of prospective students in being informed of the history of the poor first-time bar passage rate of Whittier's graduates, argues against the issuance of the injunctive relief Whittier seeks."

Whittier Law School has lost faculty members, and higher achieving students have transferred from Whittier to other law schools, in their own best interests - for which Whittier College would project responsibility onto the ABA, rather than accept that responsibility for which it takes student families' money. Current Whittier College Law students report a previously absent sense of cutthroat every student for him- or herself on campus, reflecting Whittier's evident sense of desperation...

Whittier has taken action to try to raise its graduates' bar passage rate. The Whittier Law School has reduced enrollment and raised school standards, that is, Whittier has backed off at least in part from trying to apply its diversity scam to its Law School. While presenting itself as a champion of opportunity for minority students, Whittier is indeed exploiting such students. The ABA's expressed concerns about Whittier have not been limited to the Law School's below average bar passage rate, but have included, too, its high attrition and low career placement rates.

No doubt there are numerous graduates of Whittier Law School, as there are of Whittier College, who can or have distinguished themselves in their fields of action. This is not to insult Whittier graduates, it is rather to put a light to this dark institutional determination to exploit minorities for financial gain, in the name of diversity, which when said of domestic students gives support to an outdated view of society that retards integration, works against equality, and saddles dropout and graduate alike with crushing debt that was as easily avoided as avoiding enrolling at Whittier.

The obviousness of this scam should embarrass Whittier, but President Herzberger seems to have no problem at all suggesting the SAT, evidently like bar passage rates, is only one measure of success, that there are better ways of predicting success. Like asking a psychic, or your accountant maybe?

The Federal Court's not having any of that, and if minority students, especially Hispanics, who have to constitute 25% of Whittier students, half of whom have to be Hispanic and poor, for Whittier College to get loan money and federal Title V money out of you, do have the potential to succeed, then you should be able to do the math: Whittier wins, you lose. Did you notice how Hispanics are exactly 25% of the undergraduate student body? 25% is the absolute minimum necessary to receive the federal Title V monies.

If you dropout, you have a five figure debt on your back. If you graduate, you have the third highest debt of all liberal arts college grads in the United States on your back. How do you win? Having gone to or graduated from Whittier College?

Whittier College can use Maria Contreras-Sweet to dress up its Latino Graduation, but there is no separate and equal, there is only separate and unequal. Whittier College can dangle an honorary degree before Anthony Villaraigosa and get a hollow commencement key note speech, but Tony Villaraigosa didn't go to Whittier College. The young Tony Villaraigosa did exactly what this website recommends to all working poor students (See Diversity Scam link below), he went to a community college, East L. A. College, and then transferred to a subsidized university, UCLA, public ivy. No matter how dazzling the Tio Tomas acts may be, they do nothing toward bridging Whittier College's seemingly bottomless bottom line nor addressing serious questions about Whittier's ethics and academic standards. .

Anthony Villaraigosa was a fitting Whittier 2007 honorary degree recipient and commencement speaker in one respect: After being graduated with a Bachelor degree in History by UCLA, Tony Villaraigosa - kids, do not make this mistake - went to the unaccredited People's College of Law, and then failed, four times, to pass the California Bar exam. Villaraigosa is still unlicensed to practice law. Perhaps it was sympathy as well as vanity that persuaded Mayor Villaraigosa to swap yet another honorary degree for yet another commencement speech, but it's the students, not the school, who deserve the sympathy.

But then Anthony Villaraigosa's not known for either his character or being sympathetic, much less empathetic, nor for his scholarship. Villaraigosa's Whittier College 2007 Commencement keynote speech wrongly attributed the founding of the College to John Greenleaf Whittier, who as scholars know was never in the area. Villaraigosa was evidently too busy cheating on his wife, again, to check his facts. Villaraigosa's newest affair is with Mirthala Salinas, a tv news reporter and anchor who had the chutzpah (perhaps picked up in the condo complex of Jewish retirees where she resided and was visited by Tony alone bearing takeout and wine before the scandal broke and Salinas moved) to announce the impending divorce of Tony and Corina Villaraigosa on Telemundo's 6 o'clock news, the same news program airing not just one but two Public Service Announcements, featuring who else but Tony Villaraigosa, within its 30 prime time minutes. Salinas has been linked so to speak romantically with not only Villaraigosa, but also with Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, and former City Council President Alex Padilla, as the L. A. Weekly put it, "among others." Corina Villaraigosa, a local school teacher, has filed for divorce, again. The Los Angeles Times reports Villaraigosa has "two adult daughters born out of wedlock and his wife filed for divorce in 1994 over a separate affair for which he later publicly apologized." Perhaps Tony Villaraigosa was the perfect keynote speaker for Whittier College after all. Again, kids, don't try this at home.

The most disturbing aspect of the dishonesty of Whittier College in Whittier v. ABA, though, is the effort by Whittier to have public information regarding its probation status, low bar exam passage rate, etc., deleted, kept from the public, from prospective students. The truth is that Whittier College wants to keep the truth hidden from you, blather about the light of learning and diversity, and collect the money. Meanwhile, Whittier's now being referred to as a fourth, not even third, tier school, and is one of only two law schools in the United States "currently on probation for failing to meet ABA standards," according to Res Gestae, the University of Michigan Law School paper, and the ABA, the U. S. District Court, Et Al.

Whether Whittier Law School is continued on probation, or loses its accreditation, or is normally accredited, Whittier College has revealed itself in its requests of the U. S. District Court: Whittier College believes it has to control the information you have access to about Whittier College. Whittier's point of view is so antithetical to the school's, any school's, mission, that institutional therapy is clearly in order. There are no demons lurking in the dark so formidable that a college must fear it more than snuffing out the light of learning, and if there are such horrific secrets, then better no school at all than a bad school. Whittier College refused to heed the Friends many years ago, Friends of conscience who birthed Whittier College. Will Whittier College heed the Court?

A federal court is telling Whittier Law School to make itself honestly successful, not to try to hide or rationalize failing to adequately educate its students. Whittier College should be doing better, being open, honestly trying to do the right things, for the stirrings of its own conscience. It shouldn't take a court to order a college, supposedly educating the professionals upon whom our lives may well depend, to be successful the old fashioned way, the way Whittier College should've been operating all along, or face probation or even loss of accreditation - that the public will know about. Poets, it looks as though it's wake up or a wake...

The National Law Journal
"Law School loses bid to shed probation status
Whittier decries ABA action, facing "ruin."
http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1179330294034

United States District Court
Central District of California
Whittier College v. American Bar Association
Case No. CV 07-1817 PA (FMOx) Civil Minutes
CLICK HERE

See how Whittier's Diversity Scam operates: CLICK HERE

See also

'Mayor reveals romantic link with TV newscaster' by Duke Helfand and Steve Hymon, Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, July 4, 2007, A-1

and

'Villaraigosa's Media Affair: Telemundo, where his girlfriend is an anchor, lavishes him with free airtime' by David Zahniser, L A Weekly, July 6-12, 2007, Pg. 32

For a primer on corruption in city politics, and the many affairs of and ethics violations by Anthony Villar-Raigosa (Villaraigosa is a blending as the mayor might describe it of Anthony Villar's and Corina Raigosa's names - will Corina want her name back now that she's finally divorcing Tony?), wade through this revelatory pooling of information by city hall insiders:

http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2007/07/another-villaraigosa-affair.html

Mirthala Salinas wasn't remotely the first nor even the last of Tony Villaraigosa's affairs, many of which seem to involve ethics violations. Many agree that Villaraigosa's city administration is the most corrupt and corrupting since Mayor Shaw's in the 1930's, cleaned up only by rewriting Los Angeles' city charter. Yes, sadly, Tony Villaraigosa was the perfect Whittier College commencement keynote speaker.

Update: More recently, Mirthala Salinas was investigated by her employer, KVEA-TV Channel 52 / Telemundo / NBC Universal, and was found to have "violated Channel 52's ethical standards", and was suspended for two months without pay. At the end of Salinas' KVEA suspension, she was reassigned to Telemundo's Riverside bureau, far from Los Angeles' City Hall action. Salinas, however, failed to show up for her first day of work in the Inland Archipelago, which turned out therefore to be her last day of work for her employer the past 10 years. Even though Salinas' contract didn't end until December, her association with KVEA-TV was terminated on October 1, 2007.

Additionally, NBC Universal reprimanded Telemundo stations President Ibra Morales, KVEA General Manager Manuel Abud was removed from that position and is to be reassigned, and KVEA News Director Al Corral was suspended for two months without pay, all for their parts in violating the company's conflict of interest policies in relation to the Salinas-Villaraigosa scandal.

Meanwhile, Corina Villaraigosa NEE Raigosa, public school teacher and no longer long-suffering spouse of philanderer Tony Villar AKA Villaraigosa, has reemerged after filing for a divorce. Corina's first public appearance on her own was before the Girls Today, Women Tomorrow mentoring group, where Corina reminded us all that, "when you keep commitments to yourself, it's easier to keep commitments to others."

See http://flapsblog.com/?p=5327 for Villaraigosa scandal updates, including the political and economic consequences to the City of Los Angeles.

Some People Never Ever Learn

Well, Tony has done it again. This time the loser is Francis Louise "Lu" Parker, the second L. A. news anchor to resign after being exposed having an affair with Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa.

"Now that we're aware of the relationship, she will no longer be covering local politics." - KTLA-TV News Director Jason Bell

'Local television news anchors should beware: Dating Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may have its perks, but career advancement is not one of them' by Greg Braxton: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/ktla-says-lu-parkers-departure-from-anchoring-not-related-to-her-relationship-with-villaraigosa.html

Not to worry, Lu Parker being yanked could be a plus for journalism. "Parker is best known for the one report she did about waxing her Betty (that is on YouTube) on a local L. A. station. No you could not make this up. She is a "teleprompter reader", not a journalist. Parker looks like she is in her sixties and talks with a heavy southern accent. (Blanche DuBois?) Seriously, L. A. is the number two market. What is she doing on the air in the first place? I guess the next "watergate" story is not coming out of L. A. Channel 5, which has become a parody of itself. At least Telemundo had the ethics to fire their reporter (Mirthala Salinas). Does Channel 5 really have such a hard time replacing this "insightful journalist"? She reported on the mayor and slept with him at the same time. Fire her! Well, I guess at least her Betty was ready. Nobody watches Channel 5 anyway, but now they not only lost their ratings, they lost their credibility." - Dan Markham

whittiergate Note: Telemundo only fired Mirthala Salinas after she refused to report for her new job (after being yanked from the Telemundo anchor position), reporting from that southern California Siberia, the Inland Empire. And if you look for Lu Parker's Betty on YouTube, be sure to also see the video of her accidentally spitting on Bill Cosby on the KTLA Morning Show (June 14, 2007).

http://flapsblog.com/2009/06/01/another-television-reporter-girlfriend-lu-Parker-for-los-angeles-mayor-antonio-villaraigosa/

Meanwhile, Mayor Villaraigosa's solution to the City of Los Angeles' severe fiscal crisis is dismemberment. One can only wonder if this mayor applied himself so diligently to finding money for his city as he does to finding 'betty' if he might have been successful. But the odds are stacked against those who aren't among the sharper tools in the shed, and when Tony has failed the California Bar Exam four times - even Pete Wilson passed on his fourth try! - one would think that'd be enough for the voters of Los Angeles. Who knew that former L. A. Councilman Mike Hernandez turning his City Hall office into a cocaine-fueled porn palace could look relatively discreet?!

What do Tony Villaraigosa and Mike Hernandez have between them? Helen??

http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2006/10/city-hall-cocaine-international-bribes.html

NEWS UPDATE

The American Bar Association has decided to continue Whittier Law School's probation status until 2009, when the school's performance will be reviewed, yet again, for compliance with ABA accreditation standards. A Whittier Law School attorney claimed earlier this year in federal court that Whittier is facing "ruin" because of its ABA-imposed probation status. Well, now we'll be able to see whether or not a Whittier College attorney has finally told the truth for a change... Either way, prospective students will not be kept in the dark about Whittier Law School's continued probation status.

Calls for Whittier Law School to publicly admit ABA extension of School's probation status to 2009 after whittiergate.com scoop:
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/adjunctprofs/2007/08/whittier-law-sc.html

Whittier Law School Probation UPDATE : ABA Eases Rules, Whittier Removed From Probation

In December, 2007, the American Bar Association removed Golden State University School of Law from probation, leaving Whittier Law School pretty lonely in the ABA accreditation dog house, where the Whittier College creation had been since 2005.

In May, 2008, the ABA made clear its intention to in effect cave-in to 'minority' special interest groups pressure and the trend away from accountability in higher education, including professional schools, to move from universal measures, most importantly regarding law school's the bar exam pass rate, to a mix of mostly school-specific and more subjective measures, most to be determined and assessed by law schools themselves, in determining a law school's accreditation status. Therefore, in June, 2008, the ABA removed Whittier Law School from probation.

Of further concern regarding the ABA rules changes is that, while the ABA relaxes the traditional emphases on bar passage rate and employment in their evaluations, ABA assessors will henceforth make fewer visits to law school campuses, will rely more heavily upon information provided to the ABA by, again, the law schools themselves. It seems a Buyer Beware alert should now be issued regarding ABA evaluation of law schools. After all, isn't this how schools like Whittier College get away with taking money and handing over diplomas to students manifestly not having earned any kind of college degree, there being no universal measures, no exit exam?

Not surprisingly, Whittier Law School Dean Neil H. Cogan is very pleased by the ABA rules changes, although he overdid it by suggesting the ABA changes were overdue. Like an athlete who scores more by luck than skill and so shouldn't talk much about it let alone brag, Whittier Law School should keep its feet on the ground and keep its eyes on the continuing challenge of not only making money but also of adequately preparing its students, many of whom, according to the ABA, assume severe personal debt for their education in the law, to pass the bar exam and find employment in the law.

When Whittier College and Whittier Law School went to federal court, before the ABA rules changes, seeking an order that the ABA remove Whittier Law School from probation, or failing that, to prevent the ABA from letting anyone know Whittier Law School was on probation, the judge explained, in response to the probation removal request, that, while increasing minority enrollment in law schools is laudable, it's most important that students be enabled by their law school to pass the bar exam and find employment. That same opinion also made clear that in the United States prospective student families have the right to know the status of a school, among other things. What was Whittier Law School thinking, and what does that reveal about the character or lack of character of that institution? It's difficult to believe that a law school failing to properly prepare its students to take the bar exam, when the consequence of failure to do so was probation or loss of accreditation, is going to do so now that there may be no consequence at all, for the school, for that failure.

No doubt minority enrollment in law schools will increase as a result of the ABA rules changes, and more minority law school students will graduate. What must be carefully tracked is how many more minority law students pass the bar exam and how many are saddled with the severe debt of a law school graduate without the ability to practice the law. It seems the failure of elementary and secondary education, and even that of higher education - as we've seen in the cases of too many Whittier College graduates - is now finding its way into professional schools. There's no need to wonder why this generation of students is so likely to know less and earn less and even live shorter lives than the generation before them. Which was the last generation to experience that?! The wonder is that this generation accepts such a lot...

whittiergate hopes very much that Whittier Law School does a better job from now on of preparing students to pass the bar exam, the universal measure of all law schools, no matter a school's accreditation status, and we wish all Whittier Law School students the very best of luck in trying to meet that challenge. Just remember that the school has used up a lot of luck getting off probation, so don't count on any of that, now. Study! You don't want to end up like Pete Wilson, having to take the bar exam four times to pass it, or, even worse, like Tony Villaraigosa, failing the bar exam four times and still not passing!

Time will tell whether the ABA is onto something or has turned a dependable impartial law school authority into a helpless rubber stamp for every Tom, Dick, and Harry School of Law. Like the old sign above that West Virginia donut shop put it, keep your eyes on the donut, not on the hole; and the donut has been, is, and will continue to be, the bar exam pass rate. If you don't think so, ask any law student, regardless of gender or ethnicity, and that student will set your straight.

Update

Whittier Law School Dean Neil Cogan is out / Penelope Bryan is in

Penelope Bryan, of Denver's Sturm College of Law, will assume Whittier Law School's Dean responsibilities on July 1, 2009.

Bryan's emphasis has been on Family Law, but she has considerable experience in administration, having been involved in Sturm's Lawyering in Spanish, Environmental and Natural Resources programs. The first judgments of Bryan's sense of ethics and law will be made on whether or not this new Dean insists on Whittier College ending its long-running Hispanic-Serving Institutions scam, through which Whittier College has defrauded this federal program of millions of dollars, and returning those monies to the federal government, and disposing of the College's newly-installed health and safety and environmental hazard artificial turf at a licensed hazardous waste facility and restoring natural grass in the campus Stadium.

We would also hope that Bryan will further advise Whittier College to stop interfering with Free Speech and Freedom of the Press on campus, specifically by apologizing to Quaker Campus for administration retaliation for the student paper's scientifically and legally sound, responsible, questioning of the irresponsible decision to install health and safety and environmental hazard artificial turf in the campus Stadium, and allowing the resumption of publication of Quaker Campus issues on the independent College Publisher network website.

And we will all continue monitoring Whittier Law School grads' California Bar Exam pass rate and employment stats...

Penelope Bryan, don't let yourself be used by Whittier College and Whittier Law School for unethical and criminal purposes, don't acquiesce or involve yourself in wrongdoing. Surprise those who hired you: Do the right thing(s).

Avvo's Law School Rankings

Where does Whittier Law School rank in comparison with other law schools nationally and internationally?
According to Avvo, WLS is hardly impressive, even accepting Whittier's questionable statistic
s...

U. S. Law Schools

Yale - 7.9
Stanford, Harvard - 7.8
U C Berkely - 7.69
Duke - 7.56
UCLA - 7.32
U C Hastings - 7.21
Southwestern - 6.9
Golden Gate - 6.89
Whittier - 6.78
Ventura - 6.76
Loyola - 6.7
Lincoln - 6.32

Foreign Law Schools

King's College (London) - 7.08
Kyoto - 7.07
Queen's University (Kingston, Ont.) - 7.03
Lagos State (Nigeria) - 6.33

Free Speech, Religious Freedom, and Women's Rights at Whittier Law School?

See http://www.investigativeproject.org/1424/kerfuffle-on-campus-over-sharia-lecture

or http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.4335/pub_detail.asp

Evidently all these rights are endangered at Whittier Law School.

Respect for the Law and Safety at Whittier Law School?

To whittiergate: "There are students who smoke pot right in front of the library and nothing is done."

To whittiergate: "...my friend was nearly sexually assaulted in one of the classrooms due to lax security. She reported this to (Associate) Dean (Judith F.) Daar who did nothing. They didn't even inform other students to be careful on campus."

Sounds like the Whittier College policy we know all too well. Keep crimes quiet. Even if an offender is apprehended, just get the perp quietly out of the picture. Victimize the victim again, deny the victim justice, and set others up to be victimized by the same perpetrator let off the hook. And this is a law school?! This is an education in U. S. law?! We have to ask, should this law school be accredited, or should Whittier Law School be shutdown?

Diversity, the Hispanic-Serving Institutions scam, and Discrimination at WLS

To whittiergate: "Several of my friends were academically disqualified from the law school and are convinced they're running a scam..."

To whittiergate: "I heard from a student who works in the financial aid office that they really are scamming students. I wish I could find an attorney to take them on..."

To whittiergate: "Dean Bryan...attempted to fire the few minority employees at the school. She also denied appeals for reinstatement from every minority student who fell below a 2.5 but granted appeals to non-minority students."

THE END OF A NOT SO LONG BUT VERY TWISTED ROAD FOR WHITTIER LAW SCHOOL APPROACHES

ETHNIC CLEANSING AND GRADES AND BAR PASS RATE STATS MANIPULATIONS AT WLS BY DEAN PENELOPE BRYAN AND PRESIDENT SHARON HERZBERGER EXPOSED

To whittiergate: "The Next Whittier Law School Disaster Waiting To Happen

"You posted the following story...on your website:

" "Whittier Law School Dean Neil Cogan is out / Penelope Bryan is in

"Penelope Bryan, of Denver's Sturm College of Law, will assume Whittier Law School's Dean Responsibilities on July 1, 2009.

"Bryan's emphasis has been on Family Law, but she has considerable experience in administration, having been involved in Sturm's Lawyering in Spanish, Environmental and Natural Resources programs. The first judgments of Bryan's sense of ethics and law will be made on whether or not this new Dean insists on Whittier College ending its long-running Hispanic-Serving Institutions scam, through which Whittier College has defrauded this federal program of millions of dollars, and returning those monies to the federal government, and disposing of the College's newly-installed health and safety and environmental hazard artificial turf at a licensed hazardous waste facility and restoring natural grass in the campus Stadium.

"We would also hope that Bryan will further advise Whittier College to stop interfering with Free Speech and Freedom of the Press on campus, specifically by apologizing to Quaker Campus for administration
retaliation for the student paper's scientifically and legally sound, responsible, questioning of the irresponsible decision to install health and safety and environmental hazard artificial turf in the campus Stadium, and allowing the resumption of publication of Quaker Campus issues on the independent College Publisher network website.

"And we will all continue monitoring Whittier Law School grads' California Bar Exam pass rate and employment stats...

"Penelope Bryan, don't let yourself be used by Whittier College and Whittier Law School for unethical and criminal purposes, don't acquiesce or involve yourself in wrongdoing. Surprise those who hired you: Do the right thing(s)."

"I want to...inform you that our hopes and dreams of having Whittier Law School increase the...bar pass rate in hopes of becoming a reputable, ethical and less criminal entity have been shot to hell with the hiring of Penny Bryan. She is worse than any administrator Whittier College has hired in recent history. The first time bar-pass-rate has plummeted since her arrival, and she has willingly continued to propagate the Hispanic-Serving Institutions scam. She has gone farther than Cogan ever did, however. She has no respect for minority students whatsoever; but how she treats her employees is unconscionable at best. She has moved all minorities from any position of authority or visibility. She is effectively “cleaning house” by passively, or aggressively, getting rid of minority staff and replacing them with staff that look more like the type of employee who “fits” into the Orange County look and feel of a Chapman University.

"She has also resorted to falsifying grades and bar passage stats and annihilating any staff that gets in her way. I am only sending this as a heads up...more research needs to be done. If you are interested in getting more specific information, you should speak to Wayne Van Ellis. He is the Law School Registrar. She has single-handedly tried to destroy him for simply for doing his job. She tried to force him to falsify grades and bar data, and she has demoted him for not going along with her plans of fabrication and misinterpretation.

"Dean Bryan will go down as Whittier College's worst hire in history."

whittiergate has learned that Wayne Van Ellis, an experienced and respected registrar who was previously associated with Concordia, Soka, and Chapman, is on "stress" leave from WLS, and that he will no longer be with Whittier as of the end of June 2011. Van Ellis cannot speak with whittiergate, nor anyone else, about his situation vis-a-vis Whittier Law School - because Whittier College and WLS are so fearful of the information you've just read getting out that the school agreed to EEOC (federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) mediation - because it's a confidential process - and we're sure will be paying Wayne Van Ellis handsomely to keep his mouth shut about the EEOC mediation, about the discrimination and retaliation he suffered for being a Black man and refusing to go along with Penelope Bryan's and Sharon Herzbeger's insane scheme to 'improve' Whittier Law School's tattered reputation, an immoral and unethical, and possibly criminal, conspiracy that can only end in these two top school administrators finally destroying Whittier College's creature Whittier Law School altogether, along with their own careers.

whittiergate warned that an end of ABA inspections of law schools was going to prove too tempting for corrupt and corrupting Whittier administrators and trustees to resist taking advantage of and would result in inflated self-reported Whittier Law School grades and bar exam pass rate stats, and this appears to be just what has happened. Unfortunately for Whittier administrators and trustees, WLS community members and whittiergate have gotten wise to the former's wrongdoing...

It is past due that the American Bar Association, finally, thoroughly investigate Whittier Law School on the ground, and not, yet again, merely put WLS on probation, but simply terminate this corrupt and corrupting Whittier College creature organization's accreditation. And relevant state bar associations should be investigating Penelope Bryan as well as both Bryan and Sharon Herzberger being investigated and held accountable for the immoral, unethical, and in some respects likely criminal misconduct related to Whittier Law School, and in Herzberger's case Whittier College as well. Records falsification at Whittier College's Whittier campus has previously been raised as an issue, during Herzberger's ongoing presidential term. and will now perhaps be looked into in detail. Neither Penelope Bryan nor Sharon Herzberger should ever again be entrusted with responsibility for others.

Update

Outgoing Whittier Law School Registrar Wayne Van Ellis' EEOC complaint (discrimination and retaliation) appears to have been resolved through confidential EEOC mediation. Whittier College / Whittier Law School has now had to make big payouts to settle complaints and lawsuits by administrators, staff, and professors, and on the horizon loom student fraud cases against Whittier...

PROFESSOR WINS BIG IN FRAUD FILING AGAINST WLS !


I. Nelson Rose, a faculty member at Whittier Law School for 29 years, a tenured professor and an internationally recognized authority on gambling and related issues, filed an unlimited civil action against Whittier College and Whittier Law School alleging fraud in 2006.

On June 3, 2010, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County awarded now former Whittier Law School Professor Nelson Rose $850,000.00.

Update

On November 3, 2011, the California Court of Appeal filed its final judgement in Rose v. Whittier College.
Despite Whittier Trustee and Attorney Ernie Z. Park's bests effort, the 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld the trial court's finding of fraud and misrepresentation by Whittier, that Rose be effectively restored to his tenured position, and that he be awarded $350,000 for emotional distress caused by Whittier Law School's misrepresentation and fraud.

This really sordid chapter of calculated misrepresentation and fraud in Whittier Law School history, starring Sharon Herzberger, Jan Legoza, and Neil Cogan as the leading antagonists, is nicely synopsized by Justice Boren for the unanimous Court of Appeal judgement at the following link:

http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=ln%20CACO%2020111103049.xml&docbase=CSLWAR3-2007-CURR

Our Distinguished Senior Whittier Law School Professor, gambling expert, and so Visiting Professor at the University of Macao, I. Nelson Rose, however, made a costly tactical error, focusing on dismissal of Whittier's appeal as frivolous when he should've focused on retaining the trial court's $500,000 punitive award. Not only did Rose lose $.5 mil, he thereby contributed to Whittier failing to get the message, demonstrated by subsequent further self-inflicted damage by Whittier administrators, including significant pay outs to prof Marcy Peek, administrator Wayne Van Ellis, and student Sarah Meyabadi. It's suprisingly often the case that an expert's better off giving rather than taking his own advice.

ANOTHER PROFESSOR SETTLES WITH WLS


Another now former WLS faculty member, African-American Assistant Professor Marcy E. Peek, has also reportedly settled with Whittier for six fIgures. The story goes that Dean Penelope Bryan (Rollins College, University of Florida) told Marcy Peek (Yale, Harvard Law) that there was no place for Peek at WLS. If Whittier's serious about becoming a law school with a high bar exam pass rate and placement of grads with top law firms, shouldn't that be the other way around? (Student comments on a rate your professor site show that bright students appreciated Peek's intelligence and standards while not so bright students wished they had avoided her classes.)

STUDENT FRAUD FILING AGAINST WLS...


On February 2, 2010, Whittier Law School student Sarah Meyabadi filed an unlimited civil action against Whittier Law School for fraud. Among Meyabadi''s allegations are that WLS changed her grades and graduation requirements to prevent her from graduating - because WLS decision-makers fear this student wouldn't pass the bar exam on the her first try. (It seems Whittier College and its creature organization, Whittier Law School, need to be reminded that not only did the People of the State of California elect as our Governor a man, Pete Wilson, who didn't pass the bar exam until his fourth try, but that Whittier College invited Tony Villaraigosa to campus as a Commencement speaker and bestowed an honorary Whittier degree on him, and Villaraigosa has taken the bar exam four times and still hasn't passed!) The truth is that Sarah Meyabadi met all requirements for graduation from Whittier Law School and WLS committed a fraud for ulterior motives.

Clearly, Whittier Law School grasps that its graduates need to perform better on the bar exam, and that this school needs to improve placement of its graduates, but at the same time refuses to stop recruiting minority students for whom the school can get money from the student and the federal government, and, rather than improve its education of students in the law, continues to defraud students and scapegoat staff for problems caused by Whittier Law School's top administrators, President Sharon Herzberger and Dean Penelope Bryan.

WLS has fired its Career Services Director, Bonnie Saito, and Assistant Director, Karen Sager, blaming them for Whittier Law School graduates not being hired by top or any law firms. This is scapegoating and nothing but scapegoating. Few law firms are hiring currently, and no top law firm is going to hire Whittier Law School graduates given this school's continuing abysmal bar exam pass rate. Bonnie Saito and Karen Sager are both competent placement professionals. WLS's poor placement rate, particularly with top law firms, is simply not these placement administrators' fault, but is rather the inescapable result of school policies and practices promulgated by Sharon Herzberger and Penny Bryan.

Sarah Meyabadi's attorney has deposed Whittier Law School Registrar Wayne Van Ellis, and will doubtlessly subpoena him to testify, and we have no doubt that the upright Van Ellis, who was the WLS records keeper during this student's time at WLS, has confirmed this student's allegations, and thereby won this plaintiff's case. (Ads are being run even now seeking a replacement for this outgoing WLS registrar, and we hope potential candidates for this position read this page before signing on at WLS!). Clearly, Meyabadi is not the only student who has been defrauded by Whittier Law School, and other students may join the courageous Meyabadi and transform her filing into a class action suit. It has become common knowledge at WLS that committees discuss students' probabilities of passing the bar exam, not just grades and other facts, when making student status determinations. And still the WLS bar exam pass rate remains abysmal...

It's important to note that Whittier College is also exploiting minority students recruited into its undergrad programs, that the same policies and practices are operative on both the Whittier and Costa Mesa campuses - with the exception of selectively preventing graduation at WLS. At the Whittier campus academic misconduct is allowed and everyone who sticks it out graduates, but fewer and fewer stick it out despite this degree for sale policy. It's encouraging that some Whittier students recruited by fraud come to realize that paying for an education and so a degree with value, not just buying a Whittier degree (with no education and a declining degree value), is in their better interest.

"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?" "There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again." - George W. Bush

It's easier to get away with fraud on the Whittier Campus because the degrees conferred there require no exit examination, as do not only law schools in the form of a state bar exam, but even public high schools in the form of senior exit exams. It's no surprise that - before the current recession broke in 2009 - only 50% of Whittier College graduates were employed and that only one-third of those employed were working in a field even remotely related to the grad's degree. The declining value of Whittier College degrees is exacerbated by the culture shock Whittier grads face in the real world where they can't cheat their way to success.

The judge in Sarah Meyabadi v Whittier Law School, James J. DiCesare, is a concern in what should be an open and shut case. Consider Judge DiCesare's decision denying the Sierra Club low-cost access to Orange County's Landbase parcel map system (that shows the precise boundaries of all 640,00 taxable lots and structures in O C), despite a ruling a year earlier by the 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose that Santa Clara County had to comply with the California Public Records Act (CPRA), which limits the charge for county mapping systems to the cost of their duplication, which, since this map is stored in a digital GIS (Geographic Information System) format, costs virtually nothing.

So how much does Orange County want from the Sierra Club? $375,000.00. Then why did O C provide the complete O C GIS to the Orange County Fire Authority for $75,000? Santa Clara County had demanded $260,000 for its GIS, and claimed a software exemption to the CPRA that was specifically rejected by the Superior Court, so clearly rejected that Santa Clara County based its appeal on other claims, which were likewise rejected by the Court of Appeal. Nevertheless, Judge DiCesare ruled in favor of Orange County's claim of a software exemption.

http://www.firstamendmentcoalition.org/2010/05/orange-county-court-denies-sierra-club-low-cost-access-to-parcel-map-system/

It's a good thing for O C residents that the County provided the O C GIS to the O C Fire Authority for only $75,000 in-house. And it would've been a good thing for our health and safety and our environment if Judge DiCesare had followed precedent and ordered O C to provide the O C GIS to the Sierra Club as intended by the CPRA, so why didn't he so order? Well, who wants effective fire protection and ineffective environmental research, and who can afford $375,000 for O C's GIS? That's right, developers, like The Irvine Company, the interest group most pleased by environmentalist organizations like the Sierra Club being denied information specifically designated as accessible public information by our state legislature.

Speaking of The Irvine Company, Richard I. Gilchrist, according to his Forbes.com profile, "guides all aspects of The Irvine Company's...properties in Southern California... including development, marketing and management." Prior to his association with The Irvine Company, Gilchrist was with Maguire Properties where he "oversaw significant growth in the company's portfolio, both acquisitions and development". Forbes goes on to describe The Irvine Company as "a best-of-class master planner", that is the top dog in the O C developer pack. Richard Gilchrist is also the Chairman of the Whittier College Board of Trustees.

http://people.forbes.com/richard-gilchrist/11826

To whittiergate
: "What about Richard Gilchrist's role, according to his Forbes.com profile, as "co-founder and managing director of CommonWealth Partners, LLC, and advisor and venture partner with the California Public Employees Retirement System"? That's CalPERS. Alfred Villalobos was a trustee at Whittier College, too - until the State of California demanded he repay $70 mil and pay a $25 mil fine for ripping off CalPERS.

"Look into companies like Province Group and you'll find partners including The Irvine Company (Gilchrist), Richmond American Homes (Whittier College Trustee David Mandarich), and CalPERS all under one tent. Alfred Villalobos, El Jardinero (the Mexican doing the dirty work for wealthy Gringos like Gilchrist and Mandarich), being busted reminds one of the Cuban so-called 'Plumbers' going down for the Watergate break-in while Nixon walked, and teaches telling lessons about race and who's who in California."

All under one tent: http://www.provincegroup.com/pdf/province_group_brochure.pdf

The Los Angeles Times' Marc Lifsher reported (on Jan. 3, 2011) that CalPERS has chosen CommonWealth Partners to manage CalPERS commercial properties valued at in excess of $700 mil, and that "CommonWealth has executed more than $4 billion worth of transactions in other CalPERS partnerships since 1998." Lifsher then reported (on Jan. 20, 2011) that "Only CalPERS real estate investments lost money last year, falling 5.1%, compared with a market benchmark that grew by 9.3%." The Sacramento Bee's Dale Kasler reported (on March 11, 2010) that CalPERS lost $91 mil in a Boston real estate deal gone bad, another "in a string of real estate failures to hit the California Public Employees' Retirement System." CalPERS lost approximately $3 billion in commercial real estate investments in 2008 alone.

Lifsher had reported earlier (Dec. 1, 2010) that "...CalPERS has suffered deep loses in its real estate holdings during the past two years. The fund was forced to write down a nearly $1 billion investment in undeveloped residential property near Valencia, $500 million in an apartment building partnership in New York's Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village and $100 million in a condominium conversion project in East Palo Alto." Alfred Villalobos was involved in the Stuyvesant condo conversion deal. Have other Whittier College trustees, and, yes, this is a rhetorical question, also been involved in CalPERS real estate losses, exhorbitant management fees, etcetera? (Leon Black's Apollo, a company that paid unregistered agent Alfred Villalobos for bringing in CalPERS investments, it turns out by hook and by crook, has agreed to cut management fees charged to CalPERS by $125 mil, and to never use such an agent again when soliciting CalPERS investments).

Developers are extremely influential if not the dominant players in Orange County, and Judge DiCesare's decision in the Sierra Club v Orange County GIS case makes O C developers very happy as surely as it ignores precedent and the intent of the CPRA's promulgators, and any sense of fair play and the public good. The Sierra Club is likely to appeal Judge DiCesare's GIS ruling and to win that appeal.
Update

The Metropolitan News-Enterprise's Kenneth Ofang reports ('GIS Database Exempt From Public Records Act', June 1, 2011) that on May 31, 2011, the 4th District Court of Appeal upheld O C Superior Court Judge James DiCesare's ruling for Orange County against the Sierra Club, setting up an eventual California Supreme Court clash between the development-dominated SoCal 4th District Court of Appeal and the populist NorCal 6th District Court of Appeal over provision of GIS data to non-governmental organizations, like the Sierra Club.

The 4th District Court of Appeal ruling in Sierra Club v Superior Court (County of Orange) cites a California Government Code (Section 6254.9) exemption intended to enable state and local agencies to recover software development costs, while downplaying the CPRA mandate that only reproduction costs can be charged for information designated public, such as county GIS databases. 4th District Court of Appeal Justice Raymond Ikola has now replaced Judge DiCesare on the hot seat, and DiCesare wasn't reversed on appeal.

Many SoCal residents are embarrassed and dismayed by the Orange County Superior Court and 4th District Court of Appeal rulings against the Sierra Club and hope the NorCal 6th District Court of Appeal opinion will eventually prevail - because until then SoCal developers can continue to do what they want to do without informed monitoring much less opposition, and how has that been turning out for SoCal's 99%?

Any ruling in Meyabadi v Whittier Law School by DiCesare that fails to award this student her long-delayed J D and a significant award can only further suggest that this judge is inclined to rule in favor of those with deep pockets, and end with reversal on appeal. Meyabadi has shown that she will stay the course, and as time passes with no changes at WLS she will be joined by numerous of the other students who've also been defrauded by WLS.

To whittiergate:
"Before being appointed to the bench, James DiCesare practiced law for many years in Costa Mesa, where the campus of Whittier Law School is located. Sarah Meyabadi's attorney had better do her homework and be wide-awake."

whittiergate notes that James DiCesare is not a one-dimensional bad guy. DiCesare has a pro bono award on his resume and his courtly manners are universally praised. And yet Judge DiCesarre will have to live up to his own stated principles, as he appears to have failed to do in the Orange County GIS case, in Meyabadi v Whittier Law School to get it right this time. Whittier Law School is going to change for the better or it's going to lose its accreditation. One would think Judge DiCesare would want to render justice for Sarah Meyabadi - because she deserves justice, because a judge's decision being reversed on appeal is one of the blackest marks against a judge, and no judge would want to taint his career by association with a corrupt and corrupting law school that's going to be investigated by the ABA, again, which law school oversight organization doesn't have to play O C politics and will, therefore, agree with Sarah Meyabadi's attorney and the many WLS staff, faculty, and students who'll confirm Meyabadi's outrageous experiences with WLS.

whittiergate looks forward to publishing the amount awarded to Sarah Meyabadi by Judge DiCesare, not to mention congratulating her on the belated conferral of her J D, which she earned, whether this student passes the bar exam on her first or forth try or if she, like the mayor of Los Angeles and recipient of an honorary Whittier degree, Tony Villaraigosa, never passes the bar exam. The award should be so large that Whittier Law School never puts another student through years of career disadvantage and personal hell for no fault of his or her own, but because administrators lost their moral compass, any grasp of ethics, any respect for either education or law, and, therefore, need to be stopped and replaced before they do any further harm.

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - George W. Bush

Sarah Meyabadi met all the requirements for graduation set forth by WLS, whose administrators then tried to cheat her out of her J D for an ulterior motive, an ulterior motive addressing a problem WLS, not any student, created. WLS will continue to compound this fraud until they're ordered to stop, to make plaintiff whole, repair as much of the damage done as possible, and either start running an accreditable law school or close WLS down. No judge should allow Whittier College and Whittier Law School to continue operating as though the law is optional, along with morals and ethics, which is why Whittier has lost case after case after case in state and federal courts and in state and federal agency proceedings.

If any judge ruled against Sarah Meyabadi given this fact case, the press would no doubt be extremely interested in the reason for that, and that reason would certainly lie outside the courtroom and the law, would be scandalous, and surely end in reversal on appeal, the granting of the J D and an even larger award for this student Whittier wrongly believed WLS could get away with defrauding. No judge should assist the self-destruction of a law school; every judge should act to rehabilitate a law school that without rehab will self-destruct, or in Whittier Law School's case finish self-destructing.

Update

Judge James DiCesare, in Meyabadi v. Whittier, went to the heart and quick of the matter, ruling that Wayne Van Ellis, despite the confidential Whittier-Van Ellis EEOC agreement, could testify as a witness for Sarah Meyabadi. Whittier immediately offered Ms. Meyabadi her J. D., retroactive to 2008, and a significant settlement, which the former WLS student accepted. Judge DiCesare didn't even have to rule against Whittier, Meyabadi was satisfied, and time will tell whether or not Whittier College and its creature organization Whittier Law School have finally gotten the message, and whether or not Whittier facing their neo-Nixonian character flaws leads to real change. What's known for sure now is that Whittier Law School is still on a self-destruct course...and that a student WLS thought so little of faced the school down and walked away with her J D and a lot of money.

From Top-Law-Schools.com:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=96686&start=800

"Swollen Monkey: "Since your other acceptance is Whittier Law, please take a look at this: ...whittiergate.com

"I hope I don't find a website like this on Southwestern" "

"lawschoolmike: "Thanks for the heads up. I'm reading the (whittiergate WLS page) article right now and so far I'm devastated... I was probably 99% sure I would not go to Whittier but with this article it's definite I will not attend"

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=157616&start=25

See among comments on a thread discussing Whittier Law School and law student-related issues, the following:

"...look up a web site titled "WhittierGate"...

"Prepare to have your mind blown."

Really.

www.ehow.co.uk/list_6566791_bottom-ranked-law-schools.html

Bottom ranked law schools: "Whittier Law School, the University of the District of Columbia Law School, and the Appalachia School of Law consistently rank among the nation's worst law schools for first year attrition (51.5%, 2009) and Bar passage rate (55.6% v all California law schools' average of 65%, 2009)"

http://www.prelawadvisor.com/data-for-law-school-transfer-a/

WLS is listed in the "Law Schools with a Significant Number of Students Transferring Out" category

http://www.blueprintprep.com/resources/article_law_competition.php

While 1st tier (#15) UCLA School of Law's employment by graduation rate is 96.8%, 4th tier Whittier Law School's (unreliable self-reported) rate is 58.6%.

"There are less than 29,000 law firm jobs each year, but more than 47,000 law school graduates every year." Given Whittier Law School's statistics, and reputation, why would a law firm ever get around to offering a WLS grad a job?

Third Tier Reality

http://thirdtierrealityblogspot.com/2011/02/rank-fourth-tier-scat-pile-whittier-law.html

"Conclusion: Whittier Law School is an embarrassment to "higher education"..."

When people have enough relevant information, they tend to make logical and right decisions. That's why Whittier College / Whittier Law School requested a court order the American Bar Association to censor its publications to hide the fact that WLS had been placed on probation by the ABA. One wonders, if Whittier had allocated the money spent on that bizarre and embarrassing federal court filing, and invested all the time and energy Penelope Bryan and Sharon Herzberger gave to trying to lie and cheat Whittier Law School to legitimacy to honestly improving WLS, if Whittier Law School might have been a success story instead of now finding itself about to be put out of its misery? It looks now as though we'll never know the answer to that question.

Goodbye, Whittier Law School...

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