If I applied for a job and on my C.V. I were to list among my qualifications that I had an advanced degree from a respected university which I did not have, I might get hired, but odds are good when my boss caught wind of it I would be fired. As I should be.

Where am I going with this?

Recently I was looking at the official Government website of St.Maarten and I happened to look at the page where Prime Minister Sarah Wescott-Williams has her biography. On this page she lists her work history as well as her educational background which I've copied and pasted directly from the website that reads as follows.

"She complements her experience in Public Service, with an Honor's Associate Degree in Business and Finance, a Bachelor's Degree in Public Administration, and a Master's in Public Administration, suma cum laude from La Salle University, USA."

I must say very impressive sounding at first glance. I did a bit of research on the internet and found out that La Salle University truly offers a Rolex quality education at a price to match. The basic tuition listed by them is $16,750.00 per quarter. Note that this is from the real La Salle University, the one located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

On Friday February 18th I picked up the phone and called La Salle University in Philadelphia . To my surprise, my call was immediately answered by a professor who is also head of his department. I told him the purpose of my call was to confirm academic credentials being claimed by a Government official which I suspected to be bogus. He told me that due to privacy laws he doubted anyone could provide me with the specific information I was requesting. He did however tell me after I read to him Sarah's claims listed on the website, that "La Salle University does not offer a graduate degree in Public Administration."

How can this be? If you look up diploma mills on Wikipedia under the section titled "Common attributes of diploma mills" you will find La Salle University cited as an example. No this is not the same La Salle University run by the Christian Brothers teaching order I referred to earlier. This La Salle University was run by a convicted criminal named James Kirk (no relation to the fictional Captain on Star Trek). If you search under James Kirk diploma mills on Wikipedia you will find this La Salle University was shut down in 1996 by the FBI, U.S. postal inspectors, and the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Kirk was sentenced to five years in federal prison and was ordered not to operate any more schools.

Here in the United States we have had instances where politicians have obtained diploma mill degrees. One of the most notable being Florida Congressman Claude Pepper who in 1985 obtained a fake Doctorate at a cost of $1780.00 so that he could call himself Dr. Pepper (also the name of a popular US made soft drink) and to illustrate how easy and cheap it was to do. The difference being he already had a legitimate Law Degree from Harvard and he did not obtain this degree in an effort to deceive the voters but rather to inform them of a serious problem.

In my mind claiming to have graduated summa cum laude from an unaccredited school is like saying you are the world's tallest midget, at the end of the day you still come up short.

It's time for the Prime Minister to come clean about her education. Is it a Front Street Rolex quality degree or Back Street trash?

A helpful hint to the Prime Minister, it might be more convincing the next time you claim honors to actually spell those honors correctly. Summa is spelled with two m's not one as you spelled it on the webpage and in your campaign literature.

I'm sure the Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Piet Hein Donner will want to know of this. He recently took full responsibility for the screening process of St.Maarten's Ministers during a debate with the Dutch Second Chamber. Why should he be made to look like a fool amongst his colleagues?

The people of Country St.Maarten certainly deserve to know the truth about who is governing their Country.

Part two will provide more information on why this situation is so wrong and dangerous.

Andy Croxall