A matter of degrees; Police fight perception of sheepskin mills.

Byline: Thomas Caywood; Shaun Sutner

WORCESTER - With a bare-knuckled political brawl over millions of dollars in Quinn Bill education bonuses breaking out between police unions and City Hall, questions about the academic value of the graduate degrees held by city police officers have resurfaced.

A Telegram & Gazette review of master's degree transcripts submitted by city police officers to the state Board of Higher Education to qualify for a 25 percent increase in base salary - worth from $14,000 to more than $20,000 a year - found that 90 percent of those degrees were awarded by colleges faulted in a 2001 state audit for failing to meet basic standards.

Of the 134 master's degrees held by city police officers, 117 were awarded before more rigorous academic standards mandated by the state Board of Higher Education went into effect in January 2004.

All but 15 of those pre-reform graduate degrees were awarded by Anna Maria College in Paxton or Western New England College in Springfield - the two institutions singled out in the Quinn Bill probe for having "depended extensively on part-time or adjunct faculty and faculty who are graduates from their own programs."

Last fiscal year, the city and state together paid more than $1.5 million in Quinn Bill bonuses to Worcester officers with graduate degrees from Anna Maria or WNEC awarded before the state quality reforms.

"There were a lot of problems across the state with schools that were offering these degrees," recalled Stephen P. Tocco, chairman of the state Board of Higher Education in 2001 when the audit report came out. "It was a mess. At some places, students didn't even have to show up. It was awful."

The audit report, the basis for subsequent reforms, went on to note that the "enrollment demand created by the Quinn Bill's economic incentives may be responsible, at least in part, for making criminal justice an academic `cash cow' for some institutions, and for concomitant concerns about program quality."

"Some people are walking around with degrees that are useless," Mr. Tocco said in an interview last week. "They got them because it was a way to get increased pay and pensions."

While some may believe many Quinn Bill degrees are "useless," the diplomas could cost city taxpayers dearly.

More than two-thirds of the 435-officer police force have higher education degrees. Officers receive Quinn Bill pay for, roughly, 50 associate's degrees, 150 bachelor's degrees and 130 master's degrees, according to the city.

Officers get Quinn Bill bonuses of 10 percent of their base pay for an associate's, 20 percent for a bachelor's and 25 percent for a master's.

The state Legislature cut all funding for the incentive program this summer, leaving the city scrambling to make up the state's previous $2.5 million-a-year portion of Quinn Bill bonuses in Worcester. If the city had to pick up the other half of the tab, as police unions insist it is contractually obligated to do, the cost is projected to top $20 million over the next five years.

William J. McCarthy, a professor and coordinator of the criminal justice program at Quinsigamond Community College and a former Connecticut state trooper, said some schools were routinely granting credit for life experience, for taking police promotion exams, and even for creating "portfolios" containing items such as commendations awarded to officers.

Dozens of satellite campuses without libraries or support staff sprang up across the state for the purpose of drawing Quinn Bill students, Mr. McCarthy said.

Before the state crackdown on so-called "Quinn Bill mills," Anna Maria College operated 13 satellite campuses. Today, the Paxton college has one satellite location, in Worcester.

Recruiters from criminal justice programs, including Anna Maria's, aggressively promoted the schools' offerings with such strategies as canvassing police departments, sometimes showing up at first-, second- and third-shift roll calls, Mr. McCarthy said.

Some school officials offered deals to officers by saying they could accommodate their needs and get them a degree, sometimes with far less work and class time than a standard master's degree, which generally requires at least 12 courses, Mr. McCarthy said.

"It was all with a big wink and a nod," said Mr. McCarthy, who is also a candidate for an at-large seat on the Worcester City Council.

Anna Maria College officials defended the overall quality of the school's master's of arts degrees in criminal justice awarded in the 1980s and 1990s.

"Were there some oversight issues in the past at Anna Maria College? Yes. We've acknowledged that," Anna Maria spokeswoman Paula L. Green said.

But Patricia W. Gavin, director of Anna Maria's criminal justice program, said the college was assessing and improving its criminal justice offerings as far back as the late 1990s, long before the state-mandated reforms. The additional quality improvements required by the state beginning in 2004 mainly involved adding specific courses and hiring additional faculty, she said.

"The degrees we stand by, as far as being a quality degree," Ms. Gavin said.

She said the college never granted credit for life experience at the graduate level and only offered credit for police and other training sparingly for undergraduates. All criminal justice students were required to complete 12 courses and a project or pass a comprehensive exam, she said.

Anna Maria has awarded 86 master's degrees to city police officers, including top police commanders.

Chief Gary J. Gemme, who received $40,594 in Quinn Bill pay in fiscal 2008, received a Master of Arts degree in criminal justice from Anna Maria in May 1985.

The chief did not respond to requests for interviews, but previously he has defended the Quinn Bill as "simply the cost of providing high-quality law enforcement services to the community."

Ms. Gavin said that Anna Maria's criminal justice program today has many students who are not police officers.

"It's a misunderstanding that our program is geared toward the Quinn Bill only," she said.

Ms. Gavin took over as program director in 2001 amid the state Quinn Bill review.

David A. Lanoie, now the chief of staff at the Franklin County Jail and House of Correction, was Anna Maria's criminal justice program director from 1990 to 1994. Two dozen Worcester police officers were awarded master's degrees at the college during his tenure.

In an interview, Mr. Lanoie downplayed the Board of Higher Education's past criticism of Anna Maria, which it cited for a lack of criminal justice professors with doctoral degrees, as largely a result of the college's success in attracting students.

"I think the schools mentioned were offering the degrees, and a large number of attendees were going to those schools," Mr. Lanoie said. "If you looked at auto dealerships, you would look at the ones doing the most business."

However, Mr. Lanoie said he recalls doubts about the wisdom of the Quinn Bill from the beginning. He said he has always believed that, if college degrees are necessary for a professional police force, then they should be required as a condition of employment and pay scales should be adjusted accordingly.

Quinsigamond's Mr. McCarthy said police work doesn't necessarily require higher education because of the repetitive nature of most patrol work. However, police managers and commanding officers, particularly those who deal with community relations, often can benefit from advanced degrees, he said.

However, police union leaders have signaled their intention to defend the benefit at all costs, soliciting thousands of dollars from members to pour into the City Council and mayoral races to unseat those who have questioned the program's cost.

The minutes of a recent police union meeting warned: "Allowing the city to pay only half the Quinn Bill payments would result in a huge loss of income for our members and their families going forward."

NAME: WORCESTER POLICE DEPARTMENT

ART: PHOTO; GRAPH; CHARTS; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

CUTLINE: (PHOTO) Patricia W. Gavin is director of Anna Maria College's criminal justice program. (GRAPH, CHART 1) Handing out master's degrees (CHART 2) Quinn bill costs

PHOTOG: (PHOTO) T&G Photo/PAUL KAPTEYN (GRAPH, CHART 1) T&G Staff/DON LANDGREN JR. (PHOTO ILLUSTRATION) T&G Photo Illustration