Our Guy, Fred

* Fred Ruhlman, adjunct instructor in history, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. You remember Fred. He has a"doctorate" from a diploma-mill,"the American University of London"; and he plagiarized his book. He gets positive comments at RateMyProfessor for all the wrong reasons. It gets even worse.

Here, Fred's cited as an"Online Learning Success" for getting an M.A. from"American Military University" in"Charles Town, West Virginia." In 2002, he was teaching at Darton College in Albany, Georgia. Now, would you hire a fellow to teach World Civilization, even on a part-time basis, who has a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee, an M.A. in Civil War Studies from the"American Military University" in"Charles Town, West Virginia," and a"Ph. D." in American history from"the American University of London"?

Or, take the courses that he teaches for UT, Chattanooga. Have a look at his syllabi: World Civilization I; and World Civilization III. (Sorry, Tim. I know you don't like picking through other people's syllabi.) We have a textbook and we read a chapter a week for a semester. Sometimes we have two weeks to read a chapter. Not to sweat, however, because Fred reads to you from the chapters in class.

And that plagiarized book of his? While it is true that the University of Tennessee Press no longer makes the book available, the website of the History Department at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, still advertises it; and the Press has apparently not recalled all the unsold copies of it. It is available on Barnes & Noble, at least. UT Press should withdraw all outstanding copies of the book; and UT, Chattanooga, should give Fred his walking papers.