What he'd learned in life
In 1976, Joseph Kadans applied to the Supreme Court of Nevada for special permission to take the Nevada Bar Examination. He did not have a degree from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association, which in Nevada, as in a number of states, is a requirement for admission to practice law. (Among other things, A.B.A. accreditation requires an extensive law library and a fairly high percentage of full-time faculty — typically costing millions of dollars.) Nevertheless, Kadans asked the Supreme Court to waive Nevada's rule that would require him to have a law school degree before he could take the test.
The Supreme Court directed the Nevada Board of Bar Examiners to conduct an inquiry into Kadans educational and personal background to see whether he should qualify for the waiver. The Board did so, and found that although Kadans might be “academically prepared for the practice of law, at least marginally,” it had serious doubts about his moral suitability to do so.
Yes, moral suitability (one can imagine eyebrows being raised at that one). The Board's reservations had to do with Kadans' operation of something that he called the “Church of Universology, Inc.” and the “Bernadean University.” It also cited claims he made about his academic credentials and books that he had published. And in 1977, after it reviewed the Board of Bar Examiners' findings, the Nevada Supreme Court ultimately agreed with the Board and denied his request.
According to the Nevada Supreme Court, the catalog for Kadans' Bernadean University described the school as a “fouryear senior university” consisting of seven different colleges, Health Sciences, Liberal Arts, Fine Arts, Law, Theology, Agriculture and Police Sciences. The university offered such diverse courses as church management, firearms, polygraph procedures, herbology, reflexology (i.e., foot massage techniques), dance therapy, acupuncture, traffic control, preparation of sermons, evidence, organic food growing, and police administration.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court went on to explain, Kadans' “university” consisted of a small Las Vegas office with no classrooms or separate colleges. The “classes” were all offered through the mail, exams were open book, and could be submitted at the students' leisure.
The Court also said that the extensive curriculum was taught and administered by Kadans himself and four “faculty members” whom, it turns out, merely assisted in grading papers, and none of whom had anything other than a high school diploma. Kadans himself also acted as the Dean of Students, the President of the University, and handled all the affairs of the school. As the Supreme Court summed up, “it seems clear to us that the University and Kadans are one and the same, and the faculty, in fact, performs only administrative tasks.”
Equally telling, perhaps, was that most of the “textbooks” in the wide variety of courses that Kadans, um, taught were simply compiled from other sources and “published” using a photocopier. In fact, two years earlier when Kadans tried to obtain a state license for his “university,” the Nevada's commission that regulated higher education turned him down, too, because of the questionable quality of the school.
Kadans had, remarkably enough, taught for one semester at Loyola University in Los Angeles. But the Nevada court hastened to add that Kadans “had been hired as a `lecturer' at a time when the University was in a turmoil and the customary background investigation had not been conducted” regarding Kadans' qualifications. Perhaps most revealing, though, is that forty out of his fifty students were so unhappy with his teaching that the university had to refund their tuition for his course.
The Supreme Court was also troubled by Kadans' claims to have earned various degrees such as Doctor of Theology, Doctor of Philosophy, and Doctor of Naturopathy. One of the degrees, for example, was obtained from a similar “one-room university” in Kansas, apparently in exchange for a similar degree from one of Kadans' “schools.” Likewise, his claims to have published numerous books, such as the “Encyclopedia of Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts and Seeds for Healthful Living” were books “published” on a photocopier
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court went on to explain, Kadans' “university” consisted of a small Las Vegas office with no classrooms or separate colleges. The “classes” were all offered through the mail, exams were open book, and could be submitted at the students' leisure.
through the Bernadean University.
The court also turned down Kadans' request that he be admitted to practice law without even taking the bar exam. So, Mr. Kadans' dream of being a lawyer in Nevada (at least without going to law school) came to naught — but the people of Nevada probably were the better for it.
Now if states could just do a better job at weeding out the regular law school applicants .
. . .