This Web site is dedicated to telling the true story of Columbia Pacific University, one of the most maligned and defamed distance learning institutions of all times.Here we will untangle the true story of  Columbia Pacific University and how it came to be the university that some people love to hate. It is also the story seldom told — the story of Columbia Pacific University students and alumni destroyed by a war among a few self-possessed egos who became so obsessed with winning that they gave little or no priority to what this would mean to anyone who graduated from CPU. *

But it is more than that. It is also a celebration of the character of CPU alumni and the resilience they continue to show in the face of unprecedented opposition.

Columbia Pacific University (CPU) was one of the first nontraditional distance learning universities in the United States. It was opened in San Rafael, California in 1978, as a private for profit institution. Its founders included Dr. Les Carr, former president of Lewis University and vice president of Salve Regina College; Richard Crews, MD, a Harvard trained psychiatrist with a practice in homeopathy and holistic health, and Arthur Blum, M.S., former president of Point Park College.

Subsequent to the 1978 authorization of the school, in 1986 the California State Department of Education gave Columbia Pacific University full institutional approval as a degree- granting institution.

In the 1986 review, the boilerplate text of the California State Department of Education certificate of approval clearly states:

"The curriculum is consistent in quality with curricula offered by appropriate established accredited institutions which are recognized by the United States Department of Education or the Committee of Bar Examiners for the State of California";

and

"The course for which the degree is granted achieves its professed or claimed academic objective for higher education, with verifiable evidence of academic achievement comparable to that required of graduates of other recognized schools accredited by an appropriate accrediting commission recognized by the United States Department of Education or the Committee of Bar Examiners for the State of California". [[Approval Certificate]]

For the bizarre events that followed, go to [CPU History]