Libyan fugitive Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, son of the recently killed dictator Muammar Qaddafi, has a master’s degree from CSU East Bay.

Qaddafi, who is allegedly in hiding in Niger, has been on the lam ever since NATO-backed rebels overtook the Libyan government stronghold of Tripoli in August and is now wanted by the International Criminal Court for his connection in killing civilians during the revolution.

Qaddafi’s degree from CSUEB, CSU Hayward at the time, actually comes from a partnership with a private university in Vienna of business and law called International Management Development Consulting (IMADEC), though his degree still retains our university’s name.

The name on the unofficial transcript obtained by The Pioneer reads Saif Algadahfi, most likely due to the fact that there are a variety of ways to transliterate the name from the Arabic alphabet.

According to Vice President of Planning, Enrollment Management, and Student Affairs Linda Dalton, Algadahfi “earned a Masters in Business Administration in Summer 2000 through an Executive Extension program in Vienna.”

The former dictator’s son was also awarded a doctorate by London School of Economics in 2008. That degree is currently under investigation for allegations of plagiarism, according to Reuters.

IMADEC has had its own fair share of problems stemming back to its connection with CSUH that led to the termination of the partnership in 2002.

According to an article from The Pioneer in 2002, IMADEC maintained they were falsely led to believe the CSUH-appointed MBA program director Kurt Leube had Ph.D. credentials.

Leube retired from CSUH before these accusations by IMADEC could take fruition in California, but they did lead to his dismissal from the private university in Vienna where Algadahfi earned his degree, according to the same article.

This means that CSUH faculty who taught in Vienna directly contributed to Algadahfi’s attainment of a degree. It is unclear whether any concerns that arose at LSE with his education would be applicable to the CSUH degree attained in Vienna.

According to a blog post by Brian Whitaker from The Guardian, IMADEC was not recognized as a university by Austrian authorities while Algadahfi attended, which may help explain the value of its connection to CSUH.

The same blog post continued that while the university briefly gained recognition, it lost it in 2006 while nullifying honorary degrees it had awarded.

One notable recipient of an honorary degree from IMADEC is former Gov. of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger who now holds a worthless honorary degree.

“We had a program in Vienna, we had a program in Hong Kong, we had a program in Singapore,” said Professor of Economics Lynn Paringer, who taught at a similar program that is still running in Moscow.

Considering the issue of Qaddafi’s degree, CSUEB student Susana Gonzalez was more concerned that the university failed to appropriately screen a professor over its involvement with the Qaddafi regime.