[Alumni-chat] Antioch U. and It's Future Role-Model: The University
Of Phoenix!
YAZZ ALLEN
davidallenusa at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 23 12:08:32 EDT 2007
Oct. 23, 07
Hi from Yazz Allen ' 66 (contact YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com)!
The death of residential colleges, of which Antioch College, Ohio undergrad residential institution may or may not be the next victim (we'll see in a few days, I guess.....sigh!) is connected to the oncoming of go-getter "get educated fast and without pain" type places like..."The University of Phoenix."
People who ask "what happened to Antioch?....why would anyone want to assassinate it....especially it's own Board Of Trustees?" need to know about the new guys on the block in higher ed., and the biz part of it....big money, slick promises, no intergrity (just like big business in Capitalist Amerika, with standards and ideals carried forward by millionaire Trustees on the Antioch U. BOT and their non-millionaire friends also on the BOT who agree that "money talks!")
Sooo........ as a sort of information feature for the Antioch Chatline, eerily silent in these days before the coming (possibly last ever) "Antioch College Homecoming Of October 2007", I provide some details about the University of Phoenix, the "Harvard of No-Qual" Adult Ed. Schools which what remains of "Antioch U." will certanly emulate and aspire to if and when pesky, naughty, and irritating Antioch College, Ohio's residential program with tenured faculty is dispatched (as seems likely to me...I hope I'm wrong, of course...but usually, I'm not):
The U. of Phoenix was started by a go-getter Ph.D. from California in the 1970's, and now has a 2.3 Billion Dollar Year operating budget and 190 "campuses" in the USA (and elsewhere?).
From the Wikipedia re: U. of Phoenix:
University of Phoenix From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia • Ten things you may not know about images on Wikipedia •
University of Phoenix
Motto Thinking Ahead Established 1976 Type Private, For-profit President Bill Pepicello Faculty 20,000+ Staff 12,000+ Undergraduates 220,000+ Postgraduates 60,000+ Location Phoenix, Arizona, USA Campus Urban Locations 190+ campuses Website phoenix.edu
University of Phoenix (UOP) is a for-profit educational institution specializing in adult education, with campuses located throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. UOP was founded in 1976 by Dr. John Sperling and is now owned by Apollo Group, Inc..
The University of Phoenix is the United States' largest private, accredited university with programs on campus, online and through flexnet programs.
Contents[hide]
1 History
2 University of Phoenix Stadium
3 Modalities
4 Accreditation
5 Criticism
6 Controversies
6.1 Faculty
6.2 Lack of AACSB accreditation
6.3 Graduation and retention
6.4 Federal investigations and lawsuits
7 References
//
[edit] History In the early 1970s, at San Jose State University in California, John Sperling and several associates conducted field-based research in adult education.
The focus of the research was to explore teaching/learning systems for the delivery of educational programs and services to working adult students who wished to complete or further their education in ways that complemented both their experience and current professional responsibilities.
At that time colleges and universities were organized primarily around serving the needs of the 18-22 year old undergraduate student given that the large majority of those enrolled were residential students of traditional college age, just out of high school.
According to Sperling, working adult students were often "invisible" on traditional campuses and treated as second-class citizens.[1] It should be noted, however, that many public urban universities with universally accredited degree programs specifically address the needs of non-traditional students.[need citation]
University of Phoenix is the nation's largest private university, with 250,000 students, most of them working adults. Its parent company had $2.3 billion in revenue last year, ranking it among Arizona's largest companies.[2]
THE FOLLOWING IS FROM THE U. OF PHOENIX INFO/ WATCHDOG WEBSITE TITLED WWW.UOPSUCKS.COM (this site debunks the idea the the U. of Phoenix is a good place....urges people to question it!):
You go to UOP for a degree, NOT an education!
-UOP Enrollment Counselor
Choosing a college or university is an incredibly important decision because it involves making a commitment of large amounts of time and money.
If you are considering the University of Phoenix, please be sure to review this entire site before making your decision.
Read and experience actual student and employee's accounts about things the University does not want you to know.
Be sure to read and check out the USER FORUM. This is the most important feature of the site because it is composed of input and stories by students and faculty like you!
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NEW 4-21-06! There are several Discrimination Class Actions pending against UoP and other Apollo Group subsidiaries. This includes lawsuits for discrimination based on race, religion, gender and ethnicity. To be added to the class, please contact Josh Rose (202) 331-8556 or josh at roselawyers.com. There is also a an Overtime Class Action Lawsuit for Academic Counselors. All salaried Academic Counselors are eligible for this suit. Please contact Josh Rose (202) 331-8556 or josh at roselawyers.com. You may also contact the following researchers for more information about other lawsuits pending against University of Phoenix and Apollo Group: Mike Starr (202) 232-4311, mstarr at corpinfoserve.com or Oliver Pritchard (917) 592-6983
-->NEW 12-25-06! The Apollo Fraud and Ethics Violation Hotline is now available! Check our news page.
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NEW 10-18-07! UOPSucks.com exposes ANOTHER unqualified facilitator! Click Here!
NEW 10-12-07! New blog entry about the "You Get Out Of It What You Put Into It Fallacy! Click Here!
NEW 9-30-07! UOP Proves How Cold Hearted They Can Be! Think UOP Will Have Any Sympathy For You If Something Bad Happens? Click Here!
NEW 8-30-07! EEOC Settles Claim with University of Phoenix! Click Here!
NEW 6-14-07! New Employee Forum! Visitors may post in either forum; however, the new employee forum is specifically aimed toward employee complaints and communication amongst employees.Click Here!
NEW 4-1-07! New page for shocking emails from UOP!
NEW 2-24-07! UOP issued an internal response to its employees for them to discuss the NY Times article with students and prospects. We cut through the propaganda and put things into proper perspective. Click Here!
NEW 2-14-07! CALL TO ACTION! UOP has started a letter writing campaign to refute the charges in the NY Times article. Here's what you can do to help oppose this action!
NEW 2-11-07! Sam Dillon of the The New York Times has written a great article which does a fantastic job of summarizing many of UOP's educational quality problems.
NEW 2-11-07! New Forum Quotes page featuring some of the most interesting and revealing commentary about UOP from the user forum!
NEW 1-16-07! New FAQ page and website graphics!
NEW 12-4-06! Arizona Republic Reports Intel Drops UOP from Tuition Program! Check our news page.
NEW 12-3-06! UOP Internal Memos! Intel drops UOP from tuition reimbursement program! State of Tennessee restricts UOP Nursing program! Check our internal memos page.
NEW 11-6-06! Apollo Group Lawsuit alleging securities fraud announced! Check our news page.
NEW 9-28-06! New UOP Lawsuit alleging discrimination announced! Check our news page.
NEW 9-27-06! New website BLOG! Those who run this website have created a blog with important bits of information, news, and commentary. Be sure to check it out!
NEW 9-5-06! The AP reports that the UOP lawsuit regarding defrauding the US Government of hundreds of millions of dollars is revived! Check our news page.
NEW 1-26-06! Something happened to the previous User Forum so we had to start over. Sorry guys! Please check it out and post your comments and experiences!
NEW 9-14-04! The Arizona Republic reports that UOP agrees to pay $9.8M to settle charges of illegal and unlawful recruiting tactics! Check our news page.
NEW 6-18-04! The Arizona Republic reports that UOP settles a lawsuit for $2M to employees who were not being paid for their overtime! Check our news page.
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The major complaints with the University of Phoenix are as follows:
Lack of Professional Accreditation for Most Degrees
"Boiler Room" Recruiting Practices
Use of Spam to Recruit
Misrepresentations and False Guarantees by Recruiters, Counselors, and Financial Aid
Poor Customer Service
Poor Quality of Instruction
Poor Technology Infrastructure
Poor Quality of Classmates
Financial Aid Carelessness
General Lack of Respect for the Customer (Student)
Education Does Not Meet Federal Guidelines
Abysmal Graduation Rates
Accreditation: When you ask UOP if they are accredited they will respond that they are regionally accredited.
UOP relies on the fact that most people do not understand accreditation or how it works.
University of Phoenix has regional accreditation but they do not have top rated professional accreditation for many of their majors... in particular the ever popular MBA.
When looking for an MBA program, make sure it is accredited by the AACSB.
Check to see if your school is accredited by the AACSB at http://www.aacsb.edu/General/InstLists.asp?lid=2. For more info refer to http://www.onlineuc.net/warning.html .
Recruiting Practices: Working at the UOP recruiting center is like the movie Boiler Room. Recruiters have high goals and are rewarded by how many students they enroll. As such, they use high pressure sales tactics and do anything to get you to enroll. As such, turnover is very high at UOP. Check out how they operate.
Spam: If you've had an email address for the past few years, chances are University of Phoenix has spammed you. Do you really want to patronize any company that uses spam to advertise? How legitimate is a university that uses spam to advertise?
Misrepresentations and False Guarantees: Recruiters and Counselors have been known to make false promises and guarantees to get you to enroll and stay enrolled and they may hide or downplay consequences. They may represent that credits will transfer into UOP, transfer from UOP to another school, that you can start and stop the program at any time, etc. Be careful! Many students have been burned by false representations about financial aid and end up with ruined credit.
Poor Customer Service: Because of the high turnover rates and because of how poorly University of Phoenix treats its employees, it is hard to find someone competent to resolve your problems if you have one. Often, the employees are overworked and unable to give you the time needed to help you properly. Failure to return phone calls, inability to reach supervisors and higher level managers, and the incompetence or powerlessness of the lower level staff will frustrate you to no end.
Poor Quality of Instruction: While there are a few great instructors at University of Phoenix, most are mediocre business people who have no business in a classroom and are there simply to supplement their income. Most will give you an A or B for showing up and turning in all the work. Few instructors care enough to read submitted work carefully for proper grading. Those that do take the time to grade carefully care more about whether or not the formatting and appearance of your report meets guidelines rather than the quality of the content. When you're paying over $1000 per class, you should expect an education worthy of the price you're paying!
Poor Technology Infrastructure: UOP has been in the online education business for several years now. For all of the money that you're paying, you would expect UOP to have adequate bandwidth and server resources to handle the loads, but they never seem to have enough. You're paying thousands of dollars per class - can't they at least get enough servers and bandwidth?
Poor Quality of Classmates: With UOP's learning model, at least half of your instruction comes from interaction with your peers. The biggest problem with this concept is that there is no screening of who your peers are (i.e., no admissions test) and your peers don't know much more than you do (that's why you're all taking the class to begin with). A great deal of your course work is group work, and getting stuck with a bunch of idiots will ruin your educational experience. Additionally, chances are great that potential employers have hired other graduates from UOP that have been less than desirable, and that bad experience has now diminished the reputation of the UOP degree for that employer.
Financial Aid Carelessness: We get a TON of email from people whose financial lives have been ruined by the misrepresentations of the financial aid and counselors at UOP. When you owe UOP money, it is impossible to get things straightened out because you can never get the right person on the phone. If you plan on using financial aid, make sure that you are approved and everything is setup and confirmed BEFORE you start classes. Make sure you get all representations in writing. Realize that if you stop classes or change classes your financial aid is likely to get cancelled or screwed up and YOU will end up paying the bill. UOP is relentless in debt collections, and they do not like to straighten things out even if they are to blame.
General Lack of Respect for the Customer: Once University of Phoenix has you enrolled, they could care less about keeping you happy. They DO NOT guarantee customer satisfaction. In some cases they will allow you to re-take classes for free, but who would ever want to spend the time to do that? UOP's financial aid department does not return phone calls and counselors and help become hard to get a hold of once you have a problem.
Education Does Not Meet Federal Guidelines: In order for schools to qualify for financial aid, degree programs must meet certain requirements, one of which is a minimum number of hours of class time. UOP meets these requirements by requiring half of the total required time to consist of independent group study. While there may be a few legitimate study groups out there, most students can vouch for the fact that they rarely meet outside of class for the required time.
Group study records, if any are necessary, are often falsified. The educational value of group study time is also highly questionable. This applies even moreso if your study group is comprised of incompetents.
Abysmal Graduation Rates: UOP's graduation rates are terrible! As low as 2% for the West Florida campus, and averaging only 16%! You can research them here. A University with graduation rates this low definitely has a problem!
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Contact David "Yazz" Allen directly via email at YazzAllen at Yahoo.Com, mail to 644 Shrewsbury Commons Ave., #239, Shrewsbury PA USA 17361...
See my movie actor photos and recent credits by visiting WWW.IMDb.Com and inputting "Yazz Allen" in home page search box, then going to my home page for photos. On photo page, hit IMDb RESUME box/icon for recent credits/ resume details. Also WWW.SAG.Org Yazz Allen "IActor" file. Also check WWW.CastingNetworks.Com and/or WWW.NYCasting.Com (you need to have "membership status" to gain access to these last two).
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