Covering the business of education and training

As an alumnus of the University of Illinois, I am pleased to see that this great institution is going to take a leading position in the area of online instruction.

For about 5 years I was an adjunct instructor in the online division of a private, for-profit university headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. I taught in both synchronous and asynchronous modes. Over the years I learned the following:

> The primary goal of the school was to make money, not to educate its 27,000 students.

> The school abused its accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education by opening satellite campuses in many southeastern states which are covered by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

> The online students regularly employed the assistance of others at exam time (siblings, friends, spouses).

> The school had a central repository of only 32,000 books, or about one book per student.

> There was no residence requirement; hence, students never actually met with faculty members.

Grant Gary Jacobsen
Member, American Association of University Professors

Joe White and University of Illinois might be in hot water over the veteran scholarship scandal. There’s an interesting read at Marathon Pundit’s blog about an offer of $50K hush money made by U of I to the guy they canned to keep his mouth shut and go away quietly. First, that’s chump change for illegal activity. Second, are they stupid or just plain dumb? Third, it appears the Attorney General didn’t agree with U of I and that explains why its investigation is still going on a year later. Go read http://www.haloscan.com/comments/marathonpundit/3779337378901194631/. I just wonder how high the cover-up goes. Here is the story – it’s in a letter written to Lt. Governor Quinn’s office:

“You probably already know everything about this. I read your press announcements in support of the veteran scholarship program at U of I and know several vets who complained to your office about how they were jerked around by U of I.

Did you know U of I offered a $50,000 payoff to the guy they fired keep his mouth shut? Did you know U of I switched admissions procedures to target vets out of the program? Did you know the new Associate Dean for Exec Ed in charge of this program schemed to let civilians into the program and kick vets out? Was Lt. Gov. Quinn a part of this?

You also already know that the IVG program is available to vets that qualify and the U of I vet scholarship was based in large part on IVG. What right does U of I have to keep vets out just because IVG is not funded completely by Springfield? So to avoid paying the difference between $74,000 tuition (the highest of any IVG-participating school) and what IVG reimburses, they just come up with a scheme to keep them out in the first place. What nonsense is that? Maybe Quinn should work on legislation that prevents veterans from being discriminated against, or goes after schools like U of I that undermine the IVG program let alone break the public trust and flat out lie. Does Quinn want to be associated with that? I saw him on a video at U of I announcing the scholarship program. I have not seen him on TV condemning them for what they did.

Now that word is out that the number of vet scholarships has gone down from 35 last year to 12 this year, will you say anything? Do anything? I read an article in the Marine Corp Times by Quinn’s representative:

“They promised 110 spots," Schuller said. "We're kind of disappointed that they didn't do it all in the first year. What we're expecting is that they be done as quickly as possible, meaning in the next coming year.”

I am surprised Quinn has not gone public on this and been more outspoken. More than any other politician in Illinois, I thought Quinn could be counted on to be completely honest and on the veterans’ side. It’s time that Quinn DO something, not just put out press releases.”

This news about University of Illinois trashing veterans and changing admissions standards is very distressing. Joe White, what in the world are you thinking? This conduct is somewhere between unethical and illegal.

Why in the world would you give a job to Avijit Ghosh without going through the regular search process, a faculty committee and normal governance procedures? It looks like payback.

University of Illinois should have internal controls to take care of this sort of issue without the Attorney General getting involved.

I work for UIC Liautaud Graduate School of Business. This is a case study of what can happen when academicians and administrators do not tell the truth and try to hide something. It is about time they receive their comeuppance.

If the jarhead slur was said, even behind closed doors, the Chancellor or Board of Trustees should take firm action. Discrimination is abhorrent to academic integrity. I cannot speak about alleged jarhead slur, but I did read about another slur where an Associate Dean, Lawrence DeBrock at Urbana-Champaign, called his colleagues hookers in writing.

As a Faculty member, I can give you insight into the political and administrative issues related to the veteran scholarship problem at Urbana-Champaign.

First, there was good cause why UIC Chancellor, Sylvia Manning, became involved with U of I President Joe White on the veteran scholarship issue. It is a turf issue. Before this veterans situation occurred, the Dean for the College of Business at Urbana-Champaign, Avijit Ghosh, visited UIC and gave a talk about his plans for expansion of a part-time MBA program in Chicago at a new facility in the suburbs. There was an air of arrogance and superiority in Ghosh’s talk and a sense that Urbana-Champaign was looking forward to taking over UIC’s home base. So, it is likely that Chancellor Manning was in discussions with President White over this issue before the veterans scholarship scandal became news. I do not think Chancellor Manning has an axe to grind on the veterans issue. Whatever cover-up happened was the doing of Urbana-Champaign and U of I’s President, Joe White, who asked Chancellor Manning to get involved.

Second, never never never do graduate programs even think about changing admissions standards and procedures after the first prospective student applies. It is just not done. The fact that Urbana-Champaign did so in conjunction with state and federally supported financial aid programs should raise red flags to the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the U.S. Department of Education. I would not be surprised that the Illinois Inspector General refers its findings to an appropriate State agency with federal oversight. Even if no promise of scholarships was ever made to veterans, changing admissions standards and procedures for a group of students a few weeks before classes start is a bad idea, to say the least. Changing admissions standards to target any group of students is somewhere between stupid and illegal.

Lastly, the conflicts of interest are multi-level and provide a great case study in ethics. The relationship between Avijit Ghosh and Joseph White is deeper than you or others have reported. Both were deans of business schools. They’ve known each other for some time. Joseph White grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which is where Avijit Ghosh just interviewed for a job with Western Michigan University. The Baker-Parker executive search firm that helped President White get his job at U of I also tried to help Avijit Ghosh get a job at Western Michigan University. And finally, without a formal search process and faculty search committee, Avijit Ghosh got a $339,000 running technology and economic development for U of I after he lost out at Western Michigan University. The biggest issue for U of I is that Ghosh has no qualifications or background even remotely connected to the job requirements. Essentially, White gave Ghosh the moral equivalent of a no-bid contract.

http://www.onlineuniversities-weblog.com/50226711/university_of_illinois_global_campus_to_offer_online_degrees.php

My god this is sick stuff. University of Illinois discriminating against the veterans it promised scholarships to? What in the hell is wrong with them? Faculty and administrators are supposed to teach students accountability, personal responsibility and ethics. They are setting the opposite example.

I can honestly say I have never heard about any university intentionally changing admissions standards to target a specific group of people or trying to buy somebody’s silence with a $50,000 payoff. No wonder the Attorney General is after them. I hope the accrediting agencies and the US Department of Education goes after them too. Where are Illinois Senators Durban and Obama on this? If anyone should be defending the veterans now, Illinois’ own senators should be out in front on this.

Way to go, University of Illinois. Now you have Illinois Lt. Governor Pat Quinn after you.

I’ve read many protests about this issue at University of Illinois Lt. Governor Quinn raised this week http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=85253&src=109. Essentially U of I just changed its mind because it thought “too many jarheads” would be bad for business. This is an unfortunate case study in discrimination in higher education. With the troops coming home soon, it makes sense to confront the issue now rather than later.

Quinn is torqued because they promised 110 vet-soldier scholarships last year, used him personally to announce the program in public at a lunch in front of hundreds of people in Chicago and Champaign and then tried to cut it back to 15. I heard Quinn caught Ghosh in the act rejecting more vets a second time after Ghosh promised he’d make good on his promise. I wonder what else Quinn has on these idiots.

Of course U of I denied the jarhead slur, but I’ve seen emails from an Associate Dean Larry DeBrock calling faculty high priced hookers who would be “praised as soldiers” if they brought in enough money. The Inspector General has been investigating in Champaign for over a year. My question is why it’s taking so long.

The issue beyond the scholarships is how U of I deliberately changed admissions standards and application deadlines just for veterans, not everybody, and forged the Chicago Dean’s signature on a letter sent to vets before canning him. Basically these morons made applications deadlines shorter for veterans and active duty soldiers serving overseas by looking at the admissions database and reverse-engineering deadlines for transcripts, support letters, deposit payments and stuff like that. That’s really sick and that goes way beyond whether they promised 110, 510 or 10 scholarships.

Discrimination is discrimination. Doesn’t matter if you are white, black, male, female, liberal or conservative. I say root it out perpetrators and send them on their merry way.

Are Joe White, Avijit Ghosh and the Board of Trustees just Champaign’s version of the Howard Hunt, Donald Segretti and the Committee to Re-elect?

What a shocking reminder of the trickle-down effect of corruption, coverup and political kickbacks in our state. Call soldiers jarheads and faculty high-priced hookers. Falsify admissions records, forge signatures on letters and lie to a US Congressman and Lt. Governor about it. I wonder who won’t have a chair when the music stops after the Inspector General and Lt. Gov. Quinn finish their investigation.

It’s one thing for student to cheat. You don’t expect grown up administrators running a university to cheat. Guess a PhD doesn’t make you honest or smart. It will be very interesting to see when the Inspector General and Quinn report come out who knew about the discrimination scheme, when they knew and why they did nothing about it.