If one is adventurous go to the WWW.Trump.com site and there is a listing for “Trump University” and sign up. As a former employee of the Trump organization and as a distance learner I was interested so I had signed up previously. Today I received this e-mail: “Michael, you recently registered at Trump.com to receive more information regarding Trump University. We need your feedback to help us create the world's leading business education company. This brief survey will only take a few minutes to complete. Your participation in this study is completely voluntary and all responses will be strictly confidential. Michael, thank you in advance for your participation and feedback. Please click the link below to begin the survey. http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=U23C5LLEHZBE The survey was interesting, but it seems they are still in the planning stages and are not too sure what they will be offering. It looks as they will be short (three hour) distance courses on leadership, management, real estate, etc. Maybe one of illustrious members will give them a call and help them out on their business plan as well as their academic plan! My big question is, can the business be called “Trump University” when they are only selling short, non-credentialed courses that have probably no academic bearing. It seems more similar to buying a Berlitz language course than a (for example) university extension course or executive education course. I am not really interested in subjective opinions on the ethics of having that business name; I am more interested in the legalities of it. Veritas, Michael
It's a little difficult to answer given that we know so little about the university, but if McDonald's can have Hamburger University, it seems reasonable that Trump can have Trump University. Unfortunately, in the U.S. as a general rule the words "university" and "college" are not protected language. Tom Nixon
Trump U So that means I could register the business name "Michael University" tomorrow get a business license and tax number and sell non degree executive education courses under that name with no problem? Veritas, Michael
Quite true, when I was with Intel in Arizona, their extensive staff development program was called "Intel University" and the heads of the different areas held the title "Dean". Not far from Intel was the Motorola University building, which housed a staff development program even larger than Intel's. Tony Pina Coordinator of Learning Technologies Northeastern Illinois University
Re: Trump U Actually, it depends on the state in which you operate. Some state departments of education do regulate the use of the word University, others do not. Mary A
University name is protected in some states Some state education offices (like Nevada) do protect the use of the name university. I believe (and I am not 100% certain about this) that Nevada will let you register the name but you are required to register with the dept of higher education and follow whatever rules they have. -Pat
Many employers have their training program delivery departments called university. Toyota University. I hold a few Certifications from Genesys University one of my former employers. This is common practice among many vendors.