Azaliah buys Eastern American, then wakes up

Thing one:
Eastern American University has long been a poster child for how absurdly lenient the licensing process is in New Mexico. (Sorry, Neil.)

Thing two:
Azaliah College of South Africa was just accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council.

Thing three:
The Eastern website (www.eau.edu) is now announcing that the school has been purchased by "Azaliah University."

I asked Mike Lambert, head of DETC, what's up. He has replied that Azailiah had been looking for a geographic HQ in the USA [and]
recently teamed up with Tom Henry, who formerly was the Director of the Wyoming Community College system...."

Lambert reports that Azaliah did indeed purchase Eastern, "but then quickly
realized it for what it was. Essentially, they were simply looking for a site and a state license. Realizing what they acquired, they immediately ceased all new enrollments (it has but a few students) and are doing the honorable thing and teaching out the remaining students.

Lambert reports that Azaliah/New Mexico will have an all new faculty and curriculum (let's monitor this, folks), and will have its own evaluation by DETC, and that no students will be enrolled until this process is done.

So as I understand it, Azaliah purchased the dreadful Eastern American U solely to get a US-licensed operation -- and this under the advice of a man from Wyoming, a state where Azailiah could have gotten a license to operate in about 3 minutes.

Maybe there's a nifty secret business plan at work here: buy bad schools and close them down, just as the various land trust groups buy property to keep it out of the hands of developers. If some South African tycoon is already doing this, he/she should have a field day at South Dakota's 'going out of business' sale.

Finally, they ought to get their name act together. DETC has accreditd Azaliah College while the annoucement says that Eastern American was acquired by Azaliah University.

John Bear

 

A quick check of a polar projection map of the world might shed light onto their strategy. If they next purchase Greenwich they can lay claim to the nifty slogan, "The sun never sets on Azaliah."

Mark A. Sykes