The War on For-Profit Colleges

Laureate Education Inc., another "...seven-figure donor to the Clinton Foundation..." Imagine that. :smoker:

 

I know that I was contacted last month to participate in a research study concerning my "non-traditional doctorate" and career in higher education. In addition to completing the survey, I asked for the summary of the results. I'll post them .

I teach at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, IN, a small private liberal arts school. We are ranked #69 in USN&WR Regional Rankings. I am aware of three faculty members at my school with degrees from for-profits. I am on the tenure-track, and two are full professors. In addition, my dean is ABD at Northcentral. My former supervisor at LCO Community College is now the President of Alexandria Technical and Community College in Minnesota, and has a degree from Capella: Minnesota State Colleges and Universities - Board of Trustees Names Laura Urban President of Alexandria Technical & Community College. Another one of my former colleagues who is the Director of Financial Aid and Admissions at Northwest Indian College also has a degree from Capella: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=17848188&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=_Dfo&locale=en_US&srchid=359765831430139985611&srchindex=1&srchtotal=160&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A359765831430139985611%2CVSRPtargetId%3A17848188%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3A


Anecdotal evidence - sure. Will that for-profit degree land you a job at the R1 institution? Probably not. But, my guess is that at smaller schools and community colleges, the for-profit degree, along with relevant experience, will work just fine.

 

K. Dr. Art Tyler. Our former Vice Chancellor at HCC. He has is DM from UOP
'
http://www.ccsf.edu/PGC/Bio%20of%20Dr%20Tyler%20Jan%202014.pdf

 

Some NCU Grads:

Here's one at Methodist University.

Here's one at Barton College.

I found another at UNW-SP.

And here at Embry-Riddle (there are three there). Also, a professor at Iona College.

State schools? Here's one at SUNY Albany and Bismarck State (note also that one of the others there has an M.S. from Capella).

Trident Grads:

I found one at Northern Michigan University.

And one at Webster University.

Capella University:

Here's a Senior Lecturer at UMass-Boston. And an adjunct at Adler Graduate School.

If you want some name recognition, this gentleman is a professor at Dartmouth. Does that qualify as a "high quality liberal arts college" like yours?

I also found this professor at Eastern Michigan University, this one at Woodbury University and Brandman University, the University of Memphis, a bunch at UMUC, Mount Saint Mary's University LA, a lecturer at New York Medical College, the University of Dubuque, another three at Louisiana State University.

Do you like small, Catholic liberal arts colleges? So do I.

Here's a Capella grad from Misericordia University (College Misericordia back before I left Wilkes-Barre).

Two faculty members (one adjunct) and two staff members at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. An Associate Professor at Minot State University, one at St. Joseph's College.

In addition to faculty at UT-Austin, an Associate Professor at Albany Medical College, Washburn College, the Clemson School of Nursing.

Hardly an all-inclusive list. But I think this should give you a start.

 

Oh, and if you wanted to use my omission of UofP to make a point let me just add:

Another few faculty members at Graceland University, Medgar Evers College, Ashland University, Metropolitan College of New York, Binghamton University (a "Public Ivy").

As with the list above, you may need to do a search to get to the right person on the page, but I tried to break it up by school so as to make the identification of these individuals easier where a direct link was unavailable.

 

Oh, just for fun, I also found a professor with a doctorate from William Howard Taft University (for-profit, NA).

While I was looking at that I found two Walden Grads at East Carolina University, one is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (and a professor), and a professor at Pepperdine University, Indiana University, Montclair University, the University of Houston, the University of Hawaii, Pace University, and they let this professor at the New England College of Business and Finance also teach at Harvard Extension.

I also happened upon a professor at Marist, Seton Hall University, Monmouth University, two at Weber State, SUNY Canton and Alfred State.

All Walden grads (except as otherwise noted in this post).

 

Stassi Cramm was a classmate of mine at Capella. She's an Administrator at Graceland University. Stassi is also one of the members of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Community of Christ Church: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/stassi-cramm/1/131/97

 

Just found a few others I thought were worth mentioning:

Here, here, and here.

 

Other Northcentral University grads:

College of Health Professions – Faculty (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences)

List of Graduate Faculty Members By Department - Office of the Graduate School - Mississippi State University (Mississippi State U)

https://www.monmouth.edu/academics/psychology/faculty/covino.asp (Monmouth U)

Business Faculty | School of Business | LeTourneau University (LeTorneau U)

Dana Leland, Ph.D. | Faculty | Education | The National Hispanic University (The National Hispanic University)

Steve Firestone, Ph.D. - School of Business & Leadership - Regent University (Regent U)

https://www.fresno.edu/faculty/terence-yi (Fresno Pacific U)

To be honest, I was very surprised to see so many Northcentral University alumni with so many positions in academia and in private and public arenas. Here is the list of Northcentral distinguished alumni from the NCU website:

Northcentral University Distinguished Alumni | Northcentral University

basrsu

 

Here are a few more Capella grads in Higher Ed:

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=1716115&authType=OUT_OF_NETWORK&authToken=YDsr&locale=en_US&srchid=359765831430231149372&srchindex=1&srchtotal=3563&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A359765831430231149372%2CVSRPtargetId%3A1716115%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3A

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=5718383&authType=OPENLINK&authToken=qTAZ&locale=en_US&srchid=359765831430231219870&srchindex=6&srchtotal=3564&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A359765831430231219870%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5718383%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3A

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=32049155&authType=OUT_OF_NETWORK&authToken=8e4s&locale=en_US&srchid=359765831430231262521&srchindex=11&srchtotal=3564&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A359765831430231262521%2CVSRPtargetId%3A32049155%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3A

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=5717803&authType=OUT_OF_NETWORK&authToken=m3zT&locale=en_US&srchid=359765831430231369070&srchindex=50&srchtotal=3564&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A359765831430231369070%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5717803%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3A

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=5720305&authType=OUT_OF_NETWORK&authToken=BMf7&locale=en_US&srchid=359765831430231397337&srchindex=52&srchtotal=3564&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A359765831430231397337%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5720305%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3A

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=5723513&authType=OUT_OF_NETWORK&authToken=L3gn&locale=en_US&srchid=359765831430231419298&srchindex=53&srchtotal=3564&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A359765831430231419298%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5723513%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3A

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=6002944&authType=OUT_OF_NETWORK&authToken=sHtB&locale=en_US&srchid=359765831430231474420&srchindex=70&srchtotal=3564&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A359765831430231474420%2CVSRPtargetId%3A6002944%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3A

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=6009129&authType=OUT_OF_NETWORK&authToken=Ka4m&locale=en_US&srchid=359765831430231511287&srchindex=76&srchtotal=3563&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A359765831430231511287%2CVSRPtargetId%3A6009129%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3A

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=6389218&authType=OUT_OF_NETWORK&authToken=C1Df&locale=en_US&srchid=359765831430231575463&srchindex=91&srchtotal=3565&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A359765831430231575463%2CVSRPtargetId%3A6389218%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary%2CVSRPnm%3A

 

But hey, warguns, you're right. All of these professors have absolutely worthless degrees.

I hope that one day Dartmouth, Rutgers, Pace and all of these state schools can live up to the bar your "high quality liberal arts college" has set.

Or, perhaps, you're willing to concede that making blanket statements is just not a good idea, in general?

 

More than anything, I am questioning the judgment of a college or university that would simply "not consider" graduates of for-profit universities based solely on that fact.

Quite frankly, I am highly doubting warguns' statement re-posted here. The once-perceived stigma (if, in fact, it ever existed beyond a few here-and-there educational purists) is, for the most part, archaic. It does not take one long to see the impressive numbers of Northcentral, Capella, Walden, Trident, etc., etc., alums working in higher academia in tenured positions across the United States...actually, only minimal effort is required to pull these up.

There are some take-away points as a result of this thread. Perhaps now that is the direction we need to go into since the argument of the utility of a for-profit graduate degree has been made, and clearly, we have a winner. ; )

basrsu

 

There are a few other Northcentral alums I meant to post earlier:

Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University: https://whitman.syr.edu/Directory/ShowInfo.aspx?id=379

Mount Mercy University (VP of Enrollment): https://www.mtmercy.edu/cabinet

Northwood University (VP of Enrollment Management): Central Administration | Northwood University

Tabor College: Tammy Andrews, Ph.D. | Tabor College

Evangel University: https://www.evangel.edu/departments/business/faculty/

Eastern Oregon University: https://www.eou.edu/cobe/business/directory/gary_keller/

South Carolina State University (Director of Athletics): South Carolina State University

basrsu

 

It looks like most of those Northcentral PhD graduates have administrative positions in universities, except for the DBA graduate who appears to be working as a teaching-faculty member.

Having an in-resident masters degree from a non-profit state university got me hired as an adjunct... but I was not offered a full-time job until I completed a DBA from Northcentral University. The utility of both degrees has been handsomely rewarding, along with an excellent ROI.

 

I hear you. We are in the same boat.

Once I received my Northcentral Ed.D., I was promoted to full professor with a nice bonus. In the beginning, the masters was good enough to get my foot in the door. But the Ed.D. from Northcentral (yes, warguns, Northcentral) landed me the good stuff. : )

basrsu