The Arizona Republic
Sept. 27, 2006 05:07 PM
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
has sued the University of Phoenix, alleging religious discrimination against
non-Mormon enrollment counselors.
The federal lawsuit, announced a day
after the country's largest private university signed on as the naming sponsor
of the Arizona Cardinals stadium, says the company treated employees who were
not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints less favorably
when it came to sharing leads on new students, tuition waivers and
reprimands.
The school, owned by publicly traded Apollo Group Inc., has
4,400 enrollment counselors, including 2,600 in Phoenix.
"We have
found a pattern of practice at this very large company of preferring LDS workers
over non-LDS workers," said Mary Jo O'Neill, regional attorney for the watchdog
agency. It filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.Apollo
spokesman Joe Cockrell said the company hasn't seen the lawsuit but in a
statement he emphasized that the 15,000-employee company has "always been guided
by equal opportunity and respect for others.""We maintain a strict
anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy and take a zero-tolerance
stance on these issues," the statement said.
The University
of Phoenix and Apollo have been dogged by murmurs of Mormon influence for years.
Apollo's longtime president and chief executive officer, Todd Nelson, was active
in the church. He left the company unexpectedly in January.New president Brian
Mueller is not Mormon, nor is Apollo founder and chairman John Sperling.
O'Neill said the UOP case reflects a broader trend the agency is seeing
of "intolerance in the workplace for people of other religions."
Last
year, the agency settled two cases alleging discrimination against non-Mormon
employees at Desert Schools Federal Credit Union and the Fairmont Scottsdale
Princess. Overall, it currently has several religious discrimination lawsuits in
litigation, she said.
"It's not OK for employers to prefer a group of
people because of their religion or to discriminate or adversely impact them in
any way in their job because they don't belong to a certain religion," she said.
"That's what you have in this case."
Katherine Kruse, an EEOC trial
attorney in Phoenix, said the agency's investigation revealed "LDS favoritism in
both initial assessment of leads and redistribution of leads."
The
University of Phoenix recruits students through Internet advertising and other
sources, and those leads are funneled to enrollment counselors working at call
centers.
Former enrollment counselor Bob Lein, who filed a complaint with
the EEOC in 2003 and is named in the lawsuit, said Mormon managers on his team
at the University of Phoenix Online gave the best leads or extra leads and
student registrations to "their Mormon friends on the team."
"They would
get more enrollments, they'd get good reviews and some of them got promoted out
of it," he said. "They took care of them."
Lein, who calls himself a
non-denominational Christian, said his enrollment numbers fell, so he was
reprimanded and ultimately fired two years ago. The EEOC lawsuit also says he
was terminated in retaliation for complaining about discrimination.
One
of the former workers named in the lawsuit was initially denied tuition waivers
the company offers as a job perk.
The lawsuit seeks relief on behalf of
Lein, three other named individuals and an undetermined number of other affected
employees and former employees.
The EEOC is seeking back pay, damages
for emotional distress and punitive damages. No court date has been
set.
Fraud Suit V. Apollo Group Unit Revived
Tuesday September 5, 5:38 pm ET
Court Revives Whistleblower Suit Versus Apollo Group Unit
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) -- A federal appeals court in San Francisco Tuesday revived a lawsuit that claims Apollo Group Inc.'s University of Phoenix defrauded the federal government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a ruling that dismissed a whistleblower lawsuit started by two former enrollment counselors at the university, Mary Hendow and Julie Albertson. The two claim the University of Phoenix falsely certifies to the U.S. Department of Education that it does not pay incentive compensation based on how many students counselors can sign up. A spokesman for the school could not immediately be reached for comment on the ruling, which allows the lawsuit to move to the next stage. To get certain federal subsidies, schools are supposed to avoid paying commissions, bonuses or other incentives to recruiters who sign up the most students. The incentive compensation ban is supposed to help keep the government from picking up the tab for poorly qualified students who will not be able to repay student loans. Some loans come directly from the Department of Education. Other student loans come from private lenders, but are federally insured. Hendow and Albertson sued in the name of the government, alleging the University of Phoenix does not comply with the ban, but collects federal subsidies anyway. The case was dismissed at the pretrial stage in 2004, but the U.S. Department of Justice joined in the effort to get it reinstated on appeal.Student-recruitment tactics blasted by feds
Univ. of Phoenix audit leads to $9.8 mil fine
Dawn Gilbertson
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 14, 2004 12:00 AM
In a 45-page report obtained by The Arizona Republic, the U.S. Department of Education describes corporate culture overly focused on boosting enrollment. The review, based on site visits and interviews with more than 60 employees and former employees, led to the largest settlement of its kind last week. The Phoenix-based university agreed to pay $9.8 million without admitting any wrongdoing. The report did not address the University of Phoenix's educational quality.
Todd Nelson, chairman and chief executive officer of University of Phoenix parent Apollo Group Inc., called the critical portrait of the school's recruiting practices "very, very unfair" and inaccurate.
"That's not how we do it," he said.
The Program Review Report details several examples of compensation and sales practices the department says range from illegal to unethical to aggressive. Federal law governing financial aid prohibits basing college recruiters' pay on enrollment.
The allegation of hard-sell tactics contrasts with the image the University of Phoenix has cultivated of non-stop demand from working adults who want to better their careers with their employers usually picking up the tuition.
In the report, enrollment counselors interviewed by regulators told of a glassed-in isolation room, called the Red Room, where underperformers were put on display to work the phones under intense management supervision.
A group of San Jose recruiters recalled being told heads would be on a chopping block if its numbers didn't come up; another recruiter said her manager told her she couldn't afford time away from the phone to go to New York for her grandmother's funeral.
Telemarketing and sales are pressure-cooker jobs no matter what the field, but the rules are different when education is being pitched and taxpayer funds are involved. The Department of Education oversees federal financial-aid programs and has strict rules against paying recruiters based on the number of students they enroll. The regulations are in place to protect prospective students from being pressured and taxpayers from potential defaults on student loans. About 60 percent of the school's tuition revenue comes from financial aid.
Regulators said they found several violations of this law at the University of Phoenix as evidenced by the focus on enrollment numbers at the expense of more qualitative job measures. The report ordered changes. The school received the report in February and responded to it before settling.
The Department of Education said the university was in violation because it:
• "Hires its recruiters with the promise of lucrative compensation for success in securing enrollments."
• "Maintains a recruiter evaluation and salary system that provides incentive payments based both directly and indirectly on success in securing enrollments."
• "Provides substantial incentives to its staff to recruit unqualified students and students who cannot benefit from the training offered."
• "Systematically and intentionally operates in a duplicitous manner so as to violate the department's prohibition against incentive compensation while evading detection."
The settlement resolved all issues in the report.
Broad scope
Nelson said the report, which covers September 1998 through the
end of February, was based mainly on interviews with a small group of
disgruntled employees and former employees, some involved in a lawsuit
filed last year against the company and since dismissed. The government
says it interviewed more than 60 people. Nelson says the university has
about 5,000 enrollment counselors, 3,000 of them in Phoenix.He said that outside auditors the company hired to review its compensation plans found no violations of the law and that interviews it conducted with employees didn't turn up the problems cited in the report.
The company did change its recruiter compensation plan in June to make it clearer for regulators, Nelson said.
He said the fact that the government settled the probe speaks for itself. "If we were guilty of everything being said in that report, there's no way they'd be willing to reach a settlement or no way they'd be willing to sign a settlement agreement that says there is no admission of guilt," he said.
Nelson suggested the department overstepped its bounds with the scope of its report.
"It talks about things that really have nothing to do with what the (recruiter compensation) law is," he said, adding that it is not illegal, for example, to fire someone for not enrolling enough students.
Susan Aspey, spokeswoman for the Education Department, said it stands by the report: "We are both firm and fair in our administration of the law, and we act in the best interests of the students and taxpayers. This is the largest fine the department has ever imposed on a school."
Industry scrutiny
The critical report and settlement come amid intense regulatory
scrutiny on the for-profit education industry, which has enjoyed
soaring growth and rich success on Wall Street. Apollo's stock alone is
up 11,000 percent in the past decade. A couple of Apollo's competitors are reportedly under federal investigation involving financial-aid fraud, and their stocks have sunk.
Apollo has remained the star of the industry, especially in Wall Street's eyes, but a few warts have emerged this year. This summer, the University of Phoenix settled two cases with the U.S. Department of Labor over unpaid overtime for approximately $6 million.
Last week, in addition to the $9.8 million settlement for the University of Phoenix, it agreed to pay $4.4 million to settle a long-running audit of its small Institute for Professional Development.
Company executives and Wall Street analysts hailed last week's settlements as removing a cloud hanging over Apollo. Details of the report were not public at the time.
Nelson referred to the negative tone of the report in a conference call with analysts and investors the day the settlement was announced but gave no hint of its harshness.
Asked by an analyst what wrongdoing the Department of Education had found in its review, Nelson said the school's recruiter pay plan wasn't out of compliance; what was flawed was how the school administered it. He said the new compensation plan, which was planned before the government review, resolved those issues.
Misleading practices
The report says school officials took steps to deceive or thwart
regulators during the review, which included on-site visits in Arizona
and California a year ago.It says some managers in northern California told certain recruiters with a reputation for being outspoken to take leave or be out of the office during the review. Others told of posted materials ranking employees by enrollment performance coming down in advance of the visit. In one case, a recruiter saved a computer spreadsheet that had been displayed before the visit and showed it to regulators. In another, Monopoly money used in a contest to drum up applications was taken off a bulletin board, the report says.
Overall, some employees interviewed said that an elaborate pay matrix was about "smoke and mirrors" and that the only thing that counted was enrollments.
Rick Knight, 49, of Ahwatukee, left the University of Phoenix last year after about two years as an enrollment counselor. He recalls constant threats about keeping the numbers up. He said he was a star performer in the beginning, receiving a $21,000 raise after eight months for enrolling 89 students in the period. But as the school added hundreds of recruiters, there were too few leads to go around.
Nelson said the school has more leads now than it ever has.
Knight was not among the employees interviewed for the program review, but an overtime claim he filed was among those that launched the Department of Labor investigation.
In late 2002, Knight, who has spent much of his career in sales, said he was sent to the Red Room for six weeks, a process he calls humiliating. He says he quit shortly thereafter.
"I have never had a negative review written up about me in my entire employment until I went there," he said.
Dealing in Diplomas
For the University of Phoenix,
College is a Big Business - and Getting Bigger
01:36 PM CST on Saturday, February 28, 2004
PHOENIX – Critics dub the University of Phoenix "McUniversity" and "Drive
Thru-U." But from its base in this sprawling desert metropolis, the nation's
largest private university is shrugging off the nicknames and expanding its
reach. Its mission: to turn quality higher education into a lucrative business.
The university's parent company, the Apollo Group, boasts a market
capitalization larger than Southwest Airlines'. Profits have multiplied
fiftyfold over the last decade. And the meteoric rise in the company's stock
price has propelled Apollo founder John Sperling to billionaire status. Now the champion of education for working adults is training its sights on
traditional college students. It plans to serve that market by opening Axia
College in Phoenix during the next few months. "The good news is that because of responsible management, we can accomplish
both" quality education and profits, says Todd Nelson, Apollo's chief executive.
Over the last 28 years, the University of Phoenix has built up a moneymaking
machine that stretches from cyberspace to campuses and learning centers in 29
states, including Texas. The key to its business model: keeping costs down while generating new
sources of revenue. Fueling all of this is an aggressive marketing campaign,
student financial support from employers and the federal government, and a
network of lobbyists. But in its quest for higher profits, some of Phoenix's practices have come
under government scrutiny. Two employees have sued the school for billions of
dollars, alleging that the university pays enrollment counselors based on the
number of students they sign up. And not everyone agrees that the university can
serve Wall Street's needs without compromising academic quality. "One cannot serve two masters," says James Samels, president of the Education
Alliance, a consulting firm in Framingham, Mass. "They've got investors, and
they have a different mission." Investors have much to cheer about. Profits totaled $247 million in the
fiscal year ended Aug. 31, skyrocketing from $4.9 million in 1994 when Apollo
went public. The company's total expenses as a percentage of revenue have been
steadily dropping. With no debt and a $564 million cash cushion, Apollo is positioning the
University of Phoenix to become an even bigger force in the $280 billion higher
education market. As enrollment expands, so will its influence on everything
from teaching methods to distributing student loans, experts say. Already,
Apollo's $13-plus billion market capitalization far exceeds the endowments of
nearly every private college except Harvard University. "There's really nothing that limits their expansion," says David Breneman,
dean of the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education. "They will go
wherever there's money to be made." With more than 186,000 students in 91 countries, the university is on the
verge of winning a license to operate in New York state. And in Texas, it's
close to gaining regulators' permission to expand beyond its 5,000 students in
Dallas and Houston into Austin and San Antonio. Phoenix gears its classes toward working adults, a growing market that
schools have long ignored. Gone are the dormitories, student unions, athletic
facilities, health service centers and other costly frills. Classrooms are in
rented office space. And the only library Phoenix maintains is online . But the biggest cost savings come from its faculty. Most of Phoenix's
instructors hold full-time jobs and only teach nights and weekends. Phoenix pays
professors $1,000 to $1,500 on average for a five- or six-week class. Professors don't get tenure, but they also don't have to design their own
courses. That's done for them by groups of Phoenix faculty members who develop
the school's curriculum, then roll it out to instructors across the university.
The process ensures that a business major in Atlanta learns the same thing as
one in Chicago. In addition, faculty members teach 20 to 24 hours a course instead of the
typical 40 because Phoenix students spend many hours on group projects without
faculty supervision. These hours and the ready-made curriculum enable the
university to find a steady supply of instructors at a lower rate of pay. "It produces a labor supply for them that they can get at a pretty good
price," the University of Virginia's Mr. Breneman says. "If the typical class enrolls 20 students at $800 tuition each, revenue
equals $16,000. If the faculty member is paid $1,600 to $2,000, that leaves at
least $14,000 to cover all other costs plus profit. So long as demand remains
strong, UOP is a veritable money machine," he writes in his upcoming book on
for-profit schools. The university has also centralized accounting, human resources and student
services functions. That enables Phoenix to break even in new markets in less
than a year on average. "A big part of why for-profit education can be successful is economies of
scale," says Sean Gallagher, an analyst at Eduventures Inc. in Boston. But generating revenue is every bit as important as containing costs. The
more students Phoenix enrolls, the more money it makes. Over the years, Phoenix has mastered the art of getting students in the door.
In 2002, it spent $32.7 million on advertising for both its online and campus
programs, more than any other school except fellow for-profit competitor DeVry
University, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR. But the sales pitch doesn't end there. Phoenix excels at helping students who
call or visit one of its campuses for the first time, says Robert Tucker, a
former Phoenix senior vice president who is now an executive vice president at
Cardean University, an online school. Enrollment counselors help potential students overcome obstacles and follow
up with e-mails outlining when courses start and what financial aid is
available. "You are just so relieved that someone has put to rest all of these little
nagging problems that you are not going to search anywhere else," Mr. Tucker
says. To attract students and maximize revenue, the university offers a growing
array of year-round bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs in popular
fields such as business, health care, education and information technology. You
won't find geology or political science majors at this school. And almost anyone can get in. To qualify for its bachelor's degree program,
students must be at least 21 years old, employed and have a high school diploma
or GED. Once the students are in the door, the university earns money a second way.
It gives students the option of buying instructional materials online instead of
purchasing textbooks from a bookstore. Mr. Nelson, Apollo's CEO, calls the materials, which are known as rEsource,
superior to textbooks because they include simulations, training courses and
other study aids. The bulk of Phoenix's students will be using rEsource by the
end of March, he says. At a price tag of about $60 a student per course, rEsource is expected to
generate thousands of additional dollars once its development costs have been
paid off. "It's a beautiful, beautiful thing," says Mark DeFusco, CEO of Vatterott
College in St. Louis and a former Apollo vice president. "rEsource is pure
bottom line. Publishers should be scared." Still, the bulk of the university's revenue comes from tuition. Phoenix's
business model relies heavily on the federal government and the corporations
that fund the students' education. The school lacks an endowment and doesn't
receive government appropriations or charitable gifts. Phoenix isn't cheap. It prices its courses in the middle of the market –
higher than most public schools but lower than many private ones. Annual tuition
increases are about 5 percent for campus-based classes and about 4 percent for
its online program. Many students say they couldn't afford to attend without tuition assistance.
Take Tim Syring, a 43-year-old computer systems analyst in Dayton, Ohio. His
employer is picking up the tab for the master's degree that he plans to earn
from Phoenix Online this spring. "Had I had to pay for it, I don't think I could afford graduate school at
this time," says Mr. Syring, referring to the $1,620 in tuition for the course
he is taking. Half of Phoenix's students receive tuition assistance from their employers.
And the university derives 62 percent of its net revenue from students who
receive help from the federal government's Title IV student financial aid
programs. Phoenix is the largest recipient of these federal funds. But in the last five years, Phoenix and Apollo have come under scrutiny over
their compliance with rules regarding these funds. In March 2000, Apollo agreed to pay $6 million to settle charges stemming
from a U.S. Department of Education audit. The audit found Phoenix did not meet
conditions for including study group meetings as instructional hours, erred in
including cost-of-living expenses for some students when determining financial
need and committed other violations. Phoenix disagreed with the audit findings – which sought the return of nearly
$55 million in federal loans and grants – but said it agreed to the settlement
to avoid a costly appeals battle. The settlement came less than a year after the Department of Education
ordered Phoenix to pay $650,000 because it didn't refund loans and grants in a
timely manner when students receiving federal financial aid dropped out. The fine and settlement didn't end the school's legal troubles. Today,
Phoenix faces a lawsuit that could cost it billions. Last year, Mary Hendow and Julie Albertson, two of
Phoenix's enrollment counselors in Northern California, filed a qui tam
whistleblower lawsuit against the university, alleging that it defrauded the
U.S. government out of more than $3 billion over six years. The two women accuse Phoenix of basing the pay of enrollment counselors on
the number of students they sign up. In 1992, the government banned incentive
compensative for college recruiters to stop for-profit schools from signing up
unqualified students simply to get federal aid money. The lawsuit alleges that Phoenix alters documents, maintains fake files and
uses code terms to deceive the U.S. Department of Education about its
compensation practices. "It's all about the numbers," one top executive is alleged to have said. "It
will always be about the numbers. But we need to show the Department of
Education what they want to see." Apollo has denied the allegations, and the federal government opted not to
join the lawsuit. Phoenix has filed a motion to dismiss the case. A federal
judge in Sacramento, Calif., is expected to rule on the motion any day. Mr. Nelson says money is the motivation for the lawsuit. Under a qui tam
action, whistleblowers normally earn 15 percent to 25 percent of whatever
money the government recovers to compensate them for their efforts and risks.
Ms. Hendow and Ms. Albertson declined to comment because they still work for
the university. But Daniel Bartley, one of their lawyers, said in a release:
"Hendow and Albertson did not file this lawsuit because of the monetary
recovery. This lawsuit was never about the money for them. ... They filed
because the University of Phoenix was requiring them to break the law to do
their job." Mr. Bartley says the Department of Education is conducting an investigation
into Phoenix's compensation practices. The department will only say that it is
conducting a program review, an evaluation it performs on institutions that
receive federal higher education funds. Mr. Nelson confirmed the program review
but says there is no investigation. Phoenix's reliance on government financial aid programs has also led to
criticism that it and other for-profit schools are gobbling up a growing share
of this aid with little public accountability. Phoenix dismisses this
accusation. "There shouldn't be a distinction between for-profit and non-profit
education," says Mr. Nelson, citing Phoenix's high graduation rate and low
default rate on student loans. But Phoenix isn't run like a traditional nonprofit school. The amount of pay
and other compensation that Apollo's top executives take home depends on whether
they meet earnings goals set at the beginning of each fiscal year. Phoenix's success has led to enormous rewards for Mr. Nelson, who received a
bonus of nearly $4 million on top of his $500,000 salary last year. In
comparison, Harvard president Lawrence Summers earned about $450,110 in 2002.
To boost revenues, the university is taking aim at new markets. It wants to expand its reach beyond major metropolitan areas with a product
called FlexNet. Students in Wichita, Kan., Boise, Idaho, and other cities too
small to support a campus can take the first and last weeks of a course in a
classroom and do the rest online. FlexNet has attracted 7,000 students even as it reduces the amount of
classroom space the university needs to lease. And now Apollo is gearing up Axia College for Generation Y. More than a
year's worth of educational research went into the making of this school, which
will be a part of Apollo-owned Western International University in Phoenix. Although most of Phoenix's students are between the ages of 26 and 45, Axia
is geared toward working adults ages 18 to 23. Phoenix came up with the concept
after receiving thousands of calls from people too young to enroll in its
classes, Mr. Nelson says. If it succeeds, watch for the school to spread across the country just like
the University of Phoenix has. But for now, Apollo is taking a wait-and-see
approach. "If by the end of the year we have 90 or 100 students, I'll be surprised,"
Mr. Nelson says. "If it goes well and there's a demand for it, then obviously in
later years it will grow to be larger." Apollo has the resources to see that Axia succeeds. Its army of lobbyists monitor state legislation for proposed laws that could
have a negative effect on Phoenix, says Laura Palmer Noone, the university's
president. And they've proved adept at altering Department of Education rules
for the university's benefit. Thanks to their efforts, a Phoenix course no longer needs to provide 12 hours
of instruction a week for its students to receive federal financial aid. One day
of instruction or examination per week will do, but under the new rule a "day"
isn't clearly defined. Yet for all its political prowess, Phoenix stirs up plenty of debate. Student
opinions of the school run the gamut from delight to disgust. "It definitely helped me refine my skills," says Jake Rich, who graduated
from Phoenix Online with a bachelor's degree in 2003. "I'm happy I went there."
But the 28-year-old network administrator in Murrieta, Calif., says he
wouldn't recommend the school to others because there are less expensive online
courses available at public universities. "University of Phoenix is very expensive," he says. Others are less enchanted. In Dallas, Richard Quiroga, 39, dropped out of his fifth Phoenix class last
year after he couldn't find a study group needed for his communication skills
course. So far, the school has called Mr. Quiroga only to get him to pay his bill for
the course he dropped. The stay-at-home father has yet to hear from any
counselors who could help him find a way to get the bachelor's degree he wants.
"They don't really care," he says. Phoenix insists it doesn't cut corners to make a profit. Academic budgets are
created from the ground up, not dictated from the top down, Mr. Nelson says. And
the academic and business sides have an equal voice in running the school, Ms.
Noone adds. But what happens when academic and business interests clash? Academics win,
Mr. Nelson says. "Our interest is the long-term financial and academic health of this
company," he says. "And how do you do that? You do that by not shortchanging
what needs to be done out at the campuses."
AUDIT
FINDS UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX LOAN IMPROPRIETY
New York Times (May 17, 2000)
The University of Phoenix, a leader in providing higher education to adults, has improperly allowed students to obtain millions of dollars in federal loans and grants, the inspector general for the Department of Education has found.
The government's review concluded that students had obtained more than $50.6 million in federal loans and $4 million in Pell Grants in excess of the amounts they were entitled to receive. The financial aid is granted to students to help with tuition and other expenses. The audit recommended that the university pay back the money.
The parent company of the university, the Apollo Group of Phoenix, disputed the auditors' findings in documents released with the report March 31. But a spokeswoman with the Department of Education said that the company had agreed to a $6 million settlement at the time of the report.
From October 1995 through September 1997, the university, which is run as a for-profit business, distributed $339 million in federal loans and nearly $9 million in Pell Grants, awards that help low-income families pay for college. When the report was issued, Todd S. Nelson, the president of the Apollo Group, said in a statement, ''There is no basis either in statute or regulation for this assessment.''
Government auditors found that the school did not provide its students enough instructional time to qualify for much of the federalloans and grants. The university also included cost-of-living expenses inappropriately when determining financial need forstudents enrolled in correspondence courses, the review found.
The university measures its educational programs in credit hours,but does not use a semester, trimester or quarter system.
To receive federal funds, institutions that do not follow thestandard approach must provide 12 hours of regularly scheduledinstruction, examinations or preparation for examinations during eachweek of instructional time. This regulation requires the equivalentof at least 360 instructional hours per academic year.
The inspector general found that the university's academic year provided only 180 instructional hours, with the university relying primarily on student study groups instead of classroom time.
As a response to these findings, the University changed the study group program. Students are expect to meet for 4 hours per week to work on assignments. They must log all of their activities. UOP appears to have the government fooled. Anyone with common sense knows that only the most dedicated groups of students will get together for all 4 hours and/or make good constructive use of this time. How long do you think it takes the students to figure out how to fake the study logs? Does anyone really believe that a group of students hanging out for 4 hours is a substitute for 4 hours of classroom time?
Apollo Group to pay $2 million in OT
Univ. of Phoenix workers denied pay
Craig Harris
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 18, 2004 12:00 AM
"Today's action and our new overtime security rules reflect our commitment to protecting overtime rights," Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao said in a statement. "These employees weren't receiving their rightful pay, and we're taking action."
The department's wage and hour division conducted the investigation, which found that online admissions department employees, including some who worked up to 60 hours per week, did not receive overtime pay. The inquiry was from Nov. 30, 2001, to May 31 of this year.
The employees were responsible for contacting prospective students by telephone and selling them the university's online degree programs, the government said.
Company records are being used to calculate the amount of back wages owed to 2,600 current and former employees.
Federal law requires that non-exempt employees who work more than 40 hours a week be paid 1.5 times their regular rate of pay.
In a statement issued by the school, Todd S. Nelson, president and chief executive officer of parent Apollo Group Inc., said, "We truly appreciate the professionalism demonstrated by Department of Labor officials in resolving this complex issue for our University of Phoenix Online employees."
Apollo said the two sides had reached an agreement regarding the exemption status of University of Phoenix Online enrollment advisers.
Apollo, a $1.3 billion company, said it had reserved up to $3 million to pay the settlement.
Are you currently a student at the UoP? An ex-student?
Do you have an experience to share on this website? Please
Email us!
University of Phoenix Sucks.com ©2000-2008 -- Last Updated March 22, 2008