Dear Commons Community,

Dean Johnston at Hunter College passed along a piece that appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education.  In return for a  $1.5 million gift from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation to Florida State University,  an advisory committee appointed by the foundation gets to screen and sign off on any hires for a program promoting “political economy and free enterprise” and can withdraw the foundation’s financial support if the committee is unhappy with how those new employees perform, according to an article in the St. Petersburg Times.  Opponents  argue that the deal undermines academic freedom, however, the dean of the College of Social Sciences defended the arrangement , saying it would have been “irresponsible” not to accept the donation.

Hello Free Enterprise!  Good-Bye Academic Freedom!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The NY Times editorial today calls for the US Congress to do more to regulate the for-profit higher education industry.  The US  Justice Department took the unusual step of joining a lawsuit brought by former employees of the Education Management Corporation, one of the largest for-profit college companies in the country. The employees charged that the company knowingly defrauded the government by illegally paying recruiters based on the number of students they enroll. The court papers describe a “boiler room” atmosphere in which recruiters enrolled students who stood no chance of graduating and saddled them with debt they were unlikely to be able to pay off. They say the academic requirements laid out in Education Management’s advertisements were a sham and that the company accepted all students who completed applications and submitted 150-word essays.   The editorial concludes that instead of protecting the industry, lawmakers should be looking out for constituents who have been ripped off by unscrupulous schools and for the taxpayers who foot the bills for both student aid and loan defaults.

Tony