Dear Commons Community

We have reached a desirable point in our society where coming out by celebrities is nowhere near the big news story it was a decade or so ago. Along with gay marriage, there is a growing acceptance of the gay lifestyle in most of our institutions. However, yesterday’s coming out by Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Corporation has the media buzzing and rightfully so mainly because he is the first chief executive of a major, Fortune 500 corporation to do so. As reported in the New York Times:

“Tim Cook’s declaration on Thursday that “I’m proud to be gay” made him the first publicly gay chief executive of a Fortune 500 company. But Mr. Cook isn’t just any chief executive. And Apple isn’t any company. It’s one of the most profitable companies in the Fortune 500 and ranks No. 1 on the magazine’s annual ranking of the most admired companies.

As Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, put it, “He’s chief executive of the Fortune One. Something has consequences because of who does it, and this is Tim Cook and Apple. This will resonate powerfully.”

Trevor Burgess, the openly gay chief executive of C1 Financial in Florida, and one of the first publicly gay chief executives of a public company, said Tim Cook used “the metaphor of laying a brick on the ‘path towards justice.’ ” But, “This is more like 600 million bricks,” Mr. Burgess said. “He has the most influential voice in global business.”

This will resonate powerfully indeed.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

For-profit colleges with graduates unable to pay back their student loans could soon face scrutiny by the federal government.

Schools with career-oriented programs that fail to comply with the new rule announced yesterday by the U.S. Department of Education stand to lose access to federal student-aid programs.  To meet these “gainful employment” standards, a program will have to show that the estimated annual loan payment of a typical graduate does not exceed 20 percent of his or her discretionary income or 8 percent of total earnings.

The Education Department estimates that about 1,400 programs serving 840,000 students won’t pass. Ninety-nine percent of these programs are offered by for-profit schools, although affected career training programs can come from certificate programs elsewhere in higher education. As reported by the Associated Press:

“Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the department wants to make sure that programs that prey on students don’t continue abusive practices.

However, Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, calls the effort “nothing more than a bad-faith attempt to cut off access to education for millions of students who have been historically underserved by higher education.”

On Capitol Hill, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, that has aggressively investigated the industry, commends the new rule. He also said that the rule does little to stop colleges that offer poor quality programs where most of the students drop out.

Tony