"On Wednesday, new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules are set to kick in under the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Act, and they will put tighter restrictions on the ways in which for-profit colleges and their lead generator partners can make recruiting calls to past, current, and prospective students. In most cases (whenever calling from a phone that has the "capacity" to autodial), recruiters won't be able to make such calls without prior express written consent. This can include an electronic signature online, but where an online visitor is asked to check a box before proceeding, many of them simply close the browser window without sharing information.
The rules, in fact, apply to sales calls by all for-profit businesses, but for-profit colleges, many of which have relied on boiler room operators hounding people with carefully-crafted, manipulative scripts, may be hit especially hard. Indeed, the always-connected, pro-industry Wells Fargo analyst Trace Urdan warns that the new rules "are likely to impact lead flow to post-secondary schools from third-party aggregators by at least 12%, and in some cases, by as much as 50% according to our sources privy to pre-implementation testing. This seems to contrast with assertions by school companies that the effect will be either negligible or in the single-digit percentage range." Accordingly, Urdan warns that expectations for for-profit college "starts," meaning student enrollments, "could be at risk" this fall and next year. He believes that online training programs, including those at the University of Phoenix, Corinthian Colleges, and Bridgepoint Education, are in greatest peril...."....http://www.huffingtonpost.com/davidhalperin/more-trouble-for-for-prof_b_4097427.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications