I'd love to start a list of warning signs. Early 2012 was the end of the bonus, at least in my area. Late 2012 was the reduction in vacation, but you could keep what you already earned. Mid 2013 was the announcement that your December merit increase was you keeping your job. In January 2014 ED was asking for documentation. I'm too lazy to get the source, so if I remember right, the request was simply too complex to fill. In February 2014 there was a layoff. Then the announcement of the confiscation of your earned vacation. Parthenon was cancelled shortly after that. Then another round of layoffs in early May. During this whole period the balance of cash kept going lower. At first senior management suggested it was "timing issues." In other words, all the bills were paid right before the deadline, and the cash had not arrived from ED, but at the same time, senior management suggested that all financial aid is received no later than 72 hours of the request. I never did understand how it could be a timing issue when there is little, if any delay. Once there was a real "timing issue" of ED's most recent 21 day delay, it's game over. After the 21 day delay, the January 2014 information request suddenly was not so complicated. Now I have only discussed the macro signs. On a micro level there is so much more going on. What's the turnover rate at your campus? Some campuses have a turnover rate of over 100% in admissions. Is it any wonder that the admissions team is freaking clueless? This whole, "I have no idea about what's going on, I simply make sure they sign so the instructors can get the supplies they need" is absurd. Maybe if CCi had admissions representatives that had half a brain the reps could recognize that the student doesn't read above a third grade level. I guess it takes a librarian to quit and let the world know what's going on. It's not like an admissions representative could be expected to recognize that problem. And even if the admissions representative discouraged the student, or not taking the enrollment, that representatives smile would be carefully measured. Sure we cannot talk about the numbers that we talk about all day when we write you up, but we can measure your smile, but that has nothing to do with the fact that you didn't enroll a third grader. Next the classrooms are full of third graders, or as one person suggested, "the stronger students became fewer and fewer and the adjuncts were more and more micro-mangaged." I think the original author meant "micro-mangled," or that's what I believe the author should have written. Fill the classroom with a bunch of students that cannot read and micro-mangle the instructors into posting attendance when the student isn't even there. And change the grade too. CCi went from roughly 74,000 students in the fall of 2008 to 93,000 students in the fall of 2009 to about 114,000 students in the fall of 2010. BONUS PAID! But what happened in career services when you suddenly have an extra 50% to place over the two year period? Oh, these are likely some of the records that are so difficult and complicated to 'produce.' Redouble effort. Any other warning signs?
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As a former online adjunct I left when we were "encouraged" to "design a mesmerizing online experience." What a wonderful idea! If I work at Hogwarts.
Then of course, hand holding. We had to "reach out" to students who were not working in class and turn in a load of paperwork documenting how many contacts were made to students. We were evaluated on our retention rates - as if we had control of that! When complaints were made about the level of student - literacy & work ethic being the top complaints - no answers were ever given!
Where are all those PDs? What's that, you don't have any... Do I need to check your smile or dials?
Homeless shelters are illegal in my state. Bus stops fair game...but that would imply I'm working off the clock...and I get paid by the hr so no thank you. Maybe you don't understand but no one is lined up to come to Everest. No one sets goals to one day become an EC grad. Its a means to an end only. Bash all you want but YOU'RE WELCOME for all of your checks to date.
There isn't just one "admissions basher" here. Everyone who has ever taught for CCI has horror stories about the sales staff. Scavenger hunts for students at bus stops and homeless shelters, for example. .
How was someone who did not have a graduate degree get to be a college president in the first place? That's a sign that leadership lacked the necessary skills to do the job.
The admissions basher is back at it. We work with the leads we're given and do the best we can with folks either sitting on the couch watching Springer or applying for warehouse jobs. These are folks who are impressed that they 'might' make $726 a week some day if they invest in their future. The programs are outpriced for someone who makes any money as monthly payments would be too high. Plus universities offer certificate programs for the cost of the shortfall. So if I'm savvy enough I can get MA training for $4500 and my certificate comes from a REAL respected institution...while these are not pell eligible programs (said student wouldn't get anyway) there are loans available with terms similar to Federal FA. So yeah. Sit in front of me I'm enrolling you. If you're drooling I 'might' get the Dean involved.
she did great things? like what? she may be a good person but that is a dumb statement
Eeva Deshon is good people, and did great things for Heald. Her hands were tied by CCI, or she would have done much more.
Interesting..according to Linked In Eeva Deshon left Unitek in May of this year and now is listed simply as "consultant"..hmmmmm
I work as an admissions rep and had a friend that worked at Everest College. Yes as admissions we will typically enroll who ever says yes and signs up. Why? Because we are open enrollment, because we have "numbers/goals" to hit. If we turn people away we risk not hitting a goal and getting on a plan to "improve." As for signs... I know of another school that keeps restructuring, has had a layoff, and now just laid off their financial aid department so they can centralize it into a call center type department. Or how they sent two departments to Vegas but then all of a sudden ran out of money to do the annual raises (which are still frozen until further notice).
Eeva Deshon has connections with CCi and was one of the forces behind moving Heald to CCi. If I were working for Unitek I would be very concerned of the future of that school/company as well as she and "others" with CCi connections are in places of executive management and control
How about the fact that Eeva Deshon (president of Heald) announced her retirement and resigned. Then accepted a position with another school in Fremont. She obviously, so the sign and did something. She may have tried to voice her concern, and CCI executive's forced her into retirement or she left on her own. Either way, I'm sure she is glad she is looong gone.
Yep, the meetings with the President were all so false. Sadly the campus Presidents, Directors and all employees of CCi are mostly foreigners and willing to do work only immigrants will do and bring the ethics of their countries along with them. Places like Egypt, The Philippines and the Caribbean are not known for the strongest business ethics. With their corrupt governments it is just part of their culture. They are suckers just like the students and don't have many options nor would they ever have the good sense or vision to get out despite all the OBVIOUS warning signs. They were exploited and remain in denial about it.
15191 - Keep 'em busy and they won't notice the little cracks in the structure happening around them. people like CCi's execs know that most of their staff are honest, hard-working people, and that we can be a bit too trusting because of it. It's probably like a game to them.
At my campus, we spent a bunch of time on these pep talks about great classrooms and traits we wanted to see in evaluations. I really tried to get into all of this by going to many meetings. Then I find out that as this is going on, the place is about to be shut down. Who was covering up and still pushing through the pep talks?
The Heald Fresno campus had enrollment above 2000 for a period of time. That was before CCI really took hold of the operations
Anonymous15160 - You are correct that Concord was the "flagship" campus. Please however do some research on past student counts in (STC) Stockton.
They were calling ex-employees as well. I hadn't even thought about CCi for a year and suddenly I'm getting calls from big shots investigating it!
When investigators started calling employees personal phones for info on the company.
I doubt that rumor about Heald is true. No campus, not even Concord, which functions as an executive flagship, has ever had 2,175 students.
OMG! I left off all the investigations, lawsuits, and the cost of severance charges. Obviously I need to redouble my efforts.
When the california general starting contacting former employees about the genesis program.
When the campus starting laying off longer employee's getting paid over $50K and started hiring new employee's at $25K
When Attorney General's office called me asking questions. Several months later the lawsuit was filed. I wasn't dumb enough to stay. Anyway the place sucked. Worse job ever. Rotten miserable bitch of a boss. And admissions reps are the lowest. Not even educated. Scumbags driving BMWs.
When I left SFS I believe our turnover rate was over 50%. That's never a good sign. I think about 75% of the remaining staff were looking for other jobs.
Anonymous15135 - Not sure what campus in down 75%, but I know one Heald campus went from 2175 to right at 1000 now.
After peaking out in the Fall of 2010, today the student population is back down to about 74,000. That's a reduction of about 35% over the entire school. Some campuses have not been impacted as much, so other campuses have to make up for the loss. I don't have the data, but having a few campuses down over 50% from peak while others have programs that are in demand would not be unusual. It should be noted that almost all of Heald was acquired in January 2010, so the fall 2010 numbers include Heald. Sure some of the population increase from Fall of 2009 to Fall 2010 can be explained by the acquisition of Heald, but the dramatic decrease from Fall 2010 to today cannot be explained by significant discontinued operations.
I think my 1st indication of some cover up was when they went around in a frenzie trying to get rid of the paper trail... aka "the training manual" that was later called "the missing manual."
Wow! What campus has a population that's down 75%??
Campus population down 75% or more. Good sign it will be selected to "teach-out" today.
I'll add one I heard a few times in the last year. "This is something that can only be discussed on phone calls. NO EMAILS!" They were getting paranoid about leaving a paper trail.