by Pete Wright
I like fool.com. I’ve found it to be a great resource over the years and I think very highly of the contributors. As a reader, it’s easy to take the off-hand slights on company after company for granted — if they’re writing it, it must be true. But sometimes, once in a while, I’ll catch something on Apollo Group that is misconstrued.
Technorati Tags: Apollo Group, University of Phoenix
This time, it’s Rich Duprey, former police officer and stock expert (my tongue is NOT in my cheek — they guy’s actually aces on the market sitch), who provides us this little bit of slander:
“The company, and indeed much of the industry, has been dogged by allegations of misrepresenting graduation and job-placement rates, lowering admission standards, and paying recruiters to get warm bodies in their classrooms. Last year, Apollo was fined $9.8 million for admitting unqualified students to boost enrollment at its University of Phoenix online campus.”
There are a couple of problems with that statement. First, the difference between a fine and a settlement. Apollo was never fined. Apollo settled a claim investigated by the Department of Education that alleged University of Phoenix compensated enrollment staff in a manner that was out of alignment with their stipulations; in this case, the enrollment counsellor role was not able to accrue overtime, they were part of an exempt role. That’s a no-no — they need to be non-exempt, otherwise their payscale starts to look too much like a pay for performance gig.
When the DOE investigation commenced, the organization reviewed, evaluated and overhauled the enrollment compensation plan to patch up any loose threads. Nine months later, when the DOE finished their investigation, the organization returned to the table in the form of a settlement to compensate all enrollment staff working under the faulty matrix for hours they should have been paid. That $9.8 million? That went directly to the staff. If it had been a fine, it would have gone to the feds.
I’m no legal scholar, but I was a part of much of the discussion surrounding the scoping of the compensation plan and let me tell you, it was nothing if not completely above board.
Of course, my man Rich doesn’t know all that back-story. And why should he? This situation was reported incorrectly by the press time and time again. Even the grand old lady “60 Minutes” lumped us in the same category as Career Education unjustly.
Keep up the good writing, Rich. Just drop me an email next time you’re going to toss in the Apollo fine vibe — I want to help keep it straight!
