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Arkansas State considers opening vet school with for-profit
Arkansas State University is exploring a partnership with a for-profit company to build a veterinary medicine school.
While it would be the first such school in the state, it's unclear whether it's necessary, and some question if partnering with a for-profit is a good move for a public institution.
"By arranging for the for-profit to operate on campus, the public university is lending its credibility to a for-profit college," said Robert Shireman, director of higher education excellence and a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. "For-profit colleges have a sketchy reputation because of disproportionate consumer abuses."
The company in question is Adtalem Global Education, the parent company of Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, and formerly known as DeVry Education Group. Ross University is a for-profit college based on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. While it's accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association, it's been criticized for saddling graduates with large amounts of debt. The average debt for U.S. graduates of Ross and another veterinary school in the Caribbean is nearly $275,000, which is about $90,000 more than nonresident graduates for veterinary colleges based in the United States.
Starting salaries for vets can be less than $35,000 for internships, according to data from the association, making debt repayment a struggle.
While the state doesn't have its own veterinary school, it does have partnerships with other public institutions to address that. Paul Jenkins, president of the Arkansas Veterinary Medicine Association and a partner in Vilonia Animal Clinic, said Arkansas State has built relationships with public institutions in neighboring states, like Louisiana, to offer spots to Arkansas vet students with in-state tuition rates. But the number of spots at some of those colleges has decreased over time as state funding for the partnerships has shrunk.
While some legislators are concerned that those students don't return to Arkansas, Jenkins said that more than half usually do eventually. They just might do an internship elsewhere before returning home.
"We have a mechanism that has worked really well and can work even better if the state would fund those," he said.
Donald Kennedy, the interim dean of the College of Agriculture at Arkansas State, said student loan debt is a "very big concern of mine and others'."
The college will have an 180-day exploration period before making a decision on the partnership. During this time, Kennedy hopes the task force examining the deal will explore "creative ways to lower student debt."
Elizabeth Story, director of external communications at Adtalem, said the company isn't speculating on the details of the potential partnership, but she said it is "committed to addressing the critical shortage of veterinarians in the United States, and we are excited to be engaging in conversations with Arkansas State University."
When asked about Ross University specifically, Story said its tuition costs are competitive with other private colleges and that its students have a cohort default rate of 1.2 percent. Most veterinary medical schools are public.
"RUSVM’s more than 5,000 graduates practice in almost every state and many foreign countries, providing veterinary workforce solutions with highly respected hospitals and partners like Banfield Pet Hospital, VCA Inc., National Veterinary Associates and Compassion First," she added.
Partnerships between public colleges and private for-profits are a growing trend, according to Noah Black, spokesman for Career Education Colleges and Universities, or CECU. The partnerships can combine the training experiences and employer connections of the for-profits with the larger profiles and student base of public colleges.
One example is a partnership between Louisiana State University and Fullstack Academy, a Zovio subsidiary, to offer coding programs.
CECU supports these partnerships if they can help improve student access and outcomes, Black said.
"What’s important is making sure students are aware of what the full program costs will be and what the expected earnings are," he said.
But some at Arkansas State are nervous about the deal. Erik Gilbert, a professor of history, is concerned there could be pitfalls to the partnership that the college wouldn't foresee, and that it could suck up too much of administrators' time just as higher education faces an enrollment crisis.
"Given the successes of our previous public-private endeavors, it’s not hard to imagine it going wrong in predictable or unpredictable ways," Gilbert said. The chancellor of Arkansas State has acknowledged that the college's recent partnerships with private entities, like the New York Institute of Technology, have yet to yield any revenue.
"We are in an enrollment crisis now. It needs our undivided attention," Gilbert added. "Making a priority of the vet school will mean taking the institutional eye off the enrollment ball."
However, Kennedy said there's been interest in starting a veterinary medicine college for "quite some time."
"What sparked the idea is the need in our region for more veterinarians," he said. "Not only is there no vet medicine college in our state, we are located where we could help neighboring regions."
The task force will be collecting data specific to Arkansas about the demand for more vets in the state during the exploration period, he said.
There is at least one county in the state that is reporting a shortage of vets for food animal medicine, according to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts employment for veterinarians in the state will increase by 15.3 percent by 2026.
But Jenkins said the demand for more vets in the state depends on where people go. Small animal practices have many job openings, he said, but it's difficult to determine whether there's a need for more large animal vets.
While those who own large animals, like cattle ranchers or other farmers, might say there's a need, Jenkins said his colleagues see economics as the real issue.
"The fact of the matter is, those people that are consumers of large animal practice sometimes don’t really want to pay for large animal practice," he said.
The proposed partnership would also go after students outside Arkansas, which Jenkins fears could affect the spots saved for Arkansas students elsewhere.
The association is most concerned about whether the for-profit would offer competitive tuition and a quality education, he said. As of right now, the program also wouldn't include clinical training, which is a concern.
"We have to recognize that student debt for veterinary graduates is very high," he said, adding that it's important for students to graduate with as little debt as possible, not only so they can eventually open up their own practices, but also so they can buy homes and start families to contribute to the state's economy.
Shireman cautioned that, while "Arkansas State may require that the for-profit school include language in its materials declaring that they are separate institutions," it could still be liable for "anything that goes wrong, because it is in a business relationship that unavoidably implies an endorsement of whatever the for-profit school does in the future."
Kennedy said the college is looking into partnering with a for-profit because veterinary schools are expensive to start and run, and this model could help the college overcome those costs. When asked how the college would contribute to supporting the program, Kennedy said that is something the task force will work out with Adtalem.
At a Faculty Senate meeting where the proposal was announced, Gilbert said a faculty member asked why the college didn't expand existing popular programs, like the professional graduate programs in the College of Nursing that have to turn applicants away.
Gilbert has two theories as to why the college doesn't pursue this strategy.
"One is that we are so broke that we can’t round up the resources to accommodate an increase in the number of faculty in these programs, even if it were sure to bring enrollment growth and yield revenue. The second possibility is that starting the state’s first vet school through a public-private partnership (no money down!) looks a lot better on your CV than saying that existing programs grew on your watch, even if the more boring accomplishment does more for the financial health of the university," he said, adding, "So my money is on a new vet school and another private investor to which the university has conceded some of its autonomy and to which we are financially obligated."
Editorial Tags: For-profit collegesImage Source: Getty Images/Wesley HittImage Caption: Dairy cows feeding on a farm in northwest Arkansas.Is this diversity newsletter?: Newsletter Order: 0Disable left side advertisement?: Is this Career Advice newsletter?: Magazine treatment: Trending: College: Arkansas State University-Main CampusDisplay Promo Box:Pulse podcast features conversation with Bryan Alexander about his book 'Academia Next'
This month's episode of the Pulse podcast features a conversation with Bryan Alexander, author of Academia Next (Johns Hopkins University Press), about the future(s) of higher education.
In a wide-ranging talk with The Pulse's host, Rodney B. Murray, Alexander discusses his new book, long-term higher education scenarios and high-impact technologies, among other topics.
Alexander is a futurist and author.
The Pulse is Inside Higher Ed's monthly technology podcast, produced by Murray, executive director of the office of academic technology at University of the Sciences.
Find out more, and listen to past Pulse podcasts, here.
TechnologyEditorial Tags: TechnologyIs this diversity newsletter?: Newsletter Order: 0Disable left side advertisement?: Is this Career Advice newsletter?: Magazine treatment: Trending: Display Promo Box:Sri Lankan student deaths in Azerbaijan puts agents under scrutiny
The death of three Sri Lankan nationals in Azerbaijan ÔÇô two of which were international students┬áÔÇô last month has prompted the Sri Lankan Ministry of Education to look into shoring up regulations around education agents and studying abroad. This, in turn, has prompted confusion from agents in the country who see little linking the tragedy and their work.
The students who had been attending Western Caspian University in Baku were named as Malsha Sandeepani and Tharuki Amaya, while the third victim, Amodya Maduhansi, had attended the university some years ago and was working in the country.
One agent said “didn’t make sense” to regulate agents as a result of what happened
The three rented an apartment together in the countryÔÇÖs capital, where an electric stove was left on overnight on top of a plastic suitcase. The three women suffocated in the resulting smoke.
Sri Lankan officials told local media last month that the MoE was planning to create a ÔÇ£regulatory frameworkÔÇØ for agents in response to the incident.
Further details are yet to be released, but one agent told The PIE News┬áit “didn’t make sense” to regulate agents as a result of what happened.
As a destination for Sri Lankan students, Azerbaijan is a newcomer to the market and conflicting statistics make it difficult to ascertain just how many students study there.
With no Sri Lankan embassy in the country, UNESCO data suggests six Sri Lankans are currently studying in the country, the Azerbaijan government lists just one in the previous academic year.
However, Western Caspian University told The PIE it has 68 Sri Lankan students.
Overall, fewer than 5,000 international students study in the country annually but, according to agents, Azerbaijan is a study destination with affordable tuition and the possibility of finding work upon graduating.
A quick search on social media reveals several companies┬áoffering packages for Sri Lankan students to study in the country advertising ÔÇ£departure within three daysÔÇØ, ÔÇ£no IELTsÔÇØ, ÔÇ£no visa interviewÔÇØ, ÔÇ£no bank balanceÔÇØ and ÔÇ£no refusalÔÇØ.
But agents also offer another unique selling point: studying in Azerbaijan, they say, is a route towards obtaining a Schengen visa or transferring to a university in Europe.
One agency advertises a ÔÇ£transfer degree program to European countriesÔÇØ. For a little over ┬ú2,000, another offers the chance to ÔÇ£study in Baku, Azerbaijan and move to Schengen countriesÔÇØ and to ÔÇ£build your future career, your gateway to Europe, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and PolandÔÇØ.
ÔÇ£Azerbaijan is a secular country, thatÔÇÖs why itÔÇÖs easier to get a Schengen visa for Sri Lanka citizens, but to get it they must stay in our country legally, and the best option for legally staying in Azerbaijan is a study visa,ÔÇØ one such agent told The PIE.
ÔÇ£We can send students to Germany with the possibility of a scholarship if they pass their B1 exams in German. They will be provided with a job and scholarship in Germany. ItÔÇÖs a good option for Sri Lanka students.ÔÇØ
But getting to Europe through Azerbaijan may not be as easy as some agents are making out.
While the denial rate for Schengen visas applied for in Sri Lanka was almost double that of Azerbaijan in 2018, the Swiss Embassy in Baku told The PIE that three Sri Lankans had applied for visas through it last year, and all were subsequently rejected.
Western Caspian University said that most of their Sri Lankan students ultimately stay on in the country after completing their education.
ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs difficult to talk about the intention and behaviour of Sri Lankan students since they are new to our country,ÔÇØ the spokesperson said.
“ItÔÇÖs quite difficult to use Azerbaijan as a transit country”
ÔÇ£As a matter of fact, itÔÇÖs quite difficult to use Azerbaijan as a transit country. Nevertheless, to secure a job in the local job market isnÔÇÖt difficult.ÔÇØ
Sri Lanka has previously expressed a desire to establish itself as a regional education hub but studying abroad remains popular among those who can afford it.
According to the Sri Lankan MoE, around 20,000 students leave the island to pursue educational opportunities abroad each year.
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UK HEIs can ÔÇ£shape a new national identityÔÇØ
UK higher education institutions have an opportunity to shape national identity by focusing on sustainability research and furthering partnerships with Asia, according to HE experts speaking at a recent Higher Education Policy Institute seminar in London.
With Brexit, the UK has “new ordered itself”, professor of Higher Education at the University of Oxford Simon Marginson said at the event, while he proposed UK institutions look to┬áLatin America and central Asia for future collaboration.
“The possibilities are genuinely open to the HE sector”
For a nation whose universities “normally manage our futures with all the due diligence we can muster”, ┬ánot being within Europe will be a shock for some and universities will not view global strategic partnerships as a “substitute for embeddedness in Europe”,┬áhe indicated.
“ItÔÇÖs alarming, itÔÇÖs also exciting. When that dependency falls away there is a unique moment of freedom before new patterns become set. The possibilities are genuinely open to the HE sector.”
Despite exceptions such as┬áNottingham Ningbo and Liverpool Xi’an, UK-China research collaboration intensity is “well below” the level of US-China and Australia-China cooperation,┬áMarginson maintained.
“There is not the same interest or knowledge in the UK,” he explained.
The US strategy of accord with the Asian powerhouse since 1978, assuming China’s politics and economy would become more western as the country became more open, has been “notably unsuccessful”, while China has benefited from global integration, Marginson said.
The US-China breakdown may create openings for UK institutions, he added, “but we need to understand what we are in for”.
“I have no doubt that forging fulsome relationships in East Asia is the most pressing strategic need for British universities,” Marginson continued, while the UK can also maintain solidarity in Europe by exercising leadership on sustainability.
“British science sustains a stronger domestic authority than does American science. Higher education agrees with the government about the value of science. Here the sector can advance both its global role and its domestic position,” he said.
“What happens when the lacuna in the national strategy persists for a time after Brexit?” he asked.
“I think this provides the sector with the opportunity to make its own rules. Take initiatives, define the framework, build the alliances, build a global position of its own, and in doing so help shape a new national identity.”
Speakers also explained that UK institutions can look to an example in Australia, a country that had 162,000 Chinese enrolments in 2019.
The foreign interference guidelines, released in Australia in November 2019, was a way for the Group of Eight to ensure members were not left out of the conversation, according to Group of Eight chief executive, Vicki Thomson.
“We were very concerned that our government would impose guidelines upon us and they wouldn’t be guidelines, they’d be regulation or legislation if we didn’t actually come to the table,” she said.
“forging fulsome relationships in East Asia is the most pressing strategic need for British universities”
“Just as you are working your way through Brexit and what it means to your many relationships and testing how they can evolve, there’s the analogy of Australia where we’re working our way as a nation through how to deal with a much stronger China and having national security as a focus,” Thomson said.
Positive dialogue with Australian┬ásecurity agencies means that “now there is an appreciation and understanding amongst our security agencies of our value to our economy through our research and our education”.
UK institutions need to “get to know China, draw lines in the sand when we must, and watch this space”, Marginson added.
“ItÔÇÖs tricky to engage but I think abstention would be the larger error, given the stakes for us.
“We should not sit on our hands as we had to do during the long Brexit debate. The window will not stay open for very long,” Marginson concluded.
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Cohort Go partners with North Loop
Australia-based edtech company Cohort Go has announced a partnership with North Loop, a new bank for international students headed to the US.
Through the partnership, North Loop customers can now send funds from over 100 countries to the US with access to competitive exchange rates and no fees.
“WeÔÇÖre delighted that this partnership…will make the financial side easier for students travelling to the US”
North Loop was created as a no-fee bank account for students with online applications; saving students time by not having to travel to a physical bank to open an account while ensuring their money is secure.
The partnership further propels the successful startup Cohort Go, which has seen significant growth over the past 12 months.
Mark Fletcher, co-founder and CEO of Cohort Go said the partnership will save students money and provide peace of mind knowing their finances are secure as they embark on their international education journey.
ÔÇ£Studying overseas can be expensive and complex, so weÔÇÖre delighted that this partnership with North Loop will make the financial side easier for students travelling to the US from particular source countries,ÔÇØ said Fletcher.
“Students can also expect to save on their study expenses with low foreign exchange rates and no-fee transfers, along with their no-fee bank account.
ÔÇ£We are proud to partner with North Loop, a company that is aligned to our vision of reducing barriers for the international education community,ÔÇØ he added.
Tahem Veer Verma, founder and CEO of North Loop said Cohort Go was the most affordable option for students to send money overseas, so it was the ideal partnership.
ÔÇ£The Cohort Go team are fantastic and align with North LoopÔÇÖs mission really well. With this partnership, North Loop continues to eliminate the borders that divide us,ÔÇØ he added.
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AMBA holds Excellence Awards in London
Imperial College Business School was among the award winners at the Association of MBAs and its sister brand the Business Graduates Association’s┬áannual Excellence Awards for being the┬áÔÇ£first university to deliver a live lecture via holographic telepresence technologyÔÇØ.
“We are proud to celebrate the achievements and innovation so clearly evident in AMBA and BGAÔÇÖs network”
ÔÇ£On behalf of the AMBA and BGA team, I would like to congratulate the finalists and winners of this yearÔÇÖs Excellence Awards,ÔÇØ said Andrew Main Wilson, chief executive of AMBA and BGA.
ÔÇ£The quality of award entries was once again very high this year and we are proud to celebrate the achievements and innovation so clearly evident in AMBA and BGAÔÇÖs network of schools and their students.ÔÇØ
The MBA Entrepreneurial Venture (Third Sector) award went to C├®sar Coasaca of CENTRUM PUCP Business School in Peru for Inventum, which has developed an invention that turns air into water.
A former national rugby player with degrees in molecular biology and immunology, Udochuku Richson of IE Business school in Spain, won the MBA Student of the Year Award.
Richson has spent four years building a charity focused on the integration of refugees and is now turning his attention to transforming the healthcare system.
Held on February 7 at the Sheraton in London, UK, over 200 business schools leaders from across the global postgraduate business education sector representing 46 schools attended along with category finalists, judges and media.
Finalists were shortlisted by the associations and then reviewed by a judging panel made up of AMBA board members, business experts, deans and management leaders.
Full list of winners:
Business school career strategy award ÔÇô Hult International Business School, US
Business School Impact on Community and Society Award – Mannheim Business School, University of Mannheim, Germany
Business School Innovation Award ÔÇô Imperial College Business School, Imperial College London, UK
MBA Entrepreneurial Venture (Private Sector) ÔÇô Sharon Cunningham, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin, Ireland,┬áfor Shorla Pharma
MBA Entrepreneurial Venture (Third Sector) ÔÇô C├®sar Coasaca, CENTRUM PUCP Business School, Peru,┬áfor Inventum
MBA Student of the Year Award ÔÇô Udochuku Richson, IE Business School, Spain
Photos from the event are available here.
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The view from Karan Khemka
A couple of years ago John Palfrey, AndoverÔÇÖs Head of School, addressed alumni including myself in Singapore – ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs hard to manage parentÔÇÖs expectations on university admission. Vanderbilt today is as selective as Columbia University was when you were at school 20 years agoÔÇØ.
John was highlighting one of the great choke points in the world economy. 20 years ago the daily production of Mercedes Benz was 2,000 units, one-fourth of the 8,000 units they produced each day in 2019. Luxury cars, handbags, watches are all made in higher volumes today than ever before.
The number of ÔÇ£great education brandsÔÇØ is stagnant while demand has increased many times over and with increasing affluence in emerging markets, there is no sign of this stopping.
If you are an ÔÇ£international studentÔÇØ it gets worse – the head of admissions at an Ivy League university told me ÔÇ£If we force ranked all our applicants 75% of top applicants would be from outside the United States. In fact, our cohort can be on 20% international which means it is three to four times as hard for a non-US applicant to get admitted.ÔÇØ
This choke point is what drives parents to bribe their children into top universities and it is placing an incredible amount of pressure on students. For mid-tier universities, this creates an opportunity to re-position themselves as elite brands addressing the supply side of the equation.
If only they knew how. For example, I donÔÇÖt think Vanderbilt has the standing today that Columbia had 20 years ago despite their quality and current levels of selectivity.
And for students – they have a choice. Try to get to the front of the line or jump the line. I am in favour of the latter as it encourages students to relax and be themselves. There was a kid at Andover who wanted to get into Brown University and he clearly did not have the grades. For his application essay, he wrote something, printed it out, burnt it, put the ashes in a zip-lock plastic bag with a label that read ÔÇ£This is my essay. I hated it.ÔÇØ
He got in.
ÔÇó Karan Khemka┬áwas partner and head of the international education practice at Parthenon-EY for 16 years and now serves on boards at global education companies.
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Aus: innovation fund needed to support edtech
AustraliaÔÇÖs strong position within the edtech space is under threat of being surpassed by emerging and established global players if more is not done to support and nurture it, according to a new report from edtech accelerator EduGrowth.
The Enabling the growth of the Australian Edtech ecosystem report, which overviewed the current position of the countryÔÇÖs sector, recommended the establishment of an innovation fund, testbed activation, and increased collaboration between the industry, education providers and government.
“[There] are pockets where there needs to be more support”
“ItÔÇÖs really healthy, and the ecosystemÔÇÖs doing really well and itÔÇÖs growing,” said David Linke, managing director of Education.
“[But there] are pockets where there needs to be more support and there are players in that innovation ecosystem that need a pathway and a framework into it.”
Speaking with The PIE News, managing director of EduGrowth David Linke said while AustraliaÔÇÖs edtech sector was healthy and growing, there were segments that needed more support and pathways for it to continue to succeed.
Linke added further cross-sector collaboration between developers, education providers, and government was required to continue to take advantage of AustraliaÔÇÖs comparatively safe investment environment, and financial and regulatory markets.
ÔÇ£All of those things are in our favour, but if we think that itÔÇÖs going to happen without having a combined multi-stakeholder approach to it then we may potentially miss that opportunity,ÔÇØ he said.
ÔÇ£Other countries are going to actively go and say, ÔÇÿwell how do we pick up part of that business and how do we operate in different modelsÔÇÖ.ÔÇØ
Linke suggested the creation of an innovation fund, which would draw contributions from education providers and government, to minimise risk.
“If we want to incentivise education providers to be part of innovation and we want to incentivise them to be part of things that may not workÔǪ there are models that you can borrow from around the world,” pointing the UKÔÇÖs EdTech Innovation Fund.
In 2017, Navitas Ventures, which invested in EduGrowth, said Australia was well placed to become a global leader in edtech.
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La Verne seeks to terminate gadfly professor for allegedly threatening to 'assassinate' a colleague
Diane Klein saw the writing on the wall in 2016: the University of La Verne, where she works as a professor of law, was going to either close the law school or dramatically change the way it did business. Wanting to give the program and its tenured professors a fighting chance, she joined the university’s Faculty Handbook revision committee. Her immediate focus was shaping how La Verne would terminate tenured faculty members, if it came to that.
Fast-forward four years and the law school is still open, with plans to transition to California Bar Association backing from the more stringent American Bar Association accreditation. The reason for the change, among others, is that La Verne has struggled to meet ABA standards for bar exam passage rates. But Klein’s tenured job is still on the line, not due to any program closure, but because she stands accused of threatening the life of a colleague.
Any institution must take violent threats seriously, especially in an era of mass shootings. But Klein and her supporters believe that the case against her stretches the term threat into absurdity: following a separate ad hoc committee meeting about the future of the law school, in November, Klein verbally told a third professor that the group would have to decide if it wanted to “assassinate” Jendayi Saada, assistant dean at La Verne’s Center for Academic and Bar Readiness, if the law school were to survive. Klein allegedly also said that she, for one, was willing to "assassinate" Saada.
Klein has made professional enemies because she is outspoken. And she was already in hot water with her administration because, in her capacity as president of La Verne's American Association of University Professors chapter, she'd helped a group of education professors discuss a tenure case in their college. In that incident, administrators charged Klein -- and not anyone else involved -- with violating the confidentiality surrounding tenure decisions.
In other strikes against her, Klein is a stickler for details and procedure, including when it comes to shared governance -- something that may be difficult for her peers to understand. Still, she's not a criminal and thought that her “assassination” remark was private.
It was not. The comment made its way back to a Saada at the bar readiness center, and, in December, Klein was suspended, escorted off campus, and subject to a strict no-contact order regarding students and employees. Klein was notified that Saada also sought to pursue a restraining order against her, but that case was apparently dropped when Saada did not appear at the hearing.
“This is torture -- I’m being terrorized, from my point of view,” said Klein, who only recently received a notice regarding an opportunity for a "rebuttal," though she's not quite clear what that means or how she should prepare. "They’re leaving me here to languish.”
Simultaneously, she said, La Verne’s law program is transitioning to the California Bar program and the university will be laying off faculty members. So while Klein worked hard to make sure that process would be fair to those with tenure, it will probably work against her, as long as she's operating in an informational vacuum. That's if she doesn’t get terminated for cause first.
“It appears the administration has clearly aligned itself with the person making a ridiculous allegation against me -- made clear that it won’t defend me, even in the face of these ridiculous allegations -- and my tenured colleagues are all in a fight to the death for a maximum of six jobs. Who’s going to defy the president, the provost, the general counsel?” she said. “The timing of this is obviously designed to have an effect on governance by removing a knowledgeable and determined faculty leader. And that’s demoralizing, undermining and distracting to the faculty who shared my views. That’s where we are.”
More to the Story
Saada said she did not file the complaint against Klein. Rather, she said via email, two witnesses overheard the statement and filed a complaint with “appropriate authorities,” in accordance with the university’s workplace violence policy.
Asked if she took the comment seriously, Saada said, “absolutely."
“We live in a time of school shootings and other acts of violence, both random and targeted, and I am deeply concerned and fearful for my own safety and for students and co-workers around me who might be victims of violence aimed at me.”
She further cited California Penal Code Section 422 on criminal threats. Although Klein continues to “justify her assassination threat as ‘colorful language,’” Saada said, Klein is a trained attorney “who is well aware of the implications and significance of the term ‘assassinate’ and the legal ramifications of making such a threat against a coworker. I am thankful to the University of La Verne for taking all threats of violence seriously and for the no-contact order that it put in place.”
Saada also read a statement to the Faculty Senate in January, saying that there is “absolutely no protection under any reasonable interpretation of academic freedom for any faculty members, tenured or not, to harass or bully other faculty members or staff, or to threaten the lives or professional reputations of faculty members or anyone else.”
She further explained then that she and her colleagues at the bar center, who are all untenured, feel undervalued and underrepresented in conversations about the future of the law school. It appears race is also a factor. Klein is white and Saada is black, and a colleague who heard Saada speak wrote in a mass email to his faculty colleagues, “I do not wish to see this campus further divided. I want the current division to go away. However, I will not stand for the mistreatment and ganging up on of another Black colleague, who has done nothing wrong but tried her best to serve our students as we all have.”
Rod Leveque, a spokesperson for La Verne, wrote in an email that the university also disagrees this is “solely a matter of ‘colorful language.’” The university “takes all threats of harm seriously, and it is obligated to protect all faculty, staff and students from harm or harassment,” he said. La Verne "will not tolerate any threats or threatening behavior that create a hostile learning or working environment.”
Klein was placed on “indefinite administrative leave without pay with the intent to terminate her tenure based upon an investigatory finding that she made serious threats to harm another university employee,” Leveque also said. In addition, she “was previously disciplined for similar inappropriate conduct, including severe harassment and bullying of employees.”
Leveque didn’t elaborate on that prior conduct, and La Verne is of course legally restricted as to what it can reveal about its employees. But Klein said that she had previously crossed swords with Saada about two years ago when she asked for topic-specific information on bar-passage performance. Klein said she wanted to see it to determine what sections and questions students were having problems with, as part of her interest in the future of the law school, but that she never received it. Saada allegedly said Klein was harassing her, and Klein has had to keep her distance since.
Klein said two other, prior complaints about her relate to the Senate, of which she is a member. In one instance, Klein said she emailed a fellow senator to tell her to “do her job” with respect to conversations about shared governance. In another instance, Klein publicly expressed concern about whether an adjunct professor of law who was also a graduate student could appropriately serve on the Senate alongside professors who might evaluate his academic work at some point.
Apparently sick of such questions, that adjunct emailed the Senate to demand that Klein to stop contacting him. She emailed back to explain that she’d only ever contacted him about Senate matters.
Interestingly, the adjunct who complained about Klein emailed the Senate last month to express concern that Saada was working with the administration to take down Klein. The adjunct, who declined an interview request, said in his email to the Senate that everyone deserves due process. He later wrote another email to the Senate saying that he was being retaliated against by La Verne for his disclosure.
Saada did not respond to a question about the adjunct's claims.
Mr. Confidentiality
Around the same time she was clashing with members of the Senate last spring, a group of Klein’s colleagues in La Verne’s education program asked her to help them with a tenure case. The colleagues said that their recommendation against tenure for a particular candidate had been ignored and that the candidate had advanced up the tenure and promotion approval chain, against their guidance.
Klein made clear to the faculty members at the school that she was not their attorney, but that as their AAUP president, she could help them draft a letter of concern. She says she acted as their scribe during an April meeting at the library and then compiled the notes into a letter. She then sent the letter to the education school’s tenured professors. Soon after, Klein -- not the professors she’d been helping -- was charged with violating the confidentiality of the tenure process.
Things came to a head in October when she was told to report to the main campus to sign a last-chance agreement regarding her alleged confidentiality violation. Earlier that month, Klein had received a letter saying that her tenure was at risk. In addition to the confidentiality charge, the letter noted previous complaints from faculty members about Klein's tone in emails -- presumably the two cases involving the Senate. It also listed various concerns about Klein's teaching, such as that she had a "whatever" attitude regarding a collaborative teaching initiative, and previous administrative attempts to address some of those concerns. But the letter said a meeting with human resources would be scheduled -- not that she'd be required to sign any last-chance agreement.
The day was hell. And in a Kafkaesque detail, Doajo Hicks is the university's new general counsel. Hicks had previously helped Dixie State University fire several faculty members over alleged violations of confidentiality, including a professor who emailed his grown son in another country a note about his day and some thoughts about a tenure case he'd weighed in on. Hicks is also named in the adjunct's letter to the Senate about alleged coordination between Saada and the administration regarding Klein.
Klein said that the last-chance agreement was not provided for in the handbook, and "required me to admit to wrongdoing I deny engaging in," and waive some of her faculty rights. While she's "aware of some colleagues' alleged issues with me," she said, "I deny any problems with my teaching or collaboration that were unique or serious enough to warrant any of this discipline." She never ended up signing the agreement.
John Bartelt, a professor of education at La Verne with whom Klein worked on the letter about the tenure case, said recently that he wrote both the interim law school dean and human resources in the fall to affirm that about “a dozen faculty members on the Tenure and Promotion Committee in my college, uniformly disgusted with what we perceived to be egregiously unethical and overreaching behavior by our administrators, invited Diane Klein, as our AAUP representative, to take notes as we talked.”
The group discussed only the tenure and promotion process itself, he said, and “no one viewed anything about our meetings as a breach of confidentiality. Anyone who attended that meeting would confirm that.” ÔÇïBartlet said he also told the administration that “we as faculty have every right to discuss procedural and governance issues with one another, and clarified that Diane only tried to mediate discussion at our specific request.”
'Toxicity'
Bartlet said he couldn’t discuss anything else because “I fear retribution. That’s how bad it has gotten. I can only hope the toxicity doesn’t reach our students.”
In the meantime, La Verne is planning to do away with tenure entirely in the law school. That's against the advice of the ad hoc faculty committee on the program transition and of deep concern to the Senate. The Senate also recently voted no confidence in La Verne’s president, Devorah Lieberman, and has asked the administration to put Klein on paid leave. It has also recommended that her campus communication rights and access be restored, and that a time for her hearing be set.
A separate petition, signed by La Verne colleagues, asks the university to restore Klein's ability to participate in her elected shared governance roles, at the very least, during any investigation.
The university has not responded to their requests for action thus far.
The national AAUP and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education are also following what's happened to Klein.
Will Creeley, an attorney at FIRE, said there appeared to "be a lot going on" at La Verne, but that the most concerning aspects, from his organization's point of view, are "the seeming lack of procedure governing the university's response, including an apparent lack of communication with Klein throughout," the "interpretation of the alleged use of the word 'assassinate' as a threat," and "the gag order."
Hicks also seems to reprising what "we criticized him for back when he was at Dixie State," Creeley said. "We're still checking it all out, but it seems dysfunctional, to say the least."
Asked whether she’d want to return to La Verne, given all that’s happened, Klein thought for a while. The truth, she said, is that she believes in La Verne law's mission to provide inland California -- parts of which are underserved by attorneys -- an able supply. She said she's also interested how the law school will evolve, including through the thoughtful use of hybrid technologies.
More than her own career, Klein said this fight is about due process, tenure and the fate of the university.
“The protections of tenure and shared governance and academic freedom are the essential values that should distinguish a university from every other sort of entity,” she said. “The advancement and protection of those values is at the very soul of the university and if they’re not, what are we trying to keep the university around for?”
FacultyAcademic FreedomEditorial Tags: LawFacultyLaw schoolsImage Caption: Diane KleinIs this diversity newsletter?: Newsletter Order: 0Disable left side advertisement?: Is this Career Advice newsletter?: Magazine treatment: Trending: College: University of La VerneDisplay Promo Box:CUNY joins InStride to offer online credentials through employer tuition benefit programs
To attract and retain employees in a tight labor market, companies are ramping up tuition benefit programs for their workers. And a growing number of colleges and universities are seeking to partner with these employers to offer online degree programs to millions of potential students.
Many are working with intermediaries like Guild Education to tap into this market, which is fueled by as much an estimated $28 billion in annual corporate spending.
The City University of New York is the latest entrant, announcing earlier this month that it will partner with InStride, a relatively new arrival to the employer education benefit space. The company serves as a broker between universities and companies, helping to manage tuition benefit programs while offering employees online credentials and courses from ASU Online and a small network of other universities. InStride is compensated by its corporate partners.
CUNY officials said the goal for the large system, which enrolls many low-income students, is to expand its online education footprint with career-boosting degree programs for employees of both regionally based and global companies. The system enrolls about 27,000 students in its online programs, which CUNY described as an “engine of equity and access.”
A 2019 survey found that 63 percent of employers offer some form of college tuition assistance benefit to their workers. Part of the draw is that companies get a federal tax benefit of up to $5,250 in annual tuition benefits for each participating employee.
The CUNY School of Professional Studies is taking the lead in the partnership with InStride.
“We aspire to be a lot bigger, and CUNY wants to be more involved online,” said John Mogulescu, founding dean of the School of Professional Studies and a senior university dean for academic affairs. Mogulescu helped create CUNY’s Guttman Community College and its acclaimed ASAP program, through which students are required to attend college full-time while receiving a wide range of supports.
He said employer-subsidized tuition benefit programs are particularly well suited to the estimated 800,000 people in New York City (and many more in the region) who previously attended college but failed to earn a degree.
“This is all about giving the opportunity to workers to come back to college,” said Mogulescu.
He cited the employee tuition assistance program Starbucks created with Arizona State University in 2014 as a model CUNY wanted to pursue. Roughly 12,000 Starbucks employees currently are enrolled in ASU’s online programs, and 3,500 have graduated so far. InStride said those graduates on average have been promoted much faster than their peers.
“This is something we had to do,” Mogulescu said, “and it’s consistent with CUNY’s mission.”
The university decided to go with an intermediary to develop its relationship with big employers, in part because CUNY leaders felt InStride could quickly establish high-quality partnership pathways while leaving the curriculum to CUNY.
“Colleges don’t have the money, the talent, to build these platforms,” said Jane Oates, president of WorkingNation and a former official at the U.S. Department of Labor.
Also appealing to CUNY, Mogulescu said, was InStride’s pledge to limit its university partners to what the company called a small “curated” group of “leading global academic institutions.” InStride's high-tech platform for helping to administer employer tuition benefit programs, which it said cost tens of millions of dollars to develop, also was a benefit.
“It’s not that we’re not interested in working with employers ourselves,” said Mogulescu. He added that InStride is “very single-minded” about what it offers, in contrast to online program management firms, which tend to manage much of online degree tracks for colleges.
“This is not an OPM. This is not taking over all aspects of what we do” online, he said. “They seemed very smart to us.”
A growing number of universities are trying to develop online degree pathways for employees, particularly for regional companies where the university’s name carries weight, said Josh Pierce, CEO of Acadeum, which offers online courses through a consortium of colleges.
One driver is worries about a coming demographic cliff, which projects declines of traditional-age college students.
“This is a system that’s running extremely tight,” Pierce said of the current postsecondary market. “It makes sense for CUNY and other bigger players with good brands that need to expand.”
A Rising Tide?
Arizona State University created InStride last year as a spin-off company. The public benefit corporation is mostly owned by the Rise Fund, a $4 billion investment fund focused on social impact.
The unusually structured InStride joined Guild in the employer benefits broker space.
Guild, which is privately held and recently valued at $1 billion, works with Walmart, the Walt Disney Company, Discover, Chipotle and other large corporate partners. Guild’s higher education partners are eight nonprofit institutions, including Southern New Hampshire University, Brandman University, the University of Arizona, Purdue Global University and UF Online, the University of Florida’s online program.
While InStride and Guild have gotten lots of hype, they’re not the first to serve as intermediaries between colleges and employer tuition benefits. EdAssist Solutions, Edcor and others have run much larger, similar programs for decades.
Edcor, for example, works with UPS and other large companies, offering degree programs through partnerships with a wide range of accredited colleges. Under the company’s model, like other intermediaries, employees get tuition discounts for enrolling in academic programs in the college partner network.
The overall demand for employer tuition benefits is expanding, said Sara Van Wagoner, Edcor’s vice president of corporate growth, citing across-the-board growth for the company.
“Health care has exploded,” she said. “That is at least a third of [the] client base now.”
Online programs in health care are a priority for CUNY in its new partnership with InStride. CUNY offers certificates, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing, for example, including online programs for nurses with associate degrees to earn a four-year credential.
InStride’s early focus is on health care, information technology, retail, financial services and travel and hospitality, said Vivek Sharma, the company’s CEO.
Sharma said InStride’s model relies on having a firm grasp of the specific needs of employers, with a priority on offering “life-changing credentials” to their workers.
“We start with the business objectives of our leading corporate partners,” he said. “That’s what makes our programs sticky.”
InStride currently works with 30 companies, including Aramark and Prime Communications, a large AT&T retailer.
A small portion of employees tend to take advantage of tuition benefit programs. About 40 percent of responding companies said just 2 percent or fewer of their employees use the benefits, according to the 2019 survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. Another 26 percent said 3 to 5 percent of their employees take advance of college tuition assistance programs.
That could change, said Van Wagoner, as a growing number of companies are promoting their programs more heavily and offering them to part-time employees.
InStride’s ambition is global. Its first university partner beyond ASU was the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Since then it has signed agreements with two institutions in Mexico and one in Ireland.
Domestically, InStride also has partnered with Harvard Business School Online. Sharma said new partner announcements are in the works.
For the company’s model to really take off, Pierce said InStride will have to continue to spread out in its role of travel agent for prospective students who work for big employers.
“The students still need to want to have that brand,” he said.
Oates, however, thinks the growing urgency from employers to attract and train entry-level talent will create a rising tide for InStride and the other intermediaries with higher education.
“They’re desperate for talent now,” she said. “They are starting to feel the pain in their productivity.”
Online and Blended LearningEditorial Tags: Adult educationOnline learningImage Source: Istockphoto.com/fizkesIs this diversity newsletter?: Newsletter Order: 0Disable left side advertisement?: Is this Career Advice newsletter?: Magazine treatment: Trending: College: Arizona State University-TempeDisplay Promo Box:Louisville reverses decision on anti-LGBTQ pamphleteer
In a swift reversal of a free speech policy it staunchly defended just a week ago, the University of Louisville has ordered a student who distributed anti-gay literature at a LGBTQ Studies course to have no more contact with the professor of the course or the students enrolled.
University administrators initially responded to the incident, which left LGBTQ students and the professor feeling targeted, by citing state law and university policy that prohibits public institutions from limiting students' free speech rights. As result, university administrators said they could not prevent students from entering buildings or classrooms on campus to express themselves as long as they did not disrupt a class in session. The university was also following the guidance of its attorneys, who said the pamphlets the student distributed did not classify as hate speech, said John Karman, director of media relations.
The unnamed student, who was not enrolled in the class, distributed the material on Jan. 28 before the class had begun and then waited outside the class once it was in session, according to news reports. The incident was reported to administrators, who met with the student and said he was free to return and distribute more pamphlets to the class.
It's unclear what has changed since the representatives of the office of the dean of students met with the student and made the original determination. Karman declined to provide more detail. What is clear is that its reversal has left many people on and off the campus puzzled.
While members and supporters of the LGBTQ community on campus were pleased, Martin Cothran, spokesperson for the Kentucky Family Foundation, a statewide conservative organization that supports the student's action, criticized university administrators for “buckling to the pressure of a particular privileged ideological group on campus.” His organization does not support gay marriage rights.
Ricky Jones, chair of the Pan-African studies department, who wrote a searing opinion piece criticizing the university’s decision last week, said he was happy with the university's reversal.
“I can’t speak to what made them change their mind,” he said. “We argued from the beginning against the fundamental stance that this was a free speech issue … We never said that the student couldn’t pass out the materials; we made the argument that him returning to that class was unnerving and odd.”
University president Neeli Bendapudi and other administrators met with the students in the class and their professor on Feb. 6 and told them there was very little the university could do “without inciting legal pushback,” said Charlotte Haydon, a trans woman who is a student in the class. Bendapudi seemed “earnest in her feelings of regret that things weren’t handled as well as she would’ve liked,” Haydon said.
Administrators then met with Kaila Story, who teaches the LGBTQ Studies course, on Feb. 12 and offered to issue a no-contact order instructing the student pamphleteer to stay away from the class and the students, said Jones, who got involved in the incident because Story has a joint appointment in his department.
“When he targeted a class in that way and shared an intention to return, we saw that at the beginning as something different,” said Jones, referencing the “hundreds” of campus shootings that have taken place across the U.S. “We saw that as a risk.”
Jones believes the incident crossed the line of free expression and into the territory of threatening behavior, because the student had a clear intent to return to the class. The student shared this intent with student affairs officials, who, according to Jones, allegedly told the student he could return to the class and distribute more pamphlets as long as he gave the professor 48 hours' notice. Karman, the university spokesman, said he could not confirm this agreement was ever made.
Free speech on Kentucky’s college campuses is governed by a 2019 law that emphasizes the right of students and faculty members to express whatever viewpoint they choose without the restrictions of “free speech zones.” The university's Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities does say students and organizations “must not in any way interfere with the proper functioning of the university” and that the university “reserves the right to make reasonable restrictions as to time, place, and manner of the student demonstrations.”
(2/2) Thank you from the bottom & top of my heart. Your support, solidarity & advocacy has meant everything to me. Thank you fearless leader!! Love you!!
— Kaila Adia Story (@DoctressStory) February 13, 2020The university will continue to keep a police officer stationed outside the class for the remainder of the semester, Karman said.
Ariana Valasquez, president of the Louisville chapter of the Young Democrats, a student organization, said in a statement that the university is responsible for upholding free speech but also for protecting students from harm.
“The protection and safety of the students, as well as the institution of a healthy learning environment, is important to a functioning university that promotes academic discourse in a safe space,” the statement said. “When the academic boundaries of trust and safety are threatened, the university can not provide a safe space for academic discourse.”
A student showing up to a class with a differing opinion does not constitute a safety risk, said Cothran, of the Kentucky Family Foundation,
“Our concern here is that the university might be considering alternative ideas as safety threats,” he said. “That itself is a threat to the free exchange of ideas.”
The no-contact order officially stands between the student who distributed pamphlets and the class itself, Karman said.
Louisville’s Code of Student Conduct lists “restriction of contact with specific students, faculty and staff” as a sanction for an array of conduct violations, such as disruption of normal university processes and harassment. The legality of the no-contact rule depends “significantly on who the student is prohibited from contacting and the basis on which the order is imposed,” said Adam Steinbaugh, director of the individual rights defense program for FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
“If it's to prevent disruption of a particular class, that may be enforceable,” Steinbaugh wrote in an email. “But if it’s not narrowly tailored to directly advance the university's interests in a nondisruptive learning environment, it may present First Amendment problems.”
DiversityEditorial Tags: Free speechImage Source: Jeff Reinking via Getty ImagesIs this diversity newsletter?: Newsletter Order: 0Disable left side advertisement?: Is this Career Advice newsletter?: Magazine treatment: Trending: College: University of LouisvilleDisplay Promo Box:Indian government opens up market for online higher education
The government of India is for the first time allowing universities to offer fully online degrees -- a change that could reshape education delivery in the country while blowing open the door to a previously limited market for U.S.-based online education services companies.
For many years, Indian universities and colleges were not permitted to offer more than 20 percent of a degree online, in part because of concerns about quality and limited mechanisms for oversight and regulation. Now, as part of a push to widen access to higher education and raise the profile of Indian institutions globally, restrictions on online learning are starting to lift.
For U.S.-based online education platforms, the news is a welcome shift. Massive open online education providers Coursera and edX both say they hope to increase their existing presence in India and partner more deeply with institutions there.
The government’s approach to online learning is, however, still cautious. Only the top 100 institutions in India’s National Institutional Ranking Framework can apply to offer fully online degrees, and the subject areas are restricted. There will be no online medical or law degrees from the country's universities in the foreseeable future.
At the launch of India’s 2020-21 budget last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about the need to make India’s young people more employable through better higher education opportunities.
“By 2030, India is set to have the largest working-age population in the world. Not only do they need literacy, they need both job and life skills,” Sitharaman said. The government is currently working on a new national education policy, which Sitharaman said would be published soon.
A draft version of the policy outlines the important role online learning could play in reforming India’s education system and expanding access to higher education. The policy encourages Indian institutions not only to develop their own online programs, but also to recognize and award credit for online programs offered by foreign institutions. The policy proposes that some foreign institutions may be invited to operate in India -- something the country has long resisted.
In her speech, Sitharaman acknowledged that foreign investment in India’s education sector is needed to “attract talented teachers, innovate and build better labs.”
Currently, around 25 percent of students graduating from high school in India go on to pursue higher education. The Indian government wants that figure to reach 50 percent by 2035 -- doubling the country’s college and university enrollment from its current base of around 35 million students.
India has thousands of colleges and universities, but few have the campus facilities or resources to accommodate a 50 percent increase in students over the next 15 years. With no financial support to build new facilities or open new universities, enrolling students online seems the logical solution to boost capacity. But few institutions have staff who are experienced in launching online programs, and that has education service providers eyeing the subcontinent's educational landscape eagerly.
"It's a high-focus market for us," said Raghav Gupta, managing director of India and the Asia-Pacific region for Coursera. "We're thinking about how we can serve the market better. We see online education in India as a large opportunity."
Discussions about allowing universities to offer online degrees began a few years ago, but progress has been relatively slow, Gupta said. Last month, seven universities were granted approval to offer fully online programs. Gupta described these institutions as “early movers” in the online education space.
Amity University, a not-for-profit private institution with campuses across India, is launching 24 online programs, including six bachelor’s degrees and four master’s degrees. The rest are postgraduate certificate programs. Amity was the only institution to announce the launch of more than three programs. Whether the small number of programs launched by the other institutions is a reflection of their limited capacity or perhaps some trepidation about entering the online market is unclear.
Allowing universities to offer fully online programs is a significant announcement, as it will lead to “true democratization of higher education in India,” said Amit Goyal, country head of India and Southeast Asia for edX, a nonprofit.
Fully online degrees can increase enrollment and completion, while at the same time reducing barriers to entry, Goyal said. Both Gupta and Goyal predict that online degrees will likely be offered at lower cost than face-to-face programs and will likely appeal to working adults who don’t have the time to pursue a traditional on-campus degree. An online Indian degree could also be attractive to students in South Asia, Africa or the Middle East, Gupta said.
Currently most degrees in India are offered by a single institution over two to four years. Goyal thinks the landscape could become a lot more modular, with students taking courses for credit from multiple institutions around the world. This model will encourage global partnerships, but a key challenge that will continue to face education providers will be producing job-ready graduates, he said.
Both Coursera and edX already reach millions of students in India. Coursera offers courses from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and the Indian School of Business. But many more institutions are looking to move online, Gupta said. Coursera for Campus, a platform that enables institutions to create online programs, has recently been adopted by six Indian institutions, he said.
Goyal reports that several Indian universities are starting to integrate edX courses into their core curriculum. He said one large institution recently agreed to integrate edX MicroBachelors and MicroMasters programs into their on-campus IT and computer application degrees. Both platforms have also worked with employers in India to upskill current and future employees.
“Our business model and core offering will remain as is. However, we foresee a high number of blended learning or integrated degree partnerships with institutions in India,” said Goyal.
Though students and working adults in India have embraced short online courses and certificates, it remains to be seen how many will be willing to study toward a degree online amid concerns about quality and employer recognition. It's still relatively easy to buy a fake degree certificate in India, and there are dozens of unaccredited institutions still in operation.
India's University Grants Commission is responsible for validating the new online degrees and has stated it will not accept any compromises on quality.
"Industries are no longer interested in vanilla degrees, as they want professionals with relevant skills and knowledge. The online curriculum will have to be of high quality to make the students job-ready, otherwise the increase in enrollment will serve no purpose," said Bhushan Patwardhan, vice chairman of the University Grants Commission in a recent Times of India article.
Patwardhan acknowledges, however, that work will need to be done to change attitudes toward online learning.
"For these online programs to gain academic validity, the mind-set of the society must change," he said.
Online and Blended LearningEditorial Tags: Online learningImage Source: Istockphoto.com/InstantsIs this diversity newsletter?: Newsletter Order: 0Disable left side advertisement?: Is this Career Advice newsletter?: Magazine treatment: Trending: Display Promo Box:Florida tells professors not to exclude students because of coughs
The University of Florida has said that faculty members may not exclude students from class because of fears they have coronavirus.
No one at the university has been reported to have the virus, but at least one professor was trying to exclude students from his course because of coughing. (Florida is currently experiencing the flu.)
The university's provost, Joseph Glover, sent this notice to deans and department chairs:
"We are aware that some instructors have asked students who are showing visible cold- or flu-like symptoms to leave class and return with a letter from the Student Health Care Center confirming that they do not have coronavirus. Please remind your instructors that no cases of coronavirus have been reported at UF or elsewhere in Alachua County and that this area has not been identified as an area of public health concern by the CDC. While instructors are encouraged to care for their students and their health, please inform your instructors that they are not to excuse a student from class to confirm they are free of the coronavirus."
The message included a link to an update provided by the university's health center director that no cases were reported at the university.
Churchill Roberts, a professor at Florida who is active in the faculty union, the United Faculty of Florida, said via email that he was "shocked" to learn that some faculty had ordered students to be checked for the virus before returning to class.
"First of all, there have been no reported cases of the virus in Gainesville or at the University of Florida. Secondly, it’s flu season, and a number of students show symptoms of various stages of the flu. A student in my class who had what was likely the flu missed a three-hour class session week before last but returned to class this past week -- still exhibiting some symptoms," he said. "Also, faculty aren’t trained to be medical police. If they suspect a student is ill and possibly contagious, they should report the matter to their department chair so that someone in administration can decide upon a course of action."
Roberts also said he was worried "that singling out particular students could be seen as a form of racial profiling. I can’t say for sure because I don’t know any of the students who were affected, but I can envision a scenario in which students of Asian descent who have a cough and/or cold might be asked to leave the classroom to be tested, whereas non-Asian students with a cough and/or cold might go unnoticed."
Rudy Fichtenbaum, a professor of economics at Wright State University and national president of the American Association of University Professors, asked via email about the situation, agreed with the university.
"As it happens my brother is an infectious disease specialist at the University of Cincinnati, and I consulted him regarding your question. His response was that asking students to leave class and not come back until they have been tested is wrong and hysteria and likely discriminatory. In his view, no steps should be taken unless the health department or a health official calls on faculty to take some action," he said.
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