In My Orbit...
After all the holiday festivities, I'm catching up on my reading. A dear friend sent me this revelatory article from the Huffington Post about our former employer, Kaplan University. At Kaplan University, 'Guerrilla Registration' leaves students in debt.
A pull quote:
"Former admissions officers say they labored under an imperative to enroll as many students as possible, regardless of their qualifications or the likelihood they would succeed. Former academic advisors--who were supposed to be helping students make wise choices--say they felt constant pressure to keep students enrolled, regardless of all other considerations."
This goes right in line with what we experienced, and a relative who worked in admissions can corroborate this as well. Interesting that both the relative and I got fired from our positions on bogus crap. My friend was just so disgusted, she resigned.
The advisors could not care less about whether the student had a proper computer system to do the online work, plagiarism or the fact that the student couldn't even SPELL! They kept the student on the hook and ignored my copious reports on their poor showing and recommendations that the student be allowed to withdraw.
And the most reprehensible was when my sister, who was enrolled in the Kaplan paralegal program, was going through chemotherapy and could barely keep food down. Her academic advisor was calling her weekly, harassing her about attending classes, and even suggesting that HER DAUGHTER do the work for her!
After my sister died, Kaplan still called weekly, supposedly to check on her status. After two months of calls and numerous times telling them that she was no longer living, I lost it and gave the advisor what for. It was only after I went postal on her that I never heard from them again.
So I have no love lost for the company and am relishing popping the popcorn in order to watch their demise. I hope this probe nails their asses to the wall.
And of course, I wouldn't be me if I wasn't paying attention to politics, and at present, we have New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the cross-hairs. Nanny Bloomberg, famous for his billions and for leading the charge to eradicate trans-fats and salt from his fair city, cannot do the necessary work of plowing out and salting the roads of this same city after the incredible East Coast blizzards.
I recall the Chicago Blizzard of 1979. I remember watching snow fall from afternoon of New Year's Eve 1978, to late into New Years' Day 1979 and watched in rapt attention as my mother's green van got buried under several feet of snow. Being all of 12 at that time, I was cheering that I didn't have to go to school and could sled down the snow piles. But in the political realm, it was the death knell to then-Mayor Michael Bilandic, who failed to plow the city out in time for work on Monday, or for a full week afterward. Enter Jane Byrne, who handily snatched the Mayorship from his grasp because of this, among other incompetencies.
I suspect this is the siren song for Mayor Trans-Fat. It is typical of people who know nothing about real leadership to major on their minor pet causes, rather than produce action when action is needed. All he and his administration have been doing is flossing and making excuses, while industries, from Wall Street to cabs drivers, suffer the loss. I'm almost sure that come next election, the overly-taxed and snow-bound New Yorkers will say, 'Good riddance' to Nanny Bloomberg.