The Peripatetic Philosopher asks,

WHY DID ASHFORD UNIVERSITY FAIL IN CLINTON, IOWA?

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© July 14, 2015

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

Clinton, Iowa is my hometown.  It is a place comfortable with hard working and successful people who prefer a low profile to dancing in the streets presenting themselves as the hotsy totsy, a mid-20th century US term for those who think they are a class above everyone else.  They find it necessary to drive cars they can't afford, live in houses mortgaged up to the hilt, acquire fancy boats that eventually go into receivership, and dress as if their stuff doesn't stink.

Clinton isn't like that.  I know Clintononian millionaires who dress as if they are on welfare, live in modest homes, drive ten-year-old, or older jalopies, don't belong to any country club, but value education, ideas, and hard work without complaint.

Into this midst comes Ashford University with a vengeance.  It is hotsy totsy, building Mount St. Clare College and grounds and renovating the campus for upteen millions of dollars.  Then they build an entire motel of scores of units to be converted into dormitories.  

Not by any means is Ashford University through.  It buys and demolishes the Clinton Country Club and constructs a complex of athletic fields and recreational facilities on the attractive grounds.  Then it acquires the naming rights to Riverview Stadium, one of the most attractive minor league baseball parks in the nation, a place I played many games as a youth in American Legion baseball, the men's Industrial League, and for the semi-pro team called the Lyons Merchants. 

By no means, Ashford University was not through.  It constructed banks of buildings where operators handled on-line courses across the nation if not the world.

One thing Clintonians know and that is you don't live on gonna be's or gonna have's.  You live in the moment and build towards the future with intelligence, industry and modesty.  They know you cannot eat the picture in your mind of the ideal meal.  A lot of unobtrusive effort out of the spotlight must be endure before you can put that meal on the table.

Apparently, Ashford University stormed into Clinton with no idea of the history, the fortitude, the resiliency of the place, and the special place schools and churches have in the community.  This university did what several entrepreneurs have done in this flippant electronic information age.  It ran on optimism and not pragmatism.  Clinton is a pragmatic place.  Now, Ashford University is leaving and Clintonians, not Ashford, has to pick up the pieces and move forward.  

What I find amusing about this is how outsiders look at those of us who grew up in the Midwest.  While I was at the University of Iowa in Iowa City in the 1950s, Life Magazine ran an article on American universities.  It said of the University of Iowa "it is definitely not for the sophisticated."

That comment has stayed with me all my life as a badge of honor.  We in the Midwest are not about how you see us, but how we handle the business of living, which we are inclined to do quietly and unobtrusively, out of the spotlight building a solid foundation upon which to live, not sand castles in the air.

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

Paul Fain says it all in the online piece that follows:

WHY ASHFORD UNIVERSITY LOST ITS ACCREDITATION

Paul Fain © July 10, 2015

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges dealt a stinging blow to Bridgepoint Education Inc. on Monday by rejecting the for-profit’s accreditation bid for its Ashford University. The decision could mean regional accreditors will take a more assertive role in the debate over for-profit higher education.

Ashford fell short in several broad areas, according to the association, including its lack of a “sufficient core” of full-time faculty members, large numbers of students who drop out and questionable academic rigor in some areas.

The biggest problem identified by the accreditor and its review team was the university’s rapid growth, which has made the publicly traded Bridgepoint a high flyer among investors. Ashford enrolls more than 90,000 students, up from 10,000 just five years ago.

“The challenges that this rapid growth and enrollment model present to management, quality and student success cannot be overstated,” said Ralph A. Wolff, WASC’s president, in a letter to Elizabeth Tice, Ashford’s president and CEO. “Although the team found that Ashford has sought to keep pace by building its infrastructure to support this large number of online students, many of its promising initiatives are recent, some only undertaken within the last year.”

For example, the report by a (comparatively star-studded) team that reviewed Ashford’s bid found that 128,000 students withdrew from the university over the last five years, a time during which Ashford enrolled 241,000 new students, meaning that more than 50 percent dropped out.

“This level of attrition is, on its face, not acceptable,” Wolff wrote.

The site visit team said that Ashford’s students, many of whom are not academically prepared to succeed in college, might not be getting the support they need at the university. They also singled out Ashford’s emphasis on boosting enrollment versus investment in academics.

For example, Ashford employed only 56 full-time faculty members in 2011, with 2,458 part-time faculty members and 875 instructional staff, the report said. (Since then, the university reported hiring 43 new full-time faculty members.) As for student support services, Ashford has 14 writing specialists and 38 instructional specialists on staff, both inadequate numbers according to the accreditor. In contrast, the university employed 2,305 staff members in enrollment services.

“The team was concerned that this does not suggest an optimum alignment of institutional resources with stated mission and priorities,” according to the report.

Anchor Identity' in Iowa

WASC was not critical, however, of Ashford’s residential campus in Iowa, which has been a poster child for the purchase of struggling nonprofit colleges by for-profits.

The accreditor had nothing but praise for Ashford’s “on-ground” location, saying the university had made a substantial investment in improving the campus and supporting its residential students.

“As the team noted, the Iowa campus serves as an ‘anchor identity’ for thousands of online students and is highly valued and supported,” Wolff said.

That campus, which enrolled 973 students last fall, is a former religious college that Bridgepoint purchased in 2005. As part of the deal, the company got the college’s regional accreditation, through the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Critics have denounced the purchase of a college’s accreditation as being like a taxi medallion. And Bridgepoint, with its sparsely attended Iowa campus and rapid online growth, became a symbol of the perceived excess of for-profits. Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat and antagonist of the industry, has been particularly hot about Bridgepoint.

The Higher Learning Commission in 2010 rejected similar purchases of two struggling private colleges by for-profits, signaling a less favorable view of the industry -- a shift that played a significant role in Bridgepoint's decision to seek accreditation elsewhere.

Ashford officials were “disappointed” by WASC’s decision, they said in a written statement. The university now faces a difficult dance to keep its accreditation, a crucial step because its students would not be able to receive federal financial aid if the university no longer held regional accreditation.

The university said it plans to appeal the WASC ruling. It will also participate in a reapplication process, by submitting a report in response to the decision. The commission permits a follow-up site visit, as early as next spring, and could consider the reapplication by June 2013.

In the meantime, Ashford will need to work on its status with the Higher Learning Commission. Bridgepoint said in a corporate filing that the university intends to maintain that accreditation until it can be transferred to WASC. That might not be easy. The Midwestern accreditor advised the university that it has until the end of the year to demonstrate that it is in compliance with requirements that it have a "substantial presence" in the region.

“It is expected that the institution would need to consolidate a significant portion of its educational administration and activity, business operations and executive and administrative leadership” in the 19-state region the Higher Learning Commission oversees, according to a Bridgepoint corporate filing. Without that consolidation, the commission could give Ashford the boot.

In the wake of WASC's decision, Bridgepoint's share price tumbled Monday by 34 percent.

While Ashford was shot down in its initial effort to look westward, WASC took another action Monday that was a win for a for-profit. (See related article today.)

The commission allowed UniversityNow, a for-profit that runs the competency-based New Charter University, to purchase Patten University, a struggling religious college located in Oakland. UniversityNow also got Patten’s regional accreditation as part of the deal.

Sound familiar?

Concern about Academic Rigor

WASC was under plenty of pressure to get its review of Ashford right. Harkin and other for-profit critics were watching closely, as were the industry’s advocates and investors.

The commission put together a team of heavy hitters to handle its site visit. Leading the 12-member team was Stanley O. Ikenberry, a professor and president emeritus of the University of Illinois and former president of the American Council on Education, the main association of college presidents. Others included Jane Wellman, an expert on higher education finance and executive director of the National Association of System Heads, and Sally Johnstone, vice president for academic advancement at Western Governors University.

The group’s 73-page final report did not give a thumbs-down to Ashford, leaving that judgment to WASC -- a common approach in regional accreditation.

“Whether or not the team report contains a recommendation with regard to accreditation status varies from accreditor to accreditor,” said Judith Eaton, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, in a written statement. “In any event, the authority to make the final accreditation decision rests with the accrediting commission.”

However, the team described a wide range of problems its members found at Ashford during a review that included five days of visits to Iowa and San Diego. And because the issues were in multiple realms, the commission chose to deny the university’s bid.

The report praises Ashford and Bridgepoint for their cooperation with what was described as an intensive review. It also said Ashford’s faculty and staff are dedicated to its mission, including affordability and accessibility.

“The leadership of the institution is mission-focused, energized and passionate about the purposes of the institution,” according to the report.

Ashford has begun a series of initiatives to better cope with its rapid growth, the team found. But that work is too new to judge, and its leaders are green.

“While there is excitement about the new efforts, the atmosphere appeared at times to verge on frenetic. The team observed a lack of organizational maturity and capacity to take the institution to the next level,” the report said. “Partly, this concern regarding capacity stems from the narrow range of experience demonstrated by the staff and in part from the limited academic leadership depth available to the massive online programs.”

As for academics, Ashford had conducted systematic reviews of only six of its 80 academic programs. And the commission found that the university had not thoroughly assessed the quality of its online course offerings. As a result, the commission said it had “serious concerns about the rigor of coursework, which varied from course to course and was not always at the appropriate level.”

WASC posted the full site review on its website today, as part of a path breaking effort by the agency to increase its transparency (which is likely to put pressure on other accreditors to follow suit). While public colleges often make their accreditation reviews available online, regional accreditors do not. As such, the review provides a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a private institution, one that is both large and controversial.

The review also included a survey of Ashford’s students, yielding a response rate of more than 30 percent and a largely positive view of the university. (Survey results are available at the end of the team's report.)

Harkin said in a statement that he was pleased with WASC’s “careful and thoughtful” review of Ashford. “I continue to have serious concerns about whether Bridgepoint Education and their school Ashford University – along with other for-profit schools – are providing a quality education to their student population, the majority of which are enrolled online.”

A READER RESPONDS:

Jimmy,

There’s always a story behind the story.

I suspect this one goes something like this:

For-profit colleges have the potential to obsolete (outcompete) the fat, bloated public university system.  The need for profit forces efficiency, which the public schools do not have.  Not only is modern academia a major industrial complex (rice bowl, jobs program, etc.), it’s the primary political programming mechanism for the progressive left.  It’s not going to fall without a fight, and a big one.

If one reads the accreditation rationale, it’s basically saying Ashford was flunked because it wasn’t big and fat, like us.  It didn’t have lots of services (of questionable need to students), and it didn’t have lots of snouts in the trough.  Today’s universities can and do add all manner of ‘services’, used by only a sliver of students, for which all have to pay without choice.

When everyone goes to college, it ceases to become a discriminator unless one goes into an area like medicine or engineering where the rigor of the course material limits the graduates.  We’ve got a country full of kids with six figure debt working at Starbucks.  How long is that going to work?

Education is ripe for revolution.  That should give the press something to jaw about. Thank God, I’m tired of hearing about some stupid old flag.

Cya Jimmy,

E

DR. FISHER RESPONDS:

E,

This is pure gold.

You leave out, however, that Ashford University spent money and expanded like crazy and actually duplicated much of the anachronistic model that you describe so well.

Everyone pays the Piper when they do that whatever the business, but always those who can least afford it pay the most..

Today, if you managed a glance at the Business Section of The Tampa Bay Times, that is, if you still read newspapers, you would have seen that the American Booksellers Association and the Association of Author's Representatives and Authors United have asked the Justice Department to review online retailer's practices, especially giant Amazon.com.

These disgruntled power cells fail to mention that authors and their agents and by extension, book sellers have been in collusion for years careful to see what books are on the shelves and hyped and what are not. 

Then if you have ever read on the publishing industry, itself, which I have done, the business model is no model at all.  They sell brands and celebrities, not ideas, careful to protect their membership in the sainted left. 

The irony, and this I also write about, is that less and less people are reading books at all, but yet nearly a million books are published a year, and that is not including the vanity press which is striving.  Imagine all those wasted trees. 

Amazon.com has treated me better than any other source of book selling.  In fact, it went to great lengths to see my books back into print, when due to my incompetence, I loss the manuscripts when my computer imploded.   They had to scan all my books into print.

I have a personal contact with Amazon.com's Kindle Director, and can see what you say applies to publishing as well as education.

But it goes beyond that as I have attempted to show in CORPORATE SIN.

While we're talking about fat, I've been on that corporate gravy train twice in my life, once with Nalco Chemical Company, and once with Honeywell Europe Ltd., collecting on the myth that senior executives are worthy of so much more than the minions that actually do the work.

The CEO of Honeywell, while I was involved, whose performance was close to a "D" grade, managed a multi-million dollar severance package while Honeywell's stock price plummeted on his watch. 

This was not only wrong.  To this lapsed Irish Roman Catholic, it was a mortal sin.

In THE WORKER, ALONE! GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN (now in its final form for its second edition), I write about the possibility of revolution, when, indeed, that is precisely what we seem to be experiencing, or at least its velvet version.

As usual, you write like an angel, but with a saber in hand rather than a harp

Jim