What does the future hold for Phoenix? Will it rise from the ashes that it has created? Is it likely to burn up before any chance of ascension? If the past is prologue then the seeds of demise have been sown. The reputation cannot be salvaged. Eventually even the lower demographics UOP preys on will stop enrolling; if no other reason than no enrollment personnel left. There is also the anti-college movement that will make a contribution to low enrollment. It seems people question the merits of a college degree when they incur huge debt and can't find a reasonable paying job. Many believe college should have a vocational benefit and not merely educate people and teach them how to think, evaluate, and learn. This is affecting the entire academic landscape. Throw in the Phoenix propensity for the bottom line, blatant disregard of the TBL, failure to invest in people and systems, and one has the formula for demise. Phoenix leadership has never acknowledged the elephant in the room and has failed at every leadership test. Becoming the most trusted provider of adult education in the market was a nice slogan but no one believed in management's sincerity or ability to achieve it. Phoenix can't even earn the trust of its employees let alone the market. Phoenix deserves as much criticism, scrutiny, condemnation, and rebuke, as the universe can give. It has earned it. I always had suspicions about the ability of a for profit enterprise to deliver on critical community and national initiatives. Phoenix has certainly affirmed them for me. Some 100 or more years ago most critical services like law enforcement, corrections, firefighting, etc. were made public. We created the public system of universities and education. Why? To ensure access, fairness, equality, etc. Can you imagine calling the fire department only to hear sorry, we can't help you because you are behind on your credit card payment. I believe in a mixed approach using public and private enterprise; however not as a for-profit whose primary responsibility is not to the public, or even the market, but rather to its investors. The Phoenix model was not built on a sustainable foundation. Its demise is hastened by going private where there is zero transparency. No one is held accountable now. Does the Phoenix model reflect our society's propensity for instant gratification or is it a catalyst? Is Phoenix a culprit in the anti-intellectual movement? I am beginning to think it is both. Phoenix has graduated thousands who lack depth and breadth, and for the past 10 years or so, graduates who have remedial writing and critical thinking skills. Has Phoenix contributed to a society which prefers short-cuts, the path of least resistance, and either avoids or is unable to think critically? Or is it a mere reflection?
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Perfectly said “ Phoenix can't even earn the trust of its employees let alone the market. ”
They are sociopaths plain and simple. They won'tl tell you when they knowingly can't provide this or that to facilitate a student's academic success but rather that you should have performed your own due diligence.
But by then it's too late. The ship has sailed. The time and money has been extracted and then it's on to the next victim.
So now the tactic is to add Jesus into the mix and seek non-profit status. The people behind this deception are known simply as confidence men. They will work their mischief until it's on to the next scheme. They and their enablers have done their best to employ the ad hoc management style of putting ill gotten gains ahead of anything that helps people recieive an education at an affordable price. A person has to do nothing more than look at the graduation and retention statisic of UoP schools to know that this is inexcusably true. One only has to ask how much is the true cost to graduate but one person when so many are left behind? It's astounding to say the least.
So It is well known at all levels of the academic community that the many now defunct for-profits and their emergent shape shifting non-profit shape shifters have been exposed and will continue to be exposed as the bad actors that for the most part they have always been.
The problem is that this can't happen soon enough and time is running out as the demographic prey dwindle to virtually non-exsistent. And all the analytic computer programs and lead generators and employee brow beating in the world won't change that reality.
But still the denial, compartmentalizing and excuses will prevail untill one morning the doors are found locked and chained.