Everyone's favorite Miss Asperger 2019, Gruesome Greta, sailed across the Atlantic so as to not use carbon but her crew flew back as she likely will because she now has no crew.  Her flying alone would have released much less carbon but environmental types are normally hypocrites.  And I bet she threw her turds over the side and likely choked a dolphin.

https://ijr.com/thunbergs-sailing-team-w...ndly-trip/

Treble damages and attorney fees. This is what happens when normal people get a load of what is happening on Marxist college campuses. Turtleboy had the best take I saw:

Quote:Dumbass Oberlin College Students Cost The School $33 Million For Destroying A Family Owned Business They Called Racist After A Whiny Bitch Got Caught Stealing



Oberlin College's most famous alumni is Lena Dunham. Nuff said. The private Ohio school also made headlines when their students demanded that the college pay them to protest, protested over cultural appropriation when they served Asian food and fried chicken in the cafeteria, and demanded that the college replace grades below C with a "conversation" with the professor because Karl Marx was racist.

Well, they're back in the news again, and this time it's because a local business called Gibson's Bakery hit back against an Oberlin College outrage mob that falsely labeled them as racist and destroyed their business (which had been around since 1885), and now the college has to pay them up to $33 million:

An Ohio jury has ordered Oberlin College to pay $11 million to a bakery which said it was libeled and wrongfully accused of racially profiling students. Next Tuesday there will be a separate punitive damages hearing which could be a double award (meaning tripling the $11 million to $33 million). According to our reporter in the Courtroom, the jury awarded $11 million. Here are the details: Allyn W. Gibson was awarded $3 million, David Gibson $5.8 million, Gibson Bros. $2,274,500. The case stems from the November 2016 arrests of three black Oberlin students at Gibson's Bakery and market near the college's campus in Oberlin, Ohio. One student, Jonathan Aladin, was accused of attempted robbery for allegedly trying to "steal wine or otherwise illegally obtain wine" from the bakery, according to a defamation lawsuit. He would eventually confess in a written statement to buying alcohol illegally. Two other suspects, Cecelia Whettston and Endia J. Lawrence, were arrested and accused of misdemeanor assault, court documents state.

After that, Oberlin staff members tried to discredit the family-owned bakery, the lawsuit says. Oberlin College staff "including deans and professors and students engaged in demonstrations in front of Gibson's Bakery following the arrests of the three students," the lawsuit stated. The suit also said Oberlin Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo and other college staff members "handed out hundreds of copies" of a flier to the community and the media stating that Gibson's Bakery and its owners racially profiled and discriminated against the three students.

The court documents include a copy of the flier, which included the words "DON'T BUY." "This is a RACIST establishment with a LONG ACCOUNT of RACIAL PROFILING and DISCRIMINATION," the flier read, according to the lawsuit. The flier also listed 10 of the bakery's competitors and urged customers to shop there instead.

Then in November 2016, the lawsuit stated, Oberlin College said it severed its business ties with Gibson's Bakery. The shop had provided baked goods for the school's dining services through a third-party company. While those business ties were reinstated three months later, the shop had already suffered severe consequences, the suit said. The combined effects of the "defamation, boycotts, demonstrations, and refusal to do business with Gibson's Bakery was having a devastating effect on Gibson's Bakery and the Gibson family," the lawsuit stated.











Oops!

This is so satisfying in so many ways. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- there is nothing worse than being labeled as a racist in 2019. You're better off being known as the guy who diddles the neighborhood kids, because at least he has a "disease." Once the mob has arbitrarily decided that you're a racist they will not stop until you are destitute. They've been doing this for years, a lot of the time on college campuses, and someone finally had the balls to stand up and say enough is enough.

This is Elijah Aladin, the student who got caught stealing two bottles of wine, hit the clerk's cell phone out of his hand when the clerk attempted to take a picture of him, and then assaulted him, along with two female students, inside and outside the store.



He of course played the "I'm an oppressed and marginalized person" card and got everyone at the school riled up that he was the victim here. According to his LinkedIn bio he attended Phillips Academy in Andover, a very expensive boarding school.

 

Very oppressed.

Now watch the body cam footage from the incident, and see for yourself what the whiniest bitch in the history of imaginary oppression did when the cops got there and found him on top of the clerk.









The best part was around 1:50 when he says, "they're going to kill me," and the white savior lady urging the cops not to arrest him says, "No, he will not kill you." Spit out my coffee at that one.

"Why do you think you're going to get killed?"

"Because I'm scared of police! I'm a black man in custody of police."

"Well I haven't hurt anyone in my life."

"I'm soo scared!!"

Either he's so sheltered and brainwashed that he believes that cops automatically kill every black person they arrest, or he's been trained to never take personal responsibility, blame other people for his own failures, and always play the race card when in doubt. I'm going with the latter.

That spoiled, rich, privileged little shitstain, is everything that is wrong with victimhood culture today. He tried to steal from a local family owned business that's been there since 1885. He then assaulted the guy who he was stealing from, at a store where margins are probably razor thin. After being arrested he acted like he was the victim and asked why the store owner wasn't arrested for defending his property and himself. And instead of the college expelling three ungrateful brats who attacked an institution that has been a business partner of the college for decades, they paid for their lawyers and led a protest outside of the business.

Of course it didn't help the school for the lawsuit when all three of the defendants plead guilty, and issued strongly worded statements saying that Gibson's wasn't racist, and that the students were in the wrong.



Here's video from a day of the protests. Lots of white guil[t] laden 19 year old white kids feeling good about themselves:











Feelin cute. Might destroy a family owned business and in turn cost my college $33 million in order to feel good about myself later. IDK.

Almost every kid the reporter from a MSM outlet tried to interview said no. That about sums up how stupid these idiots are. They're really good at writing "black lives matter" on a cardboard sign, but when you ask them to actually articulate why they're protesting on behalf of three criminals none of them know what to say.

But those are just dumbass college kids, and that's the nature of the beast. The real problem here, just like at 99% of colleges in this country, are the adults who brainwash these kids to think like this, and then encourage them to act like this. And justice was served on Friday when Dean Meredith Raimondo was found guilty along with the school itself. According to witnesses she was at the protest and facilitated it, rather than being the adult and reminding the kids that Elijah Aladin is a thief, not a victim. We know this because a black employee at the store testified against her:

Clarence "Trey" James, an African-American who had worked at the store since 2013, first denied that any racism existed in either the store's treatment of its customers, or how he has been treated. "Never, not even a hint," James said. "Zero reason to believe, zero evidence of that."

James said he had moved to Oberlin from Cleveland to have a better family life for his young daughter. He is a single-father of a teenager, and he said that he and his daughter were invited over Dave Gibson's house for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

James said he was working at the store during the protests and could see Raimondo directly outside the front door, as he was working the cash register near the front windows and store entrance. Raimondo has claimed she was merely at the protest because it was her administrative duty to oversee the safety of the students and to keep the event "lawful." She has repeatedly said she was not an "active participant."

But James said he saw Raimondo "standing directly in front of the store with a megaphone, orchestrating some of the activities of the students. It appeared she was the voice of authority. She was telling the kids what to do, where to go. Where to get water, use the restrooms, where to make copies."

The copy making was needed to get more flyers for the students to pass out. These flyers said Gibson's had a long history of racial profiling, had assaulted the shoplifting students, encouraged a boycott of Gibson's, and gave a list of other stores to shop with.

James said Raimondo was taking part in the distribution of these flyers. "She had a stack of them," James testified, "and while she was talking on the bullhorn, she handed out half of them to a student who then went and passed them out."







When you hire a woman who doesn't understand that she looks like last call trash at the Blarney when she wears a sleeveless dress knowing that she has a full tat on your left bicep, this is what happens.

Oh, and if you're gonna trash a locally owned business and might get sued because of it, you should probably make sure you don't use your school email address:

When Roger Copeland, an Oberlin College professor of theater and dance (he is "emeritus" status now) wrote a letter to the campus newspaper soon after the protests ended, and criticized how the school was treating Gibson's in the letter, Jones sent a text message in caps saying, "FUCK ROGER COPELAND."

"Fuck him," Raimondo responded in a message. "I'd say unleash the students if I wasn't convinced this needs to be put behind us."

"Fuck him." This woman is what happens when white trash gets a Masters Degree in social justice.

Other administrators called the police liars:

Jones responded that the "Gibsons' hands were not clean" and that the incident with Allyn D. Gibson was "not an isolated incident, but a pattern." He also said the police report on the incident was "bullshit."

While another one physically blocked someone from taking pictures of students protesting in a public area:

McDaniel said he started taking pictures with his cell phone, and a young man came up to him and started blocking his phone with flyers in his hand. McDaniel said he kept moving and the man moved with him, blocking his ability to take picture over and over. "I'm with the college," the man answered when the former Oberlin College police chief asked him why he was blocking his ability to take pictures. McDaniel testified he found out later the man hounding him over picture taking was Julio Reyes, associate director of the school's multi-resource center.

"I told him 'I'm going to just going to wait until your silly ass leaves and [I'll] start taking pictures again without you trying to block me,'" McDaniel testified. "He answered that he was going to come back when I wasn't looking and key my car."

The school did nothing when students published this hilarious op-ed in the school sanctioned newspaper, blaming the Gibson family for pursuing a lawsuit against a school that had caused them financial harm by ending a business relationship because they sided with the thief instead of the victim.

News of the lawsuit -- which is meant to bully and intimidate College students, faculty, and staff, and can be read in full on the Review's website -- was relayed to the College community almost exactly one year after students initiated a protest against Gibson's Bakery following a violent altercation at the store involving College students.

"When people stand up for themselves and call out my bullshit it's bullying."

In reading the legal documents filed by the Gibson family, it is clear that their intention is to provoke an explosive, emotional response from students.

"Holding people responsible for damages is provoking."

The documents also have racist undertones that further expose the core reasons for the lawsuit. The Gibsons have no interest in finding any resolution to this conflict -- instead, they seek to assert their prideful moral superiority over the College, which they view as biased and discriminatory.

"Due process is racist."

Didn't help that they praised the Dean being sued too:

We should also lend our support to Dean Raimondo, who works tirelessly to support students. Even when students do not agree with her, her compassion and commitment to us never wavers.

The school responded to the lawsuit by canceling their contract with the bakery, which made them look a million times worse to the jury.

Let this be a lesson to virtue signaling SJWs -- when you get woke, you go broke. The students in your school are powerless. Their protests mean nothing. They are gone after 3-4 years, but you and the local business have to keep a healthy relationship. Don't let some privileged queefs running up hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt put you in financial ruin because you're too gutless to stand up for them. Be the adult, expel kids who get arrested, and side with victims instead of criminals.

The bastard might still be dead, but his sociopathy lingers on. When this RA Gold Standard prof was captured for responding to a prostitution ad placed by the cops, he claimed he was just doing "research."? Yeah, right. Because prostitution is an integral part of the "Web Technology" curriculum.?

Quote:U of M professor arrested after seeking prostitution
Photo: Olmsted County Jail
Solen Feyissa.

March 21, 2019 02:59 PM

A University of Minnesota educator is facing possible charges after authorities say he responded to a false prostitution ad, according to a report from KAAL-TV in Rochester, a Hubbard-owned station.

Police identified the man as Solen Feyissa of Rochester, according to KAAL.

Police said someone responded to the ad placed by police and made arrangements to meet at a local hotel.
?
The police report said Feyissa told officers he was a professor of web technologies at the University of Minnesota and claimed he was doing research as a part of his job.

KAAL reports Feyissa was charged with engaging in prostitution in public, a gross misdemeanor.

Quote:U of M professor caught in prostitution sting
Friday, March 22, 2019 1:26 p.m. CDT

Solen Feyissa

ROCHESTER, MN - A University of Minnesota professor claims he was doing research when arrested in Rochester responding to a fake prostitution ad.

Police took out the false ad two years ago to find suspects looking to engage in sex and someone contacted them Wednesday afternoon. Investigators say 36-year-old Solen Feyissa arranged to meet at a hotel and pay $150 for services.

Feyissa was arrested based on the online conversation setting up the meeting for sex. He told detectives he was a U of M professor of web technologies and was doing research as part of his job.

Feyissa is charged with a gross misdemeanor count of engaging in prostitution in a public place.

Quote:Rep. Thomas Massie Reintroduces Bill to Abolish Education Department



by Dr. Susan Berry   1 Feb 2019

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) reintroduced a bill Wednesday that would abolish the Department of Education.

Massie announced his plan to reintroduce his one-sentence bill to end the department in a Facebook post.

“The bill states, ‘The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2020,’” wrote the congressman. “Neither Congress nor the President, through his appointees, has the constitutional authority to dictate how and what our children must learn.”

Massie continued:

Quote:Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development. States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable. Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school.

Massie’s bill was reintroduced as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced an executive order eliminating the federally incentivized Common Core State Standards – which were rebranded as the Florida Standards – in his state:

Quote:Common Core has failed teachers, parents, and our children. That’s why I am issuing an Executive Order to eliminate Common Core in Florida. We will streamline standardized testing, make civics a priority in schools and increase the literacy rate.

In an interview with Breitbart News in February 2017 – following the introduction of his original bill to eliminate the Education Department – Massie said people should take his bill seriously “because, for the first time since Ronald Reagan, we have a president in the White House who would conceivably sign this bill.”

The original legislation was proposed at a time when Massie believed he could get both conservatives and liberals on board with it.

He explained at the time:

Quote:I’ve had the bill prepared since December of last year in anticipation of offering it this year. But, as we received more and more phone calls from people who wanted me to vote against Betsy DeVos – and I had to explain to them that it is the constitutional role of the Senate to advise and consent, not the House – they would then ask me to do anything I could to oppose her nomination. And, so, this bill seemed like the obvious answer to their question: What can I do to oppose her nomination?

DeVos’s confirmation was opposed by groups on both the left and the right. Teachers’ unions and their political backers have opposed DeVos’s support of school choice – which they fear will divert funding from public schools to private schools. Additionally, groups that note the education secretary has promoted the massive federal education law known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) also oppose DeVos. Like Massie, these constitutionally based groups would like to see the federal role in education end.

Though Massie’s bill does not address the details of how the department would dismantle its many programs, he said, when the original bill was introduced, that he would propose DeVos, President Donald Trump, and Congress “work to either devolve those programs to the states, or transfer the authority for those programs to other departments.”

“Ideally, all of these programs would be administered at the state level, including the authority for the tax collection,” he explained. “In fact, some of these programs could be done at the local school district level.”

“I like to point out that there are 4,500 bureaucrats in the Department of Education, and their average salary is $105,000 a year,” Massie continued. “I’ve seen that irritate a lot of people back in Kentucky who have to have bake sales to buy copier paper for their classrooms.”

In an interview with The New American, Massie observed that the Education Department was “established by unpopular President Jimmy Carter as a ‘re-election tactic, as a ploy.’”

“But I saw an opportunity to re-introduce this notion as a bill when everybody got upset about [Trump Education Secretary] Betsy DeVos’ confirmation,” he said. “That was the last controversial confirmation.”

In his post about the reintroduction of his bill, the Kentucky Republican noted:

Quote:President Ronald Reagan once said, “There’s only one way to shrink the size and cost of big government, and that is by eliminating agencies that are not needed and are getting in the way of a solution … By eliminating the Department of Education … we cannot only reduce the budget but ensure that local needs and preferences, rather than the wishes of Washington, determine the education of our children.”

Massie noted that the original co-sponsors of the bill included Reps. Justin Amash (R-MI), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Jody Hice (R-GA), Walter Jones (R-NC), Chip Roy (R-TX), and Randy Weber (R-TX).

Quote:Have Online Degrees and Credentials Finally Lost Their Stigma?
By Cait Etherington
December 17, 2018


A new report by Northeastern University’s Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy has concluded that employers—specifically, human resources (HR) leaders—are now increasingly interested in candidates’ credentials, not simply their degrees. The study also found that most HR leaders no longer view online degrees or credentials as inferior to those earned on campus. But does this mean that the stigma that once shrouded online education has finally lifted?

When Online Degrees and Credentials Carried a Deep Stigma

In the early 2000s, it wasn’t unusual to hear people joking about online degrees and credentials. At the time, it was widely assumed that anyone with an online education was less qualified than someone who had sweat it out on campus in an actual classroom. The stigma of studying online wasn’t entirely unfounded. In the 1990s to early 2000s, “diploma mills”—unaccredited online programs—were widespread and operating with few checks and balances. 

In 2009, Norina L. Columbaro and Catherine H. Monaghan, researchers at the Cleveland State University, published an article analyzing dozens of studies and popular articles on employers’ perceptions of online degrees. By and large, they found that “gatekeepers”—for example, employers and hiring managers—“have an overall negative perception about online degrees.” In their survey, Columbaro and Monaghan also found several recurring concerns about online degrees. These concerns ranged from a perceived lack of rigor to concerns about the increased potential for academic dishonesty. Not surprisingly, the fact that online degrees were still associated with an earlier generation of diploma mills was also a concern. 

Among the many studies and popular articles included in Columbaro and Monaghan’s 2009 publication was a 2003 article published in the Chronicle of Higher Education. In the article, Gabriela Montell scathingly observed that online degree programs tend to attract “managerial wannabes, career changers, or academic hopefuls.” But as Montell noted, especially when learners pursue online PhDs, they tend to be “a flop on the job market.” While Montell notes that this is partly due to the fact that online PhD students typically graduate without teaching experience or a publication record (both important hiring considerations on the academic job market), she also notes that the stigma attached to online degrees doesn’t help matters: 

Quote:Even if a hiring committee has heard of the institution, the stigma associated with “distance” or “online” learning can still be a strike against a candidate … In fact, the stigma is so great that some administrators avoid using words like “online” to describe their nontraditional programs because doing so, they say, perpetuates a misperception that students are isolated from professors in the programs. 

Gaining Recognition and Prestige

Over the past twenty years, a lot has changed. Today, a growing number of prestigious universities, including Harvard and MIT, are embracing online learning. Companies like Coursera are also showing how online learning companies can successfully partner with established universities to deliver quality undergraduate and graduate degrees.  In addition, more than ever before, employers and hiring managers are indicating that they don’t care if a prospective employee earned their degree or credential on campus or online. 

In a July 2018 post on LinkedIn, Carolyn McIntyre, Founder and CEO at MoocLab and e-Learninglab, observes:

Quote:“Although the traditional degree certificate is still the more valued credential among employers in general, employers in today’s job market are looking for technically skilled, job-ready candidates which a traditional degree doesn’t always guarantee. Being able to show physical evidence of your abilities is becoming increasingly important in recruitment, and MOOCs can play a key role in this with many MOOC programs culminating in a practical capstone project, giving employers a clear picture of a candidate’s abilities.

Quote:“Moreover, having a transcript of MOOC certificates issued by some of the world’s most elite universities by the likes of MIT, Harvard and Stanford demonstrates in itself motivation, perseverance, dedication and entrepreneurship – traits that all employers will be looking for in a candidate. It is then up to the candidate to show tangible proof of the hard skills he or she has acquired through course certificates and transcripts as well as any evidence of completed project work.”

According to the Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy’s new report, Educational Credentials Come of Age: A Survey on the Use and Value of Educational Credentials in Hiring, McIntyre’s perception that online credentials are gaining acceptance is also something shared by a lot of HR leaders. 

To find out what HR leaders think about online credentials, researchers at the Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy designed and executed a national survey of 750 HR leaders at U.S. employers that spanned all industry sectors and organizational sizes. Their survey found that perceptions and attitudes about both online credentials and degrees are finally shifting. As the authors of the study write: 

Quote:“The online delivery of degrees is one of the most significant innovations in higher education over the last 20 years. Online education now accounts for 16% of all higher education enrollment in the U.S., at 3.1 million students. As online degree attainment has become more common, employer perception has been continuously evolving. In the early days, online degrees were often stigmatized by employers and associated with “online schools” in a market dominated by for-profit universities.Today’s online education landscape includes thousands of degree and certificate offerings from colleges of all types – including many of the world’s most well-known and prestigious institutions.”

Two of the study’s findings are particularly significant. First, the survey found that skills-based or competency-based hiring is currently gaining momentum; a majority of HR leaders indicate that they are making an effort to “de-emphasize” degrees and prioritize skills in their hiring strategy (23%) or are actively exploring and considering how to move in this direction (39%). While the study did find that “Employer awareness and experience with candidates who hold non-degree ‘microcredentials’ is still relatively low …  this is evolving rapidly in a growing market.” Second, the study found that online credentials are now “mainstream.” The majority of HR leaders surveyed (61%) believed that credentials earned online are of “generally equal quality to those completed in-person,” and this represents a significant increase over previous years’ surveys.

The Future of Online Credentials and Degrees 

In 2018, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that one out of three college students now takes at least one class online. The finding is notable since it suggests that even students studying on campus are increasingly completing at least part of their education in the online ecosystem. While the same article emphasizes that the medium is still often misunderstood by the general public, and sometimes within higher education itself, studies such as Educational Credentials Come of Age indicate that among employers, the stigma once attached to online degrees is rapidly melting away. 

For online degrees and credentials to continue gaining currency over the next decade, it will be important for researchers to continue tracking employer perceptions of candidates who have pursued their educations online. Long-term data on the success of these candidates, especially those who have chosen to forego a traditional degree in lieu of a “microdegree” or other type of alternative credential, may prove especially salient. If online learners, especially those who choose not to pursue a traditional four-year degree, prove successful over time on the job, the impact on on-campus undergraduate and graduate degrees could be profound.

Being a normal man is a mental illness.  Dressing up as a girl and having your buddies butt fuck you is apparently normal.  Welcome to 21st century academics.

https://www.foxnews.com/health/american-...harassment

Another one down, how many more to go?

Quote:Leader of global child porn ring killed in prison beating
By Sara Dorn
 
January 5, 2019 | 2:15pm | Updated January 6, 2019 | 9:59am


Christian Maire
Oakland County Sheriff's Office

The leader of an international child porn ring was killed in a prison beating this week — after one of his victims predicted his fate.

Christian Maire, a married father-of-two from Binghamton, was sentenced in December to 40 years in prison after the FBI discovered he was the mastermind behind a twisted Internet gang dubbed “The Bored Group.”

Maire and his eight counterparts posed as adolescent boys on teenage dating sites and convinced young girls to strip, masturbate and perform other sex acts via webcam, according to investigators. They even lured some of their victims to cut themselves on camera.

At his sentencing, a female victim forecasted Maire’s demise, the Detroit News reported.

“He’s gonna get the hell beat out of him,” the now-20-year-old seethed.

Fellow inmates at the federal prison in Milan, Michigan, where Maire was locked up, attacked him Friday, according to the outlet. Maire died at a hospital several hours later.

The prison melee left four injured, including two guards. At least one of the attackers was armed with a homemade knife, federal officials told the Detroit News.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons is investigating Maire’s death as a homicide. The prison was placed on “limited operational status” with visiting suspended, according to the Detroit Free Press.

“It’s a horrible tragedy and it seems something like this should have been able to be avoided,” Maire’s lawyer Mark Kriger told the Detroit News.

John Klempner Bear, the Janus of Distance Learning, lets it slip.  Doogle Arse's dissertation research was another group project, conducted "with" Rich Douglas but not by Rich Douglas.

Quote:In 2000, Bear, who has a Ph.D. in communications from Michigan State University, conducted diploma mill research with Rich Douglas, a long time Air Force education officer. They sent questionnaires to 300 university registrars asking whether they would accept degrees from a variety of schools "always, usually, sometimes, rarely or never.’’

"The LaSalle response was ‘never’ in every case,’’ Bear said.

Quote:Fully Online edX Masters Programs
Written by Sue Gee   
Tuesday, 23 October 2018

Earlier this month edX announced that starting next fall it would offer fully online Master's degrees, including ones related to computer science and data science. Some of them build on existing MicroMaster's programs providing "stackable credentials" along the way.

In his blog post making this announcement  Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX writes:

The Master’s degrees on edX come at a time when the workplace is changing more rapidly than ever before. Employers are in need of highly-skilled talent, especially in fields most impacted by advances in technology.  

We built these programs for you, our learners, so that you can earn a top ranked graduate degree, at a disruptive price, in a flexible way.

His post included the information that the average Master’s graduate increases their salary by $17,000 per year, yet the average Master’s degree costs between $30,000-$120,000. The cost of a Master’s degrees on edX is planned to be between $10,000-$23,000, making it a realistic proposition for many more individuals.

Agarwal also notes the way in which the new Master's programs  builds on the edX MicroMasters® program, which we have previously introduced, see Statistics & Data Science MicroMasters on edX. He writes:

Similar to how a MicroMasters program can stack into an on-campus Master’s degree, a MicroMasters program can also stack into a fully online Master’s program. This allows you to start engaging with Master’s level curriculum right away in order to determine if both the online learning experience and the subject matter are a fit, before the Master’s application deadline. Taking the MicroMasters program first can also help to strengthen your Master’s degree application. Further, the MicroMasters program is a valuable career transformation tool on its own, providing you with valuable standalone skills and credentials, and recognized by industry leaders for real career relevancy. 

All the new edX-based offerings come from top-rated universities and are promised to be as rigorous as campus-based equivalents. For us the most relevant is the Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin. It consists of 10 courses to be studied over a period between eighteen months t to 3 years at a cost of $10,000.


 
Others of interest are the Master of Data Science from the University of California comprising 10 courses to be studied over 1 to 3 years at a cost of $15,000 and two offerings from the Georgia Institute of Technology: Master of Science in Cybersecurity, which consists of 10 courses over 2 to 3 years at a cost of $9,920 and Master of Science in Analytics, which consists of 11 courses over 1 to 3 years at a cost of $9,900. It is described as a deep dive into analytics in which students choose from 3 specialized tracks:

• Analytical Tools
  
• Business Analytics
  
• Computation Data Analytics
  

Quote:San Diego’s Northcentral University sued for allegedly defrauding its online students
The San Diego Union Tribune By Gary Robbins Sept. 7, 2018

A little-known online university has been sued in U.S. District Court in San Diego for allegedly recruiting students by falsely promising them that they could quickly earn comparatively inexpensive doctoral degrees. The class action lawsuit was filed Thursday against Northcentral University (NCU), a for-profit school located on Point Loma.

Court documents say that suit was filed on behalf of Christina Torres, a New York City doctoral student who claims to have attended NCU from 2010-17. Other plaintiffs could be added later.

“NCU’s doctoral programs were essentially bait-and-switch operations,” claims the lawsuit. “The bait was displayed when NCU’s marketing materials misled prospective students by promising that doctoral degrees would cost less, and take less time, to complete than the programs would actually take.

“For example, students seeking a Doctor of Education were told that it would take ‘3.5 years’ at a cost of $30,000. However, NCU’s own documents confirm that the Ed.D program was in fact ‘designed’ to take 83 months, or nearly 7 years, which would result in a cost exceeding $50,000.”

“When the students attempted to obtain their degree, they met an endless series of hurdles, delays, and tuition payments, resulting in students incurring unnecessary additional loans beyond those they expected to incur based on the time frames promised by NCU.”

David Harpool, provost of NCU, said in a statement to the Union-Tribune:

“Northcentral University takes our students’ concerns very seriously, and any concerns that we receive are carefully reviewed.

“Northcentral University is unique among doctoral degree-granting institutions, with a one-to-one teaching model (taught by a 100 percent doctoral faculty) and a proven track record of helping doctoral students complete both their dissertation and degree successfully.

“In fact, we have created an approach to dissertation completion that is unique in higher education and is specifically tailored for busy working professionals. Northcentral University has helped thousands of students successfully earn their doctoral degrees, and we are extremely proud of the programs we’ve developed to help them along their path.”

The lawsuit comes less than two months after the San Diego-based National University System announced that it intends to acquire NCU in a deal that’s expected to close by the end of the year.

The plan is to make NCU an affiliate that would provide National with something it needs — a larger number of affordable graduate courses.

National told the Union-Tribune on Friday that it has no comment on the lawsuit.

Quote:Northcentral University Sued for Using Abusive Marketing Techniques
The College Post By Staff Writer Sept. 11, 2018

The Northcentral University (NCU) has landed itself in a soup after a former student filed a class-action complaint against the online school in a federal court. The complaint, filed by Christina Torres in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, alleges the online-only for-profit university of using abusive market schemes to lure students by promising quick degrees. The school has been accused of dragging the degrees for years leaving students with huge loan burdens.

Torres, who attended the university between 2010 to 2017, seeking a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), was told that she would complete her degree at the cost of $30,600 in three and a half to five years, but it took nearly 7 years costing her more than $50,000.

“NCU never dealt with me on the level. If they had not misrepresented the timeline, costs, and hurdles to completing this doctoral program or if they had just honestly disclosed their scheme, I would not have enrolled at NCU. Period,” she said.

“I certainly would not have put myself on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in student loans to finance my education. They wasted my time, sidelined my ambitions, created a huge delay in my life, and forced me into deep debt.”

According to Torres’ attorney Joseph Peiffer, the university uses a bait and switch marketing scheme in its doctoral programs.

“NCU is running what is essentially The bait is displayed when NCU’s marketing materials and employees mislead prospective students by promising that doctoral degrees will cost less and take less time to complete than those programs would actually take,” Peiffer said.

“Prospective students take NCU’s bait when they commit to attend the university, pay substantial tuition and fees, and obtain hefty student loans.”

Quote:San Diego For-Profit University Accused of "Bait-and-Switch" Tactics in Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Hundreds of Debt-Crippled Students

Northcentral University is 3rd Online-Only University to be Named in Class Action Lawsuits Filed by Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane; NCU Accused of Luring in Students With False Promises of Quick, Low-Cost Doctorate Degrees.
Sep 06, 2018, 16:28 ET

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hundreds and possibly thousands of doctoral students attending the online-only for-profit Northcentral University, Inc. (NCU) have been subjected to an abusive marketing scheme under which degrees are promised relatively quickly and at low cost, but then drag out for years longer and tens of thousands of dollars in additional student loan debt, according to a class-action complaint filed today by the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane (PWCK) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, San Diego Division.  For more information on the lawsuit go to www.ncuclassaction.com.

The class-action complaint was filed on behalf of Christina Torres, a Bronx, New York City resident who attended NCU from 2010-2017. Torres and other students seeking a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree from NCU were told that it would take "three and a half to five years" at a cost of $30,600. However, NCU's own documents confirm that the Ed.D. program was in fact "designed" to take 83 months, or nearly seven years, resulting in a cost exceeding $50,000. NCU appears to have made such representations across its entire range of doctorate programs.  

It also appears that NCU is still falsely advertising online as of today that it can deliver a degree quickly and at a low cost.

The NCU lawsuit is the third such lawsuit to be filed against an online-only, for-profit university by Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane. PWCK also has filed such complaints against Walden University and Capella University, both of Minnesota. For-profit universities received extensive attention under the Obama Administration, which created the Gainful Employment disclosure requirement that exposed false marketing claims made by NCU and other for-profit universities. Trump Administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has taken steps to eliminate the vitally important public disclosure rule.

Joseph Peiffer, managing shareholder and attorney, PWCK, said: "NCU is running what is essentially a bait-and-switch marketing scheme in its doctoral programs. The bait is displayed when NCU's marketing materials and employees mislead prospective students by promising that doctoral degrees will cost less and take less time to complete than those programs would actually take. Prospective students take NCU's bait when they commit to attend the university, pay substantial tuition and fees, and obtain hefty student loans. Because those students rely upon NCU's misrepresentations and omissions, they are now saddled with crippling debt, bad credit, inability to obtain additional student loans, useless course credits that will not transfer to other institutions, and for many, no doctoral degree. It's the dog that never catches its tail."

Christina Torres said: "NCU never dealt with me on the level. If they had not misrepresented the timeline, costs, and hurdles to completing this doctoral program or if they had just honestly disclosed their scheme, I would not have enrolled at NCU. Period. I certainly would not have put myself on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in student loans to finance my education. They wasted my time, sidelined my ambitions, created a huge delay in my life, and forced me into deep debt."

Paul Lesko, attorney, PWCK, said: "As a for-profit corporation, NCU has clear incentives to mislead students about how long it will take to complete its doctoral programs. First, the longer it takes for a student to get a degree, the more tuition and fees (and profit) NCU receives. Second, because NCU knows that most of its students rely on loans to finance their education and will consider the expected total cost of a doctoral program before agreeing to enroll, NCU has every reason to make its programs appear as affordable as possible, even though they are not affordable. NCU also knows that once students have paid tens of thousands of dollars to partially complete their program, they will be compelled to continue enrolling for additional semesters (and taking out additional loans) for fear of having nothing to show for the time and resources that they have already committed."

NCU currently has approximately 10,000 students, 5,500 alumni and potentially thousands of former doctoral students who did not graduate, many presumably due to delayed degrees or mounting student debt. Nearly all (98 percent) of NCU's current student body is composed of graduate students, 69 percent of whom are enrolled in doctoral degree programs.

As the class-action complaint notes: "Once enrolled in the doctoral programs, problems began. While the students attempted to obtain their degree, they met an endless series of hurdles, delays, and tuition payments, resulting in students incurring unnecessary additional loans beyond those they expected to incur based on the timeframes promised by NCU. Students who believed that they were getting ever closer to their doctoral degree were repeatedly confronted with decreasing resources, high faculty turnover, disorganization, a lack of oversight, poorly trained instructors, a 21-day-turnaround time (with most instructors taking the full 21 days to respond their students), and little to no constructive feedback (or if feedback was given, inconsistent feedback), all of which extended the doctoral students' enrollments at NCU. Frustrated, doctoral students eventually realized that, contrary to NCU's promises, they did not control the time it would take to complete their degree — they were at the mercy of NCU."

While students did what they could to obtain their doctoral degrees, their programs stretched beyond the promised timeframes, and tuition payments (and student loans) continued to mount. As students' enrollment at NCU dragged on for years past the expected timeframes, NCU's promises of an affordable education became a nightmare of frustration and crushing debt. Many students' debt would grow so large that they would have no choice but to un-enroll so they could stop accumulating more debt and dedicate themselves full-time to paying back their enormous student loans, all without degrees to show for their hard work.

Northcentral University is a private, for-profit, online-only university founded in Prescott, Arizona in 1996. NCU moved to San Diego in 2017. NCU offers online degree and certificate programs from the bachelor's level through the doctoral degree level in its School of Education, School of Business and Technology Management, and School of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Quote:CLASS ACTION AGAINST ONLINE UNIVERSITY – KGTV SAN DIEGO

http://www.ncuclassaction.com/wp-content...IELD_1.mp4

While students did what they could to obtain their doctoral degrees, their programs stretched beyond the promised timeframes, and tuition payments (and student loans) continued to mount. As students’ enrollment at NCU dragged on for years past the expected timeframes, NCU’s promises of an affordable education became a nightmare of frustration and crushing debt. Many students’ debt would grow so large that they would have no choice but to un-enroll so they could stop accumulating more debt and dedicate themselves full-time to paying back their enormous student loans, all without degrees to show for their hard work.

Northcentral University is a private, for-profit, online-only university founded in Prescott, Arizona in 1996. NCU moved to San Diego in 2017. NCU offers online degree and certificate programs from the bachelor’s level through the doctoral degree level in its School of Education, School of Business and Technology Management, and School of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Quote:AUDIO PRESS CONFERENCE | NORTHCENTRAL UNIVERSITY CLASS ACTION

Northcentral University is 3rd Online-Only University to be Named in Class Action Lawsuits Filed by Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane; NCU Accused of Luring in Students With False Promises of Quick, Low-Cost Doctorate Degrees.

SAN DIEGO, CA. – September 6, 2018 – Hundreds and possibly thousands of doctoral students attending the online-only for-profit Northcentral University, Inc. (NCU) have been subjected to an abusive marketing scheme under which degrees are promised relatively quickly and at low cost, but then drag out for years longer and tens of thousands of dollars in additional student loan debt, according to a class-action complaint filed today by the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane (PWCK) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, San Diego Division.

https://www.ncuclassaction.com/wp-conten...tion-1.mp3