ITT Educational Services just posted its quarterly earnings, and profits are way down. New enrollment is down 20% and there is going to be significant "rightsizing" in order to maintain profitability.
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@ebhw, I cannot imagine what you are going thru as full-time instructor. I once taught 6 classes in a quarter, for one quarter only, and felt physically ill from stress by the last few weeks of the quarter.
Even 2 classes a quarter is too much for me now, due to complete gutting of Academic Affairs department by corporate, so all evening long it is just us adjuncts and the demoralized students fending for ourselves. The students understand they are being overcharged and that the curriculum sucks, it isn't rocket science to figure that out.
I used to feel better after bringing up concerns with department chairs, and so did the students, but the chairs are gone now. Administration at my campus doesn't want to hear about problems, don't really understand the problems anyway, and expects all employees to put on a smiley face for the students to sell the product. Who feels like smiling when they being treated like crap?
I have worked here 6 years. I have tried every avenue imaginable for trying to fix problems, "in-house," and through "faculty collaboration portal," etc. I give up trying to change anything at my campus. Adjunct faculty have no job security at all, hired from quarter to quarter, so most are afraid to speak out at all. And it doesn't do any good, so why bother?
I am getting another job. My colleagues have been asking me, "Gee, why?" And when I start telling them the truth, it is pretty wild. The director of career services, who has been here for one year, is lecturing me on I should deal properly with my horrendous curriculum problems. He's telling me best procedure for voicing my concerns properly is at the quarterly inservice. I actually think he is trying to "sell" me on how great ITT-Tech is for faculty! He, along with the entire executive team at ITT-Tech, just can't stop trying to sell, sell, sell, the same old bull. I told him last night "that's a load of bull!"
A support group would have been a big help to me.
We are not stupid!! I am full time instructor for a year now. The lies told to keep us working away like drones are quite effective--and we so want to believe them! Not stupid---but more like battered wives; all of us wanting to believe that the abuser is going to change, or that we can make a difference for our students.
A support group is a good idea.
@H9XOMXz-6prd, most students will only be denial until they have to face the consequences. If teachers can give them this information, they may be able to use it in the future: (1) The US FTC's Complaint Assistant, specific page for FP school complaints: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/GettingStarted?NextQID=400&Url=%23%26panel1-7#crnt
(2) The US Education Dept's brand new complaint intake portal: feedback.studentaid.ed.gov
(3) The "consumer complaint" page on each student or employee's home state's attorney general website (easy to find, just google it)
Service members using TA should file in all those 3 places as well as the DOD complaint site: http://www.militaryonesource.mil/education-and-employment/higher-education-for-service-members?content_id=287986
Veterans should file in all those 3 places as well as the VA complaint site: http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/feedback.asp
Finally, if a student had a student loan bank messing with them, they can file with the US CFPB: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
@4xvm. In reality, even if all the current instructors at ITT-Tech quit, ITT-Tech will carry on. Replacements will be hired. Remember, executives could care less about quality of instruction.
In my opinion, the key to getting rid of predatory schools is retraction of accreditation. That is why I hope employees will speak out to ACICS and write to attorney generals. Especially employess in admin positions, like recruiters and campus directors. Unfortunately, most current employees and students are still in hard core denial, so ITT-Tech keeps limping along. That is why ITT-Tech needs to be shut down from the outside.
How could it be possible that ITT could keep functioning if all the current instructors quit? Well, as it is, ITT-Tech is operating essentially with all part-time temporary instructors. ITT-Tech keeps lowering its standards for the part-time temporary employees they hire to teach, and they haven't run out of candidates entirely yet. These part-time workers are usually called "adjunct" because it sounds fancier.
But let's face it, the criteria for instructors is minimal, just as criteria for student admission is minimal. Some new hires are recent graduates of ITT-Tech! Recent grads often lack real life experience in their field, and have limited experience as teachers, but some "believe" in ITT-Tech still, so are perfect in the eyes of admin.
Many adjuncts are very very old, some are senile, some are abusive to students, many should not be teaching, yet admin keep giving them classes to teach each quarter. Many of these instructors couldn't find teaching jobs elsewhere, and so they suck up to admin. Admin loves them.
Complaints from students about instructors don't seem to have much weight any more. Most of the permanent faculty who had a say in hiring are gone. The people who are hiring just want to fill the slots.
So, should all qualified instructors with a conscience quit in protest, and leave the remaining students to deal with whoever they get as replacement instructors? Many students are determined to finish their associate programs, and want to sign up for bachelor degree after their associates --- even those students who read about all the lawsuits! I know, I see it every day. I am quitting as adjunct in a couple of weeks, and I am telling my students I think ITT-Tech is unethical and I tell them the bachelor programs may not be around much longer, and I feel like crap for trashing their dream. Some wake up, but some reply with the bullshit their recruiters are giving them.
@H9XOMXz-4xvm True but at the end of the day no teachers = no school. This place has ruined so many lives and hopes to continue to ruin lives. If nothing else, anybody with a shred of decency should have a plan to get out of there and leave burning wreckage for the CFPB, DOJ, SEC, etc on the way out.
Former ITT employee here. I stayed for nearly ten years because I give a damn about the students. It was the first job I took out of graduate school hoping to find something else but working at ITT made it nearly impossible to move out. The school is terribly unethical.
The majority of employees understand that it is not a good company. Many are people just like the students who don't have any other options they don't like supporting something they don't believe in but finding jobs is hard for anyone.
Please don't blame the support staff and faculty for the mistakes of the administration and the higher-ups. The people you're blaming just want to provide the best experience they can for the students they have.
@H9XOMXz-1dcm, and others, the ITT Tech Warriors on Facebook include former workers as well as students and former students. Presently, they are the most active US student debt group on the Internet ................................................. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ITTTechnicalInstituteLawsuitWarriors/
Camden, maybe some kind of job search/ social network would assist people in leaving these predatory schools if there was a way to help them transition out of that mess?
@H9XOMXz-hrq First of all, I am a former student who has been severely harmed by the greed and bad practices of this school. While you are still working there, you are basically propping up what many of us see as a criminal empire. Until you have the courage to stand up and realize your daily employment is enabling this place to siphon tax dollars, funnel high dollar, high interest loans and eventually shatter every one of your students futures, you deserve the label. That is not to say you cannot redeem yourself, but for now I think it fits just right. This place is in business today because of people who were too afraid, too selfish, and too passive to fight the worst actor in the industry.
Who is left for ITT-Tech to lay off? Modany "cost cutting" already removed most full time employees in academic affairs. At smaller campuses, admin employees are now expected to fill two positions, for same pay. Plus turnover at ITT-Tech is high. Employees find something better and quit. No need to lay off to "right-size" existing campuses, just stop hiring new employees.
Question is, which campuses are closing next, or getting merged? That has to be next move, right? Will it be smaller campuses, or campuses labeled by ACICS as being sub-standard?
Hard to say what next move is, since Modany did not take live questions at conference call. He didn't even answer questions submitted before hand, like he has done before. Basically he said everything sucks for his company now, and it isn't fair, wah-wah-wah.
@diy, comments like "too stupid to know what is coming" is not helpful -- that attitude is too much like Modany's. Clearly Modany has no respect for students or faculty, and he believes he has a bottomless pool of stupid students and stupid teachers to lure into his scheme. What employees will post here if they are going to be insulted some more?
I am adjunct faculty, but not for long. Not because of lay-offs -- ITT-Tech can't find enough teachers willing to work for peanuts at this bogus company. I am leaving because the ethical lapses are too serious to work around, or justify in any way. And I don't want to be called stupid in this forum, just because I have worked at ITT-Tech for a few years, anymore than I call my students stupid for continuing to enroll each quarter.
Present and past employees need a website of their own to post to, just to vent for starters. Many are sick to stomach about ethical lapses -- horrible curriculum, trying to teach students who should never have been admitted, etc. Not sure how many would join a facebook group under their real names, though.
ITT-Tech employee reviews on Glassdoor show a lot of disgust for company and CEO. That site has mostly authentic reviews I think; not too many planted fake reviews by pumpers. Worth looking through, just to convince yourself there are plenty of disgusted former employees out there.
I know there has to be thousands of former employees who could help expose the shameful tactics this place used, but how to reach out to them and convince them?
@H9XOMXz-diy, I have found this to be a common phenomenon. Except for University of Phoenix, few workers from failing for-profit colleges were vocal on the layoff site--until it got really bad. That happened with Corinthian Colleges and it happened with Education Management Corporation. With Career Education Corporation, there have been few voices, despite the closing of all Cordon Bleu schools and a few other brands.
Its funny, if you go on any of these other parasitic schools you see the staff discussing the imminent and ongoing layoffs. It seems like the staff of ITT is either oblivious of this site's existence or too stupid to realize what is coming.