Thread regarding DeVry Inc. layoffs

Well it's March and no layoffs.

@RTJcAAK-7mif. A good step in the right direction. My goal has been accomplished despite your push backs. I assure you when you make others smile and happy , the boomerang effect takes hold and you will feel it.

I am pleased to hear that you teach psychology . Among all , you have more expertise in the field. Thank you for sharing.

In addition to working for Devry, I am also a golf and a swimming instructor.

I spend my free time with the special Olympics. I help the most disabled , vulnerable , and less accepted people in our society for no fault of their own .

I assure you when I get anyone of them( after months of training) learn how to swim or swing the golf ball , I am in heaven literally that does not wear off like pharmaceutical drugs.

Their smile and the true appreciation of my efforts, comes from their heart. I strongly believe their spontaneous joy sends waves of unexplained energy that is so overwhelming .

According to Zhuangzi, the “ultimate happiness” (zhi le) is gained when we have learned to “let go,” engaging in activities for their own sake without any ulterior motives. In such a state all human actions become spontaneous and fresh, childlike in their intensity. On the highest level we transcend our egos and merge with the Dao, or the way, the underlying unity that embraces all things in the Universe.

I do not get offended or my feelings get hurt when you state I have no empthay and I am condescending . If it makes feel better , do that over and over.

Kindly try to smile . Also try to make someone else smile. Repeat the experience again tomorrow and again the day after. I like also to impose on your generosity and beg you to help someone else just for the sake of helping.

Have a smiley day.

@RTJcAAK-7dzh Okay, I'll be honest. It was yesterday when my students in my class screamed with laughter over the fun things I was doing in my psychology class, and no, they didn't want to leave when the class was over. No, you do not know me, nor do you seem to understand the concept of empathy or what it means to be condescending. I will not be bothering myself to read or respond to any more of your posts, so save it for someone else.

Hi @RTJcAAK-5eug. You asked me to have empathy. I look it up .

The Neuroscience of Empathy

In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience on October 9, 2013, Max Planck researchers identified that the tendency to be egocentric is innate for human beings – but that a part of your brain recognizes a lack of empathy and auto corrects. This specific part of your brain is called the right supramarginal gyrus. When this brain region doesn't function properly, the researchers found one’s ability for empathy is dramatically reduced. This area of the brain helps us to distinguish our own emotional state from that of other people and is responsible for empathy and compassion.

So please accept my lack of empathy as a biological disability with no cure. Kindly have some compassion for my condition.

I challenge you to smile or be a smile collector. Try to make others around you happy if you can? When was the last time you heard any one tell you it so good to be around you? Be honest.

Devry university has been good to us. We get a 6 weeks vacations. Excellent Benefits, Some days off so we can take care of our family needs, or play Golf. A generous contribution to a 401 k and profit sharing. The grass is green where I am , not over the fence.

A lot businesses thrive then go bust. Look around where is Kmart or Circuit City to name few. Market forces are in play, this is life , It is not Disney land. Get used to it. No matter how it hurts , some will rise , brush off the dust , smile and keep going.

Others will look for a miserable audience and stay in a circle of mediocrity and never get out it. This forum is not for the faint of hearts, but for educated people that can get actionable information.

Mrs.: @RTJcAAK-6ephWhat , I will safely assume you are a female. You are a hypocrite. Lecturing is our business. So it is OK for you to lecture but not be lectured. It is OK for you to guide others but it is sin to be guided by your peers.

When a colleague tried to help and cheer you up you get upset and throw a tantrum like a baby , but you get in classroom and pretend that you are capable of assisting others that are less educated than you.

You think you are better than others. I will bet that you had your degree from an online university and cheated your way to a worthless degree. This is the reason it is hard for you to get another job. What a loser.

I do not give dam if you cry or insult others , your opinion is irrelevant. You have no authenticity.

One does not need to be a Marvel superhero or Nietzschean Übermensch to rise to his/her responsibility.

But one needs some basic attributes: a reasonable level of intellectual curiosity, a certain seriousness of purpose, a decent attention span, a functional moral compass and self-control. Sadly you are deficient in one or more of them. , you can be sure you will ll be exposed.

Wardell fulfills the role of the "good enough mother" for people whose families have absent fathers/mothers, families broken up by crime/divorce, and those who never knew their parents - the core of the Devry demographic. Just look at the videos of her hugging students. This is why she was chosen for the role and is the main strategy for retaining students. It is obvious that the Devry managers do not know how to manage the school effectively other than to promote the image of Wardell to desperate students. https://www.seleni.org/advice-support/article/the-gift-of-the-good-enough-mother

This could have been a useful thread until it was hijacked by some condescending fool lecturing us on how to live our lives.

Reading this thread reminds me of an old "country" saying: if you kick the old hound dog often enough, he eventually will leave.

Working in Higher Education is about helping others gain knowledge to become a better person. It does not matter who that person is, that person is helped as much as they can be and the rest is up to them. it does not matter how much they make monetarily, because being the person they want to be is key. Devry has b*astar_dized this into a money making scheme. they have no business taking money away from actual colleges and state universities that only have one goal, to help the masses gain better knowledge of the world around them. You think you're going to cure cancer by learning from a course shell that's strictly followed? Nope!

It's honestly not even about 'you'll make more money' because most of the Devry degree programs make less than a OTR truck driver. This should horrify you. Get smart. Leave. Now.

It really s---s to see some of these posts, especially those who have s---ed up any last inkling of ethos they once had because they were afraid to or literally could not leave because they have bills/kids/etc. Bottom line, this is a sh--ty company. They're twisting and turning at the top levels to sell stock, meanwhile, lying through their eye teeth to employees and forcing them to work jobs that would s--- the soul out of Otis Redding. I understand, it's not your fault. It's not! They want 'Yes, I will do whatever you want just please don't fire me' people. Anything you're given is an apparition. It's not there. So many people have left and have been like, "wow, I had no idea companies treated their employees like this!". I'm here to tell you, yes, you leave, and things are so much better. You might make more, you might make less, but in the end, all that matters is YOU. Go on, apply for that dream job you have always wanted. You just might get it. And be damn careful burning that sage. YOU CAN DO IT!!!

In support of Happy Always.

Let's pretend we are adults , mature and wise. Life is short, let's smile while we have teeth.

Smile and Silence are two powerful tools.

Smile is the way to solve many problems. Silence is the way to ovoid many.

Sadly, too many of us are not living our dreams because, we are living our fears.

Lets not be afraid of change. We might end up losing something good but we might end up gaining something better.

I just burned some sage and meditated in light of Happy always. Now I realize that if someone deceives you, you can’t complain because it’s YOUR fault for being so dumb.

The secret to success in life is to criticize nothing, except for anyone who might criticize you.

When a company deceives you just close your eyes and open your third eye, you’ll see your soul telling you to accept all injustice, and point fingers at people for expressing concerns in a forum about expressing concerns.

Shut up and get positive you idiots!

@RTJcAAK-5eug, Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.

Man in the Mirror; Michael Jackson

I'm gonna make a change,

For once I'm my life

It's gonna feel real good,

Gonna make a difference

Gonna make it right

As I, turn up the collar on

My favorite winter coat

This wind is blowing my mind

I see the kids in the streets,

With not enough to eat

Who am I to be blind?

Pretending not to see their needs

A summer disregard, a broken bottle top

And a one man soul

They follow each other on the wind ya' know

'Cause they got nowhere to go

That's why I want you to know

I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you want to make the world a better place

(If you want to make the world a better place)

Take a look at yourself, and then make a change

(Take a…

@RTJcAAK-5eug this is your problem. Your messages are very condescending. I'm glad you have found peace and happiness in your life, but telling people how they should live theirs and how they should feel, is not helpful at all. Try a new tactic, it's called empathy!

Dear Mr or Mrs @RTJcAAK-1rvj, I truly empathize with you if you have dependents with Medical needs . I did not start the hostility , but someone accused me of drinking from a special bottle( check the timeline below) . Then my outlook on life was derided. Then I was vilified.

I wish you well, I hope you will not lose your job with Devry or Cogswell.

I hope you will find a way to discover peace in your life. If we meet one day you will be pleasantly surprised to find out that there is way to overcome pain, anxiety , and fear . You will learn to change negative emotions into a platform to liberate yourself from the imaginary chuckles that drains energy and resources .

There is a way to metamorphose defeating emotions into invigorating energy and bring perspective to events or persons that has tipped you over the edge. It's a technique that's not easy, but I can promise you, it works.

Find a way to be thankful, grateful and sincerely forgive everyone.

@RTJcAAK-4omn, thank you for the your personal platitudes on life, the lecture on living in fairyland that is your life, and the passive-aggressive insults to those who apparently are too low to live in or understand your higher state of being. Surprised you have lowered yourself to talk to us lowly peons. While you are sharing your little tidbits of knowledge and parables, some of us have legitimate worries to face.

I do have pity for your students though. If you speak to your colleagues like that, I doubt your students fair any better.

In reading this recent post I'm reminded about just how lucky I was a number of years ago accepting a full-time position as a tenure track instructor at a state higher education institution. With both state education code and faculty union protections in place I was able to exercise both academic freedoms and employee rights that allowed me to effectively focus on teaching my courses without unnecessary interference by the institution's administration.

I recognize the value and protection tenure provides. Unfortunately at my institution and similar institutions across my state there is a clear focus on hiring adjunct faculty. The reasons from an administrative standpoint are clear. Adjunct pay is substantially less than full-time faculty receive. Adjuncts are typically not provided with health benefits. Adjuncts are considered at-will employees, meaning they have little or no assurance they will be around for the next academic term.

Administrative justification apart from the evident cost savings rests on claims that tenured faculty, with the employment protections tenure provides, are able to reduce their workload and effectiveness in the classroom. Admittedly this is an all-to-frequent reality. The sensible way to resolve this is through peer pressure through the implementation of post-tenure review processes. Sadly sometimes that doesn't work.

Fine, good for you. I am glad that you have stayed positive. This outlet is aforum also to express fears and concerns regarding the company who keeps us in the dark while they gamble away our careers. There’s a very real bias against DeVry employees getting reemployed—just read some of the older posts. The actions of former executives have hurt our careers, the parent organization just wants to throw us away, and meanwhile benefits are cut every year. No, I don’t want to stay any longer than I have to...but I have been applying for jobs for three years straight and have not landed anything else. I have dependents with serious medical needs, and if I go on unemployment after getting laid off with no severance, recently taken away from us as part of the settlement, then why don’t you guess what happens when I am unemployable because of perceived ethical issues with the company that I worked for for decades, before there were any issues? Thanks for calling me pitiful! What a kind and caring sensitive instructor YOU must be! What an amazing person and role model for your students! Not. Your comment also subtly questions the competency of those making negative comments, by way of comparison with students. Your comments are alternately nasty and unrealistically optimistic; they do not demonstrate care or actual understanding of the stress and psychological damage done so far to employees via living under the Sword of Damocles for years, with no way out except the ultimate exit interview that’s in all of our futures. If I had seen any of this coming I would have obviously made different choices in my career long ago. So enjoy your happy thoughts and callous judgmentalism.

There is a bottle that I drink from. It is confidence in my abilities. The wisdom I cultivated year after year. Life is full of pain, but the pain will not define the journey. The baby that cried after delivery after separating from the comfort of the womb, should be a onetime experience not a way of life.

I am happy and thankful regardless. This forum instead of being informative, it degenerated into negativity that keeps feeding on itself until it consumes everyone.

If you are in higher education, I will assume that you have some common sense and above average IQ.

Most comments reveal anxiety and fear not becoming of any educators that is supposed to help others learn and grow.

It looks like that the students that we face daily have finally dragged some of us to the lowest common denominator.

Student cry about grades for less than acceptable very late assignment. Kindly let’s not imitate the pitiful behavior of the students we are entrusted to help get in the market force.

Happy Always, eh? Not sure what bottle you’ve gotten into but this isn’t a poetry slam. As for Lisa Lisa and the 80s reference...where are Cult Jam and Full Force when you need them? DVU will be “All Cried Out” for sure after Cogswell has its day of reckoning on the staffing and campus footprint.

"Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love." – Rainer Maria Rilke

Did A Comet Kill The Dinosaurs?

Is the comet called Cogswell?

TRAITOR, Lisa will ruin Adtalem as well. Remember she wasnt new to DeVry or Adtalem, she had been around on the board for awhile before they axed Hamburgler. She was part of the group that ran DeVry into the ground. Give her enough time and she will do it again. She may not be as incompetent as he was but she is still incompetent nonetheless.

I guess a a mass layoff is what we need , There is no better medicine than being hit by a 2 by 4 in the face to force most us to face reality.

If you have good skills and are willing to readjust your life style , plenty of jobs are available . I understand that some will face age discrimination . This is life.

I am not sure why all the negativity. In every crisis there is an opportunity. Devry has been good to us , we have good benefits. Lets be grateful and thankful for that.

We will be happier regardless, or may be I should qualify that , I will not let outside forces affect my mood.

The day I evolved from being a professor to an educational mercenary , I felt lighter and happier. I love teaching but it is no longer what defines me . I care about the students , but that I will not let them incapacitate me . I enjoy being with other colleagues but I will not let the negativity paralyze me . I feel liberated from all l the strings and the old assumptions. I see life through different prisms. I wish you can join me. All the best.

Aren't the students having gathering to protest the cuts? They will certainly be affected by any cuts to their services, which they are paying for. They need to continue to make their requirements clear.

Wardell just sent out a grand plan for Adtalem. Forgot about DeVry already! Thanks Benedict (I mean Lisa!) Enjoy your millions!!

Layoffs are coming in March. Probably not deep cuts but enough to restructure costs. Some field people may be laid off along with military. More layoffs will come down if the transfer continues to go through but not in huge numbers. Enrollment is declining, students are leaving and unfortunately the bleeding needs to stop. You all should be worried if the sale falls through as DVU will sell off students and teach out.

Looks like WARN provides exceptions for both “faltering companies” and “unforseeable business circumstances” but even so, they could simply announce them and wait until the period specified in the transfer agreement is over. A far as Hitler, that’s a pretty overwrought metaphor indeed. DH and RP May have been dirtbags but they didn’t actually kill millions of people in acts of horrific genocide. Don’t water down what terrors Germany perpetrated on Europe and humanity in the mid-twentieth century. Everything medicine knows about how humans die from hypothermia was discovered through direct human experimentation of human subjects—let’s leave it there. By comparison, exaggerated post-graduation employability claims and poor employee treatment is a first-world problem. All of us are actively looking for jobs but isn’t it worth thinking about what leverage we have against the company to be sure that we are treated as fairly as possible when they ultimately downsize us? There is no future for DeVry and all of our resumes are permanently tainted. They seem to be looking to pull severance and other benefits from us. We have been working under the assumption that we would get a certain level of recompense when they finally do let us go. Lying to employees, perpetuating false claims about compensation...surely there must be a class action in there somewhere, even leaving career damage out of the picture. I’ not a lawyer but I know that whatever is going to happen through the Cogswell transition isn’t going to be pretty, or ethical.

@oem Lawyering up at DVU layoff is like lawyering up to prevent Hitler from trying to divorce you, or fighting for equal assets. Instead of putting time and effort into getting a different job now, you’d rather wait and fight for yours at DVU?

Though I will always have a heart for my DVU friends, we are far passed the point at which peope should be surprised at bad news for DVU. Yet the colleagues remain loyal and jaw dropped each time something bad happens.

I think it fits the cliche definition of insanity at this point to continue to work at DVU and think things will be fair and/or safe. They have lost money year over year, shrunk in size year over year, and have detailed zero actual plans to stop the descent; let alone return to growth. This has been going on for YEARS. It’s clear in transfer contract cogswell is here to make a couple bucks off doing AdT’s dirty work in breaking apart DVU.

If you get laid off, you’ve had years of warning. If you married Hitler, that’s one thing, but to fight to stay married to him or expect he’ll treat you fairly is utterly ridiculous.

Cogswell won't violate WARN (prohibiting mass layoffs). They can layoff individuals at any time, legally. Even in the case of a closing, if WARN is followed, there's no grounds for a class-action suit. They'll just say 'we did everything right, and legally so".

Everybody good and lawyered up?

Expect massive layoffs and closures on day 91 after the Cogswell transfer is finalized (read the transfer agreement).

If there was ever a time for a class-action lawsuit, that’s going to be it. Expect sneaky individual and small group layoffs in the meantime.

What color is JB’s parachute? Well, at least we know who moved the cheese.

Of course layoffs are coming.

At this point reality should have sunk in so whatever happens should not surprise anyone. And if so then shame on you for believing management propaganda that everything will remain the same.