According to the HLC, Cogswell cannot make any major changes personnel or facility wise for one year after signing the agreement. The one year will be up in January 2020. This was verified by 3 different people who all read the agreement. The HLC controls the timeframe for now. After January, most faculty and others expect a package much like IT just received, 4 weeks pay plus 1 weeks salary for each year. Everyone seems to be resigned to being let go but are staying as long as possible for the package. Students know it, and it shows.
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oslb...so...a home office house cleaning...was this a PV ordered reduction...or did one of their own push them out. Either way, you're right...that was a lot of talented and dedicated people jettisoned, and their removal with little comment says several things. First, whoever decided they had to go concluded the tasks they performed could be done by others for far less; that the state of the company was such that such talent would be of no use, so give these people a chance before the roof fell in, and finally, that when actions like this hardly causes a ripple of awareness among those who remain, we may have become as callous as the company we work for.
I’ve been reading these recent posts and it’s surprising there are colleagues who don’t know about the lay-off round in academics back around the spring timeframe. The group of national academic deans who were quietly and suddenly let go a few months back were highly capable, hard working and sacrificed a lot for this organization over many years. The corporate knowledge they carried out the door was immense. Out of respect to these former employees I will not mention any of their names in this venue, nor should anyone else, but these fine people oversaw course development, accreditation and a multitude of other critical projects at the national level. They were above the group level. Their swift and silent removal, like “disappeared” people, indicates how Orwellian and dysfunctional the organization has become. How far we have fallen.
navk,,,again news to me...any particular departments? I see Burks and Zorek haunting the place, so I guess it didn't get them...
mdje- the April dean reductions were home office/national deans. It was very "under the radar".
Has anyone teaching online this term seen a reduction is pay? Something strange is occurring!
mhne...news to me...but I guess that's the point...keep it low key...were the dean reductions across the system, or were there just specific locations targeted?
kisz- I was let go in April. There was a quiet layoff in academics where a handful of deans were impacted. I learned afterward there was little mention about what happened to staff. For all they knew, the deans just vaporized into thin air. If nothing is mentioned, I guess there is no problem.
Interesting how no one mentions the small lay-offs that are happening monthly. First IT and now Operations Support Coordinators. Everything is done so it stays under the radar.
Anyone else noticed how Devry's ads have less and less to do with anything specific to Devry? They could be for any online school.
As far as I can tell, DeVry is guilty of at least four of these...
https://hbr.org/2019/09/8-things-leaders-do-that-make-employees-quit?utm_source=pocket-newtab
As long as you don't care about student outcomes you are safe. When you show your concerns about grade inflation or loan repayment, that's when they fire you.
alia–it seems that no "mass" layoff can occur? And anyone terminated should not expect a severance package.
Is there anything to prevent a steady trickle of termination over a period of, say, 6 months without severance?
@10LatZ6E - Wrong statement - ADTALEM GLOBAL EDUCATION INC., and COGSWELL EDUCATION, LLC Dated as of December 4, 2017
ARTICLE VII - EMPLOYEE MATTERS - 82
Section 7.01 - Employees - 82 ARTICLE VIII
NO mass lay-off. If an employee is terminated there doesn't have to be a severance package.
The benefits package can be changed for open enrollment in 2019 for 2020.
(b) As of the Closing and for the one-year period following the Closing Date or such longer period as may be required by applicable Law or Contract (the “Benefit Period”),
Buyer will, or will cause the DVU Transferred Entities to, provide each University Employee with (i) base compensation that is at least equal to the base compensation that is in effect for such University Employee immediately prior to the Closing and (ii) employee benefits that are substantially comparable in the aggregate to those employee benefits provided to such University Employee pursuant to the applicable New DVU Plans, if any (subject to Section 7.01(d), other than any 401(k) matching benefits) as applicable, immediately prior to the Closing (collectively, the “Applicable Plans”); provided, that, for purposes of determining comparability, any equity-based incentives, retention bonuses, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, defined benefit retirement benefits, retiree welfare benefits and de minimis fringe benefits will be disregarded; and provided further, that the foregoing obligations in this subsection (b) will only apply to a University Employee for as long as such University Employee remains employed by a DVU Transferred Entity during the Benefit Period.
Hope Zorek and Burks are first to go- without a package!
are California VPs getting paid per hour?
3miw: regarding the theory you just posted, it’s interesting that over the past year several people I’ve spoken with have been have been speculating a similar scenario to what you suggested. If this comes to pass the question is the timing. In the interim, the OnLive thing would seem to be a contrived, contorted stopgap solution that enables the university to run an onsite class section with only a couple of students by merging it with an online section, effectively forcing a professor to teach two sections for the price of one.
I expect Cogswell to eliminate the DeVry name, close all current DeVry campuses and offices, eliminate 95% of the full time DeVry employees, and convert the DeVry skeleton to an online extension of the Cogswell organization.
Will they employ automated software and harvested 90minute lectures on infinite loop to run online classes after January?