Much talk at our campus about potential upcoming faculty layoffs or voluntary packages, being that it's the end of the fiscal year. All speculation, or course. Faculty are nervous but we have no real information. It's "about that time" though. Any news or rumors about faculty impacts at your locations?
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Lucky you, congrats. I know that the job market is tight but to be treated like a pariah after decades of doing my best for students is disheartening. Too old to join the military and too young to retire...believe you me that other schools are trying to hire 'new' phds even if you got yours from a respected school. The can't call it ageism because that would be illegal. But that's what it is. In profiteering, DVG has destroyed the reputation of its faculty and wrecked careers. Some of my colleagues have discussed possible class action against the company. It's not that we can't get jobs at 'real' schools, whatever that means to you--it's that we can't get faculty jobs at ANY schools now.
I was recruited by another university while still teaching my last eight week session but I did remove Devry from my CV. I'M not sure what you can do if you've worked many years, but I do know that other educational institutions frown on the reputation of Devry. If you have taught some Keller classes I would use Keller not Devry. Good luck.
How did Devry fall so far---I remember them being a very respected & tech proficient place, do they regret their "transformation"? Stick with improving the things you know and are respected for & that will begin the turn around (in my opinion).
One of my fellow professors is 100% convinced that DVU's destination is online-only, and has been predicting that for years. The evidence he cites are the facts that many of our courses are only offered online now, even for students who explicitly requested onsite classes when they enrolled, some of our centers only carry a couple of classes each session and therefore cannot justify the expense of their existence, and the appalling number of cancelled onsite classes every session.
Another of my colleagues disagrees. Based on the downward trend in enrollments over the past year, he has done some calculations which predict that the company will go bankrupt and cease operations before a transition to online-only could take place.
For me personally, I don't foresee online-only because of the DeVry Works and DeVry Bootcamp initiatives. DeVry Works is focusing on building relationships with local companies, and DeVry Bootcamp is an onsite skills gap training program. I would think that in order for those things to succeed, we would have to maintain a regional onsite presence. (To be honest, I don't really expect either of those to succeed anyway, for reasons beyond this.)
I noticed in the minutes from that meeting that they were mentioning a few locations where they are selling the building, so I'm guessing those campuses will be closing. Do you think eventually they will just go to online completely?
Maybe we will fair better if we use their new lackluster name on our resumes? It's worth a shot since Devry seems to not be seen in a positive way by some employers.
To those who were layed off, how long did it take you to find a new job? Did having DeVry on your resume cause problems?
@NdEtYCP-1mji, it's true, having DeVry on your resume is a problem. I have had two recruiters tell me that having DeVry featured so prominently on my resume for the last eight years is going to be a problem for me in terms of my job search. Well, truth be told, only one of them said it outright. The other just implied it. It may explain why NONE of the five job applications I sent out have received any kind of reply whatsoever. No rejections, no "thanks for applying", nothing.
Hey, Senior Management! Do a voluntary package if you need to reduce staffing...trust me, you WILL get all the volunteers you can handle!!!
We have all been bracing for it--there are a few folks in denial who think that they will survive but most of us have been shoveling resumes out the door as fast as we can. It's been rough going at best, however. Probably having DeVry on our resumes is killing our chances. None too many callbacks. I and everyone else I know who teaches have always done our best for the students here but now the company reputation seems to be hurting our employability. At least we'll be able to replace that line on our resume with 'adnauseum' or whatever it's going to be....
According to the minutes from their last big shareholder call, they have let go about 50% of their colleagues through layoffs and closings. That is only since only 2014. And there are more to come apparently.
It's like watching a train wreck.
I wonder if they will just go back to their legacy campuses.
Are there any centers that aren't small?
We were told today that some of the smaller centers will be closing this year, but the campuses would be unaffected. They did not specify which centers, and I am not sure if they meant just in our region or for DVU overall. I guess we'll see.
Does anyone think they will close some campuses this year? If so, which ones?
Some of us aren't meeting our annual teaching load requirements
...what does that mean? You can only have so many students per section & only teach so many different subjects depending on the state rules.
Just say if ones goes, they all walk
I have no evidence, but the speculation around my campus is that there will need to be faculty layoffs. Some of us aren't meeting our annual teaching load requirements due to all the cancelations, so we expect that a couple may be let go. This is just speculation though.