Reactions to JB's video message to colleagues? He's not quite presidential yet but miles ahead of his blundering dimwitted predecessor. I like that Barthy acknowledged that there is a reputation problem. Finally some honesty, for whatever good it'll do is now. shooting in front of daylight windows is a bad move but at least it wasn't a shelf full of toys.
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I am a DV alumnus and worked at DVU for almost 10 years. I have since moved on and think fondly on the days when DV made a difference. Unfortunately senior leadership's (you know who you are) focus changed, sometime after Hamburger came on board. The endless Projects (remember Unite and Ignite) rotted the foundations of DVU while fattening leaders pocket books and stoking their egos.
The real shame is that a DV education once meant something. It meant you learned by doing. It meant you had real world, practical skills that enabled you to compete. Now it is just a degree. A piece of paper some do not even want to hang on the wall. I have since sanitized my CV. DV is now just an afterthought when it comes to my educational background or body of work. Sadly, I whole-heartily believe the skills I learned in my undergraduate program at DeVry help set me up.
They cannot even give the institution away without a whole host of conditions. DeVry's highest value to learners is when they offered six undergraduate degrees and tuition was comparable to living wages one might make when completing a degree. DV changed its DNA to complete with UOP and others. DeVry's other mistakes where trying to be everything to everyone by expanding their program offerings. They became “me too”. In addition, the endless tuition increases undermined any learner ROI. Moving away from the high school market was simply dumb.
The greatest learning from watching this unfold over the last 20 years is that pigs are fed and hogs are slaughtered. Sadly, DV morphed into another predatory player in the for-profit space like ITT, Corinthian, AIU, and UOP. Not surprising since it was leaders from those institutions that created that culture. TEACH values have a completely new meaning today.
apparently JB is concerned that the DV's reputation is unfairly being maligned on the social media when they got such awesome NPS scores to lather themselves with in-house. That's some deep mystery...
@1oyx You've got it. Our learning environment is showing the effects of neglect, and our curriculum is worse, and so enrollment is suffering. We are teaching outdated concepts and technologies on outdated, nearly ancient gear, Students have wised up and can smell the skunk for what it is. Technology that DeVry deployed and benefited from as late as 2009 still isn't being taught in the classrooms now that we're in the late 2010s. Kids with actual technology interests have twigged to it and understand we aren't pushing the boundary, and we aren't even in the shadow of the boundary, we're miles behind. Correspondingly, they're picking other options.
Why is this happening? Two reasons. First, we lost our tech focus. We created dozens of new programs in the name of "diversification" because the Dot Bust of 2000 caught us with our pants around our ankles. We never recovered from that because we tried to go into a billion directions at once with no understanding what was wanted or needed, it just had to be "not technical." Second, as @1oyx pointed out, we threw our loyalty to the "Shareholders" (really, the executives and their bloated compensation plans laid on stock) and focused on the bottom line to maintain a story. We betrayed the students - the people upon whom our institutions are built. And, shock of shocks, they noticed we were f---ing them over and voted with their dollars by going somewhere else.
I wish I could see the days of 1998 when DVU classes were literally "Standing room only." But that won't happen, because we are too far behind, have too little of the resources to fix the issue, and too little support in the towers that could help us. The future is only darkness and a sad betrayal of what Herman DeVry created.
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
I'm sure that he is a placeholder, but it's still a vast improvement over the previous model.
REALLY?!? JB is just a placeholder! Adtalem is going to sell DeVry. That's why they changed the parent name from DeVry Education Group to Adtalem. That's why they changed DeVry Brasil to Atalem Brasil. They want to sell DeVry and Carrington. Since DeVry Brasil is doing good, they wanted to change the name to Adtalem so they could keep Brasi. jB is just a placeholder until they sell and then they will appoint a new president. Glad DR is GONE! She is a backstabbing person! Backstabbed her way to the top.
you must be kidding... she kept the seat warm for this provost character and now she got the boot. no idea what great things she achieved being in devry
I was sad to see Donna Rekau go
found a list of the toylover ex-president's greatest hits, i.e., all the "S projects" and their titles. Every single person listed as leader for these projects minus the JB is gone.
If you honestly think this company feels or thinks about employees or students in any positive way, well, you're bonkers.
Actual fact: the old LMS is discontinued by its manufacturer so they had to pick a new one.
things that led to it was continued cutting of money to offset decline in revenues due to enrollment to show bottom line is holding up to the investors. There is nothing and no-one to blame -- they wanted this to happen so that upper management could cash in their restricted stock at a higher price tied with investors and the bottom line.
this idiot former prez cooked up "Devry Tech" which was a second rebranding effort in two years... most likely to show "something" to LW to save his job. The entire Devry Tech thing was a scam when most of the campuses were running on outdated computers and internet infrastructure. they then introduced Canvas and promptly moved that cost to students in their tuition calling it LMS fee while the idiot toy-guy was boasting about how Devry was "helping" students through the use of a new LMS.
I'm not sure this 'call to action' can work. It's barking up the wrong tree so to speak.
Some of the criticisms against DV are exaggerated or even untrue, even on this board, and I would like to see those go away for the sake of fairness. But most of them are true and are exactly what DV deserves.
Some of the things I've heard are about the high pressure sales tactics by Admissions, difficulty in getting the classes you need to graduate, being forced to take classes online or at a far away location, being unable to get tutoring from visiting professors, and getting no help from career services. These things are all true to an extent. If we want to fix our bad reputation, we should start by fixing the things that led to it. Otherwise we will be guilty of the same kind of dishonesty that got us into this mess.
Well, he seems nice...affable...but no game changer...he's been sent in to manage the game plan already established...the DeVry Tech proposition, stackable programs...the messenger is different, but the message isn't. And just what makes them think the technology proposition we have is so stunningly different from anyone else's?
I agree, the honesty was a departure from the usual communications. The usual approach is to ignore or downplay the real problems. It feels like they're desperate to solve the criticism we get from the public. I don't think they would be admitting to this problem unless they were desperate to fix it.
This raises questions about the theory that DVU is intent on a shutdown. If they were planning on ceasing operation soon - as many believe - why issue a call to action that could complicate that plan? Or is this just part of the smokescreen to convince people that we're actually trying to survive?
did he announce any "belt tightening" measures or perhaps trimming the "fat"?
i think it must have been easy for his lawyers to let him say some stuff about Reputation since they kicked the marketing lady out of the organization.
Can anything surprise you anymore?