KWU Questions #9 and #10 Discussions

[Robert J.]

Open for business...

[plcscott]

Number 9

David Gering wrote:
Mr. Coulombe's testimony at the Senate hearings was completely unchallenged, biased and his assertions are simply incorrect. He was only with the University for three months, which, in our judgment, didn't give him adequate understanding of our Admissions process or our educational model.

What about the other former employees that were interviewed?

From the senate testimony of Lt. Commander Claudia Gelzer HERE: (http://hsgac.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Testimony&HearingID=176&WitnessID=632)

I can also understand the feelings of a number of former Kennedy-Western employees interviewed in our investigation. A former admissions manager stated that there was no value to a Kennedy-Western education, and that he was embarrassed to have ever been a part of the school. A former faculty member said Kennedy-Western=s curriculum development system is broken. A former employee of the student services department said the work at Kennedy-Western simply does not qualify a student for a bachelor=s degree.

Apparently he was not the only biased former employee. Why didn't KWU challenge him or speak at the senate hearings. Were you not allowed?

The Kennedy-Western University protocol for assigning credit for applicable work experience and training is well documented and consistent. All Students are accepted provisionally. This means, like many universities, that KWU verifies educational and training-related transcripts after provisional acceptance.

This is EXACTLY what SRU said when someone applied to them, and then told about how credit was just given.


Meanwhile, the evaluation process identifies specific work-related experience that directly correlates with program outcomes associated with the applicant's chosen field of study. Only this type of experience will be considered and there is a limit to the percentage of experiential credit that will be awarded in this category relative to the overall credit granted. In fact, prior to the May 2004 Senate hearings, KWU voluntarily provided to the Senate Committee staff substantial documentation on this practice. The Senators chose to ignore this and all other material we provided.

If you still have that material, how about posting it here? That would help us to see that KWU has an objective evaluation process where experience can be directly applied to degree programs.

We assume students are professionals and recognize that their academic performance is their own responsibility. Students sign a certification document attesting to their truthfully describing their work experience. Our Admissions Counselors take a consultative approach to help each prospective student to decide whether they really want to be a student at KWU. Our mid-career professional students expect this kind of service.

Yep, it seems the students are responsible for most everything, so what does KWU accept responsibility for? KWU trust students enough to determine that their experience is degree related, KWU allows the students to choose which courses to take, KWU allows the students to pick a proctor as long as the proctor is not family or an employee, and at KWU the students teach themselves from the textbooks.

[Dennis Ruhl]

Mr. David Gering Responds:

While I believe we have made great strides to correct it, I believe our 'mistake'
was hesitating to respond to the criticisms that arose in the recent past.




My Reply

I am not convinced that ignoring unfair criticism of schools is the way to go. Challenging those who make unfounded statements would shift the nature of criticism to proof rather than opinion.

[plcscott]

Number 10

Mr. David Gering Responds:

While I believe we have made great strides to correct it, I believe our 'mistake' was hesitating to respond to the criticisms that arose in the recent past.

This is one that I agree with you 100% on. While I think KWU needs to step up to the plate, and change many of its bad practices I think allowing KWU to be labeled as a diploma mill without a strong defence, and ignoring concerned students for a long time is what ultimately changed the mind of many that thought KWU was a decent unaccredited school.