| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
18 Dec 2005 08:33:29 AM |
| Object: |
Republican NY gubernatorial candidate and the ghost college scandal |
In January 2005, Mr. Weld became Decker's chief executive, with an
annual salary of $700,000.
From The New York Times, 12/18/05:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/18/nyregion/18weld.html?hp&ex=1134968400&en=78ea54928916026c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Ghosts of a Shuttered College Follow Weld Back Into Politics
By SAM DILLON and PATRICK D. HEALY
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -
Carlos Urquilla said he felt lucky when he was hired a year ago to be
a dean at Decker College here.
A former Army lieutenant straight out of law school, Mr. Urquilla
liked the way the school sold itself as a place to help poor students
learn a trade.
But in his first weeks at the for-profit school, Mr. Urquilla says, he
found employees falsifying student attendance records, instructors
helping students to cheat and recruiters arranging federal loans for
students who could not read.
Mr. Urquilla said he was fired after he complained to superiors.
Months later, William F. Weld, then Decker's chief executive officer,
who is now seeking the Republican nomination for governor of New York,
signed a severance agreement with Mr. Urquilla.
Its terms required him to keep quiet about the school, which offered
courses in carpentry, electrical work and other trades, but he
considers the agreement breached.
Mr. Urquilla, along with several other former Decker officials, have
come forward to describe practices during Mr. Weld's 10-month tenure
as chief executive that they say they considered improper and possibly
illegal.
The school closed in October.
A former admissions director has described the routine falsification
of federal loan applications.
The former head of Decker's online program says he saw systematic
recruitment of students with no access to computers for Internet-based
courses.
A former instructor in Atlanta says administrators routinely shared
test answers with students.
And a former instructor in Louisville says that in 2004 - when Mr.
Weld was an active board member in Decker's parent company but not yet
its chief executive - officials asked him to set up a sham classroom
to fool accreditation inspectors.
In two lengthy interviews, Mr. Weld said repeatedly that he never saw
evidence of wrongdoing and had not heard the complaints about document
falsification or the way the college was handling loan applications.
And no one who has stepped forward has said Mr. Weld was told directly
of wrongdoing.
The story of Decker College is a cautionary tale about the pitfalls
facing commercial colleges as they seek to build profits by recruiting
struggling students eligible for financial aid while honoring their
obligations as educators and stewards of federal loans.
For Mr. Weld, Decker's lightning growth, and his investment company's
minority stake in it, allowed him to keep his hand in the high-profile
issue of education after leaving his post as Massachusetts governor.
But its overnight collapse is shadowing his run for office, leaving
him with the awkward task of explaining what went wrong.
The college spun into crisis after the federal Department of Education
restricted its access to student loan funds in June.
The department went further and terminated Decker's participation in
federal programs on Sept. 30.
In October, the school was raided by 40 federal agents conducting a
fraud investigation, and last month it collapsed into bankruptcy,
leaving 3,700 students burdened with debts, some as high as $30,000.
___________________________________________________________
For the rest of the story go to
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/18/nyregion/18weld.html?hp&ex=1134968400&en=78ea54928916026c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Harry
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