Conspiracy and Fraud at my School...

[DigiTan]

Okay, this is pretty elaborate but I'll try to explain it all as cleanly as possible...


Right before you get your degree, you have to do 2 senior design projects. It's a little like a thesis, but more hands-on. From the time I first enrolled until just two months ago, you could take both design courses at the same time, as long as you had all right the prerequisites and signatures. No trouble so far.

Two months ago -for no reason- the dean and department chairman decide "Screw that. Let only one senior design project be taken per semester." For newer students, this isn't very critical because graduation is far off. But for the seniors that need these classes to graduate, it delays graduation another full semester; and totally trashes any degree plans or job hookups we once had.

Meanwhile, the school profits $1000's per student from the extra semester's tuition. Close to $3000 per semester in my case. They know these students will have no choice but to pay because senior-level courses rarely transfer to other universities. This comes only months after the papers report the school was running on a massive deficit, and had to be bailed out by a private entity.

The plot thickens:

Okay, so that part sucks enough. Even more recently, the same network of people decide they won't even offer senior design #1 in the summer! Meaning I have to wait till fall '07 to take Design 1, then spring '08 to take Design 2. I was supposed to graduate this summer. Personally, it will cost me at least $15,000 in tuition and living expenses. Not to mention lost job opportunity. It's the textbook bait-and-switch scam.

And thickens...

To top things off there's nothing stopping these crooks from pulling the same stunts in Spring 2008. Literally nothing. They've been known to do it. But in the past, I was one of those guys too far off from graduation to probe the matter.

Follow the money...

The Housing chairs are likely in on the deal as well. They charge an additional 25% for rent if "the system" (literally a computer system) cannot project your graduation date due to the latest policy change. That's on top of a 10% rate increase planned for all new leases effective immediately. So for every $1 I'm spending on rent now, I would be paying $1.35 unless I start commuting.

-----------------

That's the story. I've put in years of my time, and tens of thousands and dollars into getting my degree...and even my health at one point. And now these crooks try to dangle carrot in front of me so they can line their pockets? As you might imagine, I'm not very amused. In the past, I've let a lot of their stunts slide, but this tears it. I'm seriously looking even the score, and I'm not the only one.

Anyway, I want to get your take on all of this.

[threefingeredguy]

I hope they don't do it to me too.

[necro]

Chain saw, tin foil and some draino...hmm, first you ask the chairman for a minute of his time... Just kidding of course...I say threaten to file a law suite against them and get other students to sign off on it, say you are willing to pool money to hire an atourney and sue their asses. And of course, go to the local media and ask them to do a story on it, write to your newspaper, your congres person, ask your local fuzz if that could be a case of illegal fraud, conspiracy, whatever. If you know any lawyers, this would be a good time to make a freind of them (always good to have legal freinds).

[CoBB]

That's the story. I've put in years of my time, and tens of thousands and dollars into getting my degree...and even my health at one point. And now these crooks try to dangle carrot in front of me so they can line their pockets? As you might imagine, I'm not very amused. In the past, I've let a lot of their stunts slide, but this tears it. I'm seriously looking even the score, and I'm not the only one.

Anyway, I want to get your take on all of this.

Do the changes violate any prior (written and signed) agreement? Sounds sickening enough to me, but what can you do if they are legally clean? Giving your thoughts more publicity seems to be the only feasible response, if the answer to the first question is negative.

I'm lucky enough to live in a country where people are actually paid for studying (well), so it's rather hard to imagine myself in this situation...

[hop]

Lalalala law students.

[tr1p1ea]

Man that totally sucks, i hope there is something that can be done about it. It really doesnt seem legal to me ... i know they might run the show, but surely there is some kind of protection in place for this kind of stunt?

[threefingeredguy]

Do the changes violate any prior (written and signed) agreement? Sounds sickening enough to me, but what can you do if they are legally clean? Giving your thoughts more publicity seems to be the only feasible response, if the answer to the first question is negative.

I'm lucky enough to live in a country where people are actually paid for studying (well), so it's rather hard to imagine myself in this situation...

Even if they aren't technically in violation of any agreement, the situation IS deceptive enough that if he raises a fuss about it, it will cast a negative light on the school.

We do get paid for studying. In fact, the school he and I go to gives out scholarships to nearly every person. The problem is most people lose them. I have my tuition and housing fully payed, plus $500 dollars in my pocket.

[CoBB]

Even if they aren't technically in violation of any agreement, the situation IS deceptive enough that if he raises a fuss about it, it will cast a negative light on the school.

Exactly what I think.

We do get paid for studying. In fact, the school he and I go to gives out scholarships to nearly every person. The problem is most people lose them. I have my tuition and housing fully payed, plus $500 dollars in my pocket.

But the point is that there's no tuition here. Education is free. Well, that's changing now, but fortunately I'm outside the system already.

[threefingeredguy]

Even if they aren't technically in violation of any agreement, the situation IS deceptive enough that if he raises a fuss about it, it will cast a negative light on the school.

Exactly what I think.

We do get paid for studying. In fact, the school he and I go to gives out scholarships to nearly every person. The problem is most people lose them. I have my tuition and housing fully payed, plus $500 dollars in my pocket.

But the point is that there's no tuition here. Education is free.

I wish we had that.

[kalan_vod]

Even if they aren't technically in violation of any agreement, the situation IS deceptive enough that if he raises a fuss about it, it will cast a negative light on the school.

Exactly what I think.

We do get paid for studying. In fact, the school he and I go to gives out scholarships to nearly every person. The problem is most people lose them. I have my tuition and housing fully payed, plus $500 dollars in my pocket.

But the point is that there's no tuition here. Education is free.

I wish we had that.

Everything has a cost, you could be paying for more than you take or at all what you take on taxes.

[necro]

heh, that would be a better use of tax than building crap no one needs or "investing" in rare coins or try to throw every mj user in jail at a cost of a hundred dollars plus each day.

[DigiTan]

I'm totally agree with with necro on this one. The local papers and TV stations should definitely hear about it. In the past, when they made changes to the degree program, those changes only applied to future students. Now it's across the board.

Incidentally, our friends at SMU (a rival school downtown) ran an article questioning the management of our housing system 2 year ago. That story was picked up by the local news and resulted in mass changes to the residential system. I think someone at the news desks would be interested to see our department is artificially lengthening the degree program.

threefingeredguy might be at risk too, because the CompSci/CompEng programs change even more often than the Electrical program (to keep pace with new software and such).


Well, I'll try not to let all this affect the calc projects and what not. But I'm gonna do some digging to see who was involved in all this, where the money's going, etc., and start drafting these letters.

[Patori]

That's just douchebaggery.

[Homestar]

Make sure to update us on what you find.

And mailing your state's representatives, and county officials a copy of what you do find isn't a bad idea either, especially if it's a state school.

[DigiTan]

Well, as I mentioned they're imposing a 10% rate increase for all housing, and it's forcing myself and many other low-incomers off campus. They've been telling us it's to pay for (extremely) aggressive & responsive maintenance. Appearantly, I wasn't the only one suspicious about the timing of all this and one student generated this excellent piece of investigative journalism...

* The Utley Scandal


...so basically half of campus housing is privately owned. When the original owner wanted to sell in 2001 and couldn't find an attractive bid, he created a tax exempt corporation, funded it with a $55 million municipal bond (a loan from the city), then exaggerated the actual worth of the apartments, and sold them to his corporation at a personal gain of $10 million.

Now that the corporation has to pay the university's land usage fees that are based on that overpriced value, the apartments can't generate enough wealth to keep up, and it's hemorrhaging $600,000 per year. Had the apartment's worth not been overpriced, they would be able to pay the bills. Or at least impose a smaller rate increase like 3 to 5% which is typical.

So now, they're bilking students to come up with the extra $600,000. The aggressive maintenence plan was just a diversion to keep people from asking questions. As long as the rate hikes deliver what they promise, and there's just enough bond money left over to keep the system from collapsing, the administration won't replace the land owner this summer. Meanwhile, students pay through the nose while Utley keeps his original $10 million profit. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if the 25% rate increase they were threatening me with and the recent undergraduate program changes are all connected.