Post #393,658
8/25/14 12:02:55 PM
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So, U of Phoenix founder dies.
(CNN) -- The founder of the University of Phoenix, Dr. John G. Sperling, has died, according to a statement posted on the Apollo Education Group's website. He was 93.
The statement said Sperling passed away Friday at a hospital in the San Francisco Bay area. No cause was given.
"Dr. Sperling's vision, pioneering spirit and boundless resolve to improve the world through accessible higher education for working adult students provided a roadmap for families, nations and economies to evolve, advance, grow and prosper," wrote Apollo chairman and Sperling's son, Peter Sperling, and company Chief Executive Officer Greg Cappelli.
"Dr. Sperling's indomitable ideas and life's work served as a catalyst for innovations widely accepted as having made higher education more accessible to adult students," the statement read. http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/24/us/obit-john-sperling-university-of-phoenix/index.htmlWonder why they didn't mention, oh, I don't know, say this, for example: Net revenue for fiscal year 2013 was $3.7 billion, compared to $4.3 billion in the prior year. University of Phoenix Average Degreed Enrollment was 301,100, a 15.6% decrease from the prior year, and Aggregate New Degreed Enrollment was 172,900 down 20.2% from prior year.
Operating income was $427.4 million, compared to $676.3 million from the prior year. Excluding special items, operating income was $601.4 million. Fixed operating costs were approximately $350 million lower as compared to fiscal year 2012.
Income from continuing operations attributable to Apollo Group was $248.5 million, or $2.19 per share, compared to $422.7 million, or $3.22 per share in fiscal year 2012. Excluding special items, income from continuing operations in 2013 was $358.1 million, or $3.16 per share.
...
As of August 31, 2013, the Company’s unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities totaled $1.52 billion, compared to $1.28 billion as of August 31, 2012. The principal components of this increase were $478.0 million of cash provided by operations; partially offset by $119.3 million for capital expenditures, $42.5 million used for the purchase of noncontrolling interests, a net investment of $38.0 million in long-term marketable securities, and $26.2 million of net payments on borrowings. http://investors.apollo.edu/phoenix.zhtml?c=79624&p=irol-newsArticle&id=1866956Who says there's no money in "education"?
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Post #393,662
8/25/14 12:28:12 PM
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Not education ... "credentialling"
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Post #393,682
8/25/14 6:24:18 PM
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Jeez, you must not be a "Phoenix".
Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #393,680
8/25/14 6:21:38 PM
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Yeah, but
From my privileged seat in a real, public, not for profit university that designs the very finest weapons of mass destruction, I must say that I loathe UP and its ilk.
That said, spending on education is countercyclical: as employment improves, enrollment declines.
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Post #393,685
8/25/14 6:46:29 PM
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Good point.
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Post #393,690
8/25/14 8:23:30 PM
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Why?
I see two possibilities:
1. More jobs means less people with the free time to go to school. (Same reason crime goes down. Hmm, would be interesting to see how higher education rates track with crime rates.)
2. Less jobs means people think an education will help them get the ones that are left.
I'm sure there's some of both at play, I wonder which is the bigger driver.
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Post #393,692
8/25/14 9:41:24 PM
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#2
That reminds me of various choices I faced after graduating from college. The job market being crappy at the time (10% unemployment) helped making the choice to continue in school much easier.
Lots of factors go into it (availability of grants, loans, etc.), but the state of the economy is a very big factor.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #393,699
8/25/14 10:42:15 PM
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#2, but for a slightly different reason
I know people who "hid" in school additional years while waiting for the economy to improve.
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Post #393,733
8/26/14 5:58:56 PM
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Didn't you both just say #1?
In both your examples, when there were jobs ready to take people took them rather than staying in school.
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Post #393,737
8/26/14 6:43:16 PM
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Trick question!
Dunno.
There were jobs available when I graduated, even with 10% unemployment. But I didn't want to enlist. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #393,743
8/26/14 8:47:23 PM
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"Free time" is different from panic starvation
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Post #393,764
8/27/14 12:13:51 AM
8/27/14 12:22:16 AM
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We need several new words for 'job'-like things, for the 21st Century
From Corner-office sinecure ... on down to McD-Walmart/Temps running-in-place, with multiple "jobs" and little food/shelter/clothing.
Gig used to apply to musicians--a peripatetic prance from one locale to another.
Earning a decent surplus over bare subsistence we are pleased to call a career.
We see that Professional- modifier has already bitten the dust:
(Ask an I.T. person about paid/perceived Corporate-status -?- despite massive lore, demonstrably good judgment--crucial for all operations.) amiright, Sirs?
Politicians lump-it-all into some stupid number like IQ (or worst-possible collective: "The Murican People demand ____ ...
So how do we indicate properly.. these clear Class-dividers of "occupations"?
(How else? to call-attention to the hypocrisy which keeps these immense-gaps under the same umbrella-word.)
These are all distinct ways to try-to-persist, in a plutocracy; let's keep the laser on the base-causes?
dysLexicographers Untie and reweave!
And when we solve that: mayhap there can be a review of w.t.f. IS that massive difference between A Liberal Education™ and
(borrowing $40-80K at usurious interest-rates … maybe for a U.P. pseudo-Ed-ja-Kay'-shun for)
merely a ticket-to-play … within a Corporate sandbox?? for the rest of your unnatural liff?
Hmmm?
Gnostics everywhere want to know. Is This execrable fate that progress-thing for which we killed off those (earlier) Visigoths?
It seems they're baaack. With shrinkable-cubicles and day/night time-clocks.
Ed: word.
Edited by Ashton
Aug. 27, 2014, 12:22:16 AM EDT
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Post #393,765
8/27/14 12:15:49 AM
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A gig does describe well what I do
get a start time, the length of the gig depends on the profit/loss during the term of the gig which may be lengthened or shortened depending on receipts. Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 59 years. meep
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