Recently in Higher Education Category

Source:  By TAMAR LEWIN, New York Times, August 6, 2010

The Washington Post Company's Kaplan Inc. unit suspended enrollment on Friday at its campuses in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and Riverside, Calif., where undercover investigators for the Government Accountability Office found deceptive practices by admissions officials.
At a Senate hearing on Wednesday on recruitment at for-profit colleges, a G.A.O. report, accompanied by videos, described deceptive or fraudulent practices at each of 15 campuses visited, two of which were Kaplan campuses. At Kaplan College in Pembroke Pines, for example, an admissions officer told investigators posing as applicants that the college had the same accreditation as Harvard.

Source: PETER S. GOODMAN, New York Times, March 13, 2010

One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.

At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year.

 

.... The stakes are enormous: For-profit schools have long derived the bulk of their revenue from federal loans and grants, and the percentages have been climbing sharply.

Source: By TONY NAUROTH, The Express-Times (PA), Tuesday, February 23, 2010

 

After six and a half years working for Sodexo Food and Facilities Management Services at Lafayette College, Genevieve Repsher grew tired of earning $8.25 an hour as a cashier in the Farinon Hall cafeteria.

When she showed interest in organizing fellow workers with Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, she found herself followed, watched, interrogated and disciplined by Sodexo management.

Source: By Tracy Jan, Boston Globe (MA), January 13, 2010

 

 ........ Now, the economic downturn has prompted college officials to seek the once unimaginable, the option to outsource some duties of facility workers to save on overtime costs. Doing so, officials say, would help the school preserve jobs.

But many faculty, students, and workers are questioning the move to contract out overtime work, saying it could open the door to replacing the employees with lower-wage, nonunion workers. Such a shift would run counter to Catholic traditions of social justice, they say.

Source: Mona Sonnenshein and Carol Sherman, Modern Healthcare, April 20, 2009 - 5:59 am EDT

 

In October 2006, the chief operating officer for the University of California at San Diego Medical Center wanted to evaluate the medical center's outsourced food and nutrition services for both quality and financial improvements. A consultant, who had worked successfully with this senior administrator before, was hired to evaluate the facility's current operation, including the ability of the department to meet current and future needs of the medical center and assess the possibilities for cost containment and service modification through changes in the department.

..... Through the transition to in-house management, approximately $1.6 million was saved from the annual operating budget, and services were improved after a seamless transition.

Source: UNITE HERE & SEIU Stir It Up, Fri, 01/30/2009 - 12:36

 .......  Stir It Up it is a website dedicated to helping students across the country take a stand and demand that their campus food service reflects the values of the students on campus. Too often administrators who oversee campus food service make decisions without any real input from the student body. Food service at college campuses and across the industry needs to change, and if that change is going to take place, it's going to be because of student activism and involvement.

Source: Inside Higher Ed, December 15, 2008

...... Now under threat of closing, the college is in negotiations with a public institution -- New Mexico Highlands University -- that is considering taking over the college, and a debt that could be as much as $35.3 million. While the potential deal is seen by many as a welcome lifeline, students and faculty say they're unsure how the uniqueness of Santa Fe might be preserved if the college is placed in state hands.

Source: Retriever Weekly at the University of Maryland, Tuesday September 30, 2008

At the end of last year the hoopla surrounding the new food contract made Chartwells sound like the second coming of Christ. However, when Chartwells took over during the summer, complaints started to surface about the price and quality of food. When students returned to school the cries grew louder; as meal plans became more limiting and out-of-pocket expenses started creeping higher, the complaints increased.

..... The revamp of the dining hall will also be interesting as the price of entry has increased but the quality of the food is still the same as it was in Sodexho days. Even the layout is still essentially unchanged. The entrance was moved but the flow of traffic is still convoluted and confusing.

Source: AFL-CIO blog, April 25, 2008

Kevin Christensen, lead researcher in the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research, writes about a great victory for food service workers and custodians with AFSCME at the University of California-Davis.

AFSCME Local 3299 has won a four-year fight to end outsourcing of food service work in the 10-campus University of California (UC) system, after UC-Davis announced last week that nearly 200 workers currently employed by Sodexho will be eligible to apply for university employment, and so become AFSCME members.

Related article from the Sacramento News Review: On the payroll

Source: Crookston Times (MN), Friday, April 4, 2008 1:16 PM

...... The proposed 10-year contract with Sodexo meets the University's high standards for quality, choice, service and responsibility and provides the best value and best financial benefit for the University and students, faculty and staff.

Key terms include employee stability and financial investments and commitments. Members of AFSCME and Teamster unions remain University of Minnesota employees at their current salary and benefit level and report to Sodexo management. Current on-site management will also continue employment and be employed by Sodexo.