Business School, Continuing Education, and business educational options

Perhaps I missed your reference to your credentials, but I assume you have reason to feel qualified to evaluate the Capella University business administration program and the other programs Capella offers. You referred to few positives for Capella U. but failed to relate how you had come to these conclusions. Did you make assumptions from their website description, from participant comments, published research, etc? As a recent graduate of Capella, I obtained not only my PhD, but much more and can ennumerate many positives (no negatives). Given, I put much into this degree including my time, energy, research, study and effort, (and yes even finances) I received flexibility in learning time, excellent guidance, international, life long friendships, network connections as well as indepth learning and skills that I am applying in my profession. The quality of the courses I took were unquestionably superior to what I would have received from "seat time" in a land based university where I could have quietly sat in class and received a degree with little or no interaction with my peers or professors. Having entered this venture a bit skeptical of quality, I am now convinced that it was not only high quality and competitive with other institutions of higher education, but enjoyable as well. (minor editing)

My background and credentials appear on the July 1 post for this blog. Capella lacks accreditation by AACSB. Further, Capella has more negative comments on the Internet than any other educational institution I can find. Want to earn a real PhD? Go to a major state university.

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) lacks accreditation by AACSB also. Does this means that it is a "bad" school as you seem to imply of Capella?

And yes, MIT has the Sloan School (their Business School).

Sorry, Jane, but you are dead wrong on your facts. MIT is very much accredited by AACSB. Go to www.aacsb.edu and see for yourself.

Yes, you are right MIT is accredited by AASCB - I just looked at the 42 Council members list which MIT is not a member.

What do you think of schools that are "just" regionally accredited but not members of the AASCB? For example, Drury University of Springfield MO? Regionally it does have a good rep.

I have never visited the Drury campus, but I am inclined to give it a favorable rating because of its regional accreditation and because the school stresses on-campus study. To its credit, Drury does not hawk online classes as a satisfactory alternative to traditional classes.

I just came across a document that is an agreement between Capella University and the University of California, Irvine (UCI) which appears to confirm that UCI is accepting kickbacks from Capella University for sending them new students. That agreement is located at:

http://www.capellauniversity.org/images/Capella_UCI_Signed_Kickback_Agreement_November_2004.pdf

What do you think?

Gary, I love your blog. Count me as a regular reader.

I ran a comparison of costs and accreditation for 10 online MBA programs. You can find the results here.

Did you see the article in the Chronicle of Higher Education today about the $500 fee Capella pays to UCI for each student that enrolls? Any ideas as to how many other schools Capella also pays?

BTW, you've got a great blog.

Capella University listed in the USNews under America's Best Colleges 2008

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_32673_brief.php

BTW what Gary Jacobson appears not to know is that the negative comments and sites he lists in his article are the work of one person: Jeffry La Marca who claimed to have been discriminated against Capella because of disabilities.

On 11/19/07: His lawsuit against Capella was dismissed and the court found that he was not disabled. Even so Capella still provided him with reasonable accomodations.
The court also found that his behavior in the classroom was "abusive and harrassing."

More to come.

More to come...

The negative sites posted in Jacob's articles are not reliable. They are all the work of Jeff LaMarca who lost his lawsuit against Capella.

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2561/judge-dismisses-lawsuit-against-capella-u

The entire court ruling can be found at PACER, but another poster has posted the entire court rulling (pdf document) at the link below:

http://forums.degreeboard.com/showthread.php?t=6351&page=3

LaMarca has yet to update his sites on the results of his lawsuit. And he has yet to post on his websites that an investigation by the Office of Civil Rights found that Capella did nothing wrong in kicking him out of their school for making abusive and innapropriate behavior in the classroom when he didn't get his way.

For years, Jeff has stated that he has learning disabilities and asked for reasonable accomodations from Capella. When you go to the links above you will be shocked to see how much Capella did to help LaMarca in this matter.

A summary of the Court Findings coming up next.

On December 13, United States Magistrate Judge Marc Goldman issued his ruling for dismissing LaMarca's lawsuit.

In general - the court ruled:

1. LaMarca is not disabled under the ADA. This is due to the fact while there were differences between LaMarca's IQ scores and his working memory and processing scores, LaMarca's working memory score is in the 55th percentile and his processing score is in the 66th percentile. LaMarca's IQ score is in the 96th percentile.

2. Even if LaMarca was disabled under the ADA, Capella granted reasonable accommodations. One paragraph is telling in the decision:

"Not only were the accommodations Defendant (Capella) provided during the spring quarter reasonable, Defendant also eventually offered Plaintiff (LaMarca) the option to complete his courses through directed study, which would involve one-on-one instruction with the instructors. A directed study program would have addressed every issue Plaintiff raised, both with the WebCT deficiencies of which Plaintiff complained and the accommodations he believed were insufficient. The fact that the offer was made in the context of a dispute with the Plaintiff over his postings is irrelevant. Plaintiff declined the offer. Plaintiff's refusal to accept an accommodation that would have addressed all of his needs precludes his claims" (Case 8:05-cv-00642-MLG, p. 39).

3. Capella did not engage in retaliation by locking out LaMarca from Capella's courserooms due to LaMarca's abusive behavior:

"Plaintiff's attempts to characterize his posts as simple criticism's of WebCT are not persuasive. Plaintiff's comments were abusive, harassing, and inappropriate for any public environment, let alone the functional equivalent of a classroom...Plaintiff's conduct was no different than a student on a bricks-and-mortar classroom setting disrupting a class with vocal and unrelenting criticisms and personal attacks on the school's faculty and staff, based on a dispute over unrelated administrative issues (p, 45).

4. Finally, although Capella's counterclaim was not addressed in this decision (LaMarca has asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to block Capella's counterclaim from being heard by the lower court), a footnote by the judge is telling:

"Though Plaintiff clearly believes that the First Amendment protects his right to attack and belittle whomever drifts across his radar, the First Amendment protections are not so broad, particularly where, as here, there is no government action to which the First Amendment even applies...(Footnote 22).

According to Capella's site:

Capella has brought counterclaims against Mr. La Marca alleging defamation and interference with business relations. He attempted to have Capella’s counterclaim dismissed, but was unsuccessful at the district court level. That decision is currently on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a signed declaration, Kurt Linberg, one of Capella University’s “Executive Directors” (Capella-speak for “Dean”) stated that Capella University relied upon the [faulty] decision of a Federal law enforcement agency (which conducted a shoddy investigation into the illegal actions of the “university”) before he helped to throw a student our of their “school” without any due process.

Not only that but, in addition to abusing and subsequently lying to Federal law enforcement agencies about that matter, Kurt Linberg then admitted in a declaration signed under penalty of perjury that,

Kurt Linberg stated - "There was an internal meeting [at Capella University] to determine what we should do with communicating these results to [the student]. The -- and what we decided to do was not communicate until we officially had the OCR [United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights] report findings back to us."

The student's attorney then asked Linberg if that - "Has it ever been communicated to him [the student], as far as you know?"

Kurt Linberg replied - "I don't know."

Clearly, Linberg and Capella based their acts of retaliation against a student on an incompetent investigation by OCR, but also after they thought they could get away with their refusal to provide that student with any due process. Linberg has now been caught in his own lies as a result of a series of e-mails between Kurt Linberg and other Capella employees (which Capella refused to turn over to that student, along with countless other records required under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act [FERPA]) which has just been discovered. There is no question that Linberg not only KNEW that the student had been had “disenrolled” (Capella-speak for expelled) but that the student was NEVER to be told about Capella’s vile actions. One of those e-mails states:

"From: Ragozzino, Kris [Kris Ragozzino]
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 5:24 PM
To: Kerns, Colin [Colin Kerns]; Thompson, Joanne [Joanne Thompson]
Cc: Linberg, Kurt [Kurt Linberg]
Subject: FW: Disenrollment

Please update this learner's record so that the disenrollment date is 1-3-05 as stated in Kurt's email below. The learner should NOT be notified regarding this change in disenrollment. The reason should be "Suspended" and a note should be added in the Terminate Student Remarks notes field next to the withdrawal/separation date (in the drill down) stating Reason: Failure to adhere to the conditions established post academic suspension.

Thanks [Kris Ragozzino]”

Due to Capella University’s ongoing intentional refusal to abide by FERPA, the United States Department of Education, Family Policy Compliance Office has already found Capella in violation, on TEN COUNTS, for their failure to abide by that Federal law, and Capella University remains under investigation, nearly four years after the initial FERPA request was made, for their continuing refusal to abide by the law. Under FERPA, all schools have just forty-five days to produce records demanded under that Act. Four YEARS later, Capella still won’t comply. BTW, Capella’s very own “vice chairman, external university initiatives” and former President, Michael Offerman was personally notified about Capella’s ongoing FERPA violations and, even though Offerman bragged, at press conference at the National Press Club, given as part of his grossly insincere “Transparency by Design” initiative, that his school “has the courage to do the right thing,” the fact remains Offerman is not only a liar but that Capella University continues to refuse to abide by Federal laws.

Finally, it needs to be mentioned that many of Capella’s attorneys, including but not necessarily limited to: Greg Thom (Capella’s “Chief Counsel” and Congressional Lobbyist), Priscilla McNulty (one of Greg Thom’s underlings), along with two “attorneys” from the law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath, Henry Christian L’Orange (aka, H. Christian L’Orange and Chris L’Orange) and Stella Fey Epling have lied about Capella’s refusal to abide by FERPA to Federal law enforcement agencies and/or in signed declarations (again, submitted under penalty of perjury) to Federal Courts.

Much of the negative information on the Internet concerning Capella University was the work of Jeff LaMarca. Capella University recently announced a settlement in a legal action against Mr. LaMarca:

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3559/capella-u-settles-lawsuit-against-former-student

http://www.capella.edu/vc/inc/pdf/la_marcas_apology.pdf

I am one class away from getting my BS in Information Technology and have been going to Capella for many years. I have enjoyed my experience at Capella University and would recommend it. Capella is not a diploma mill so be prepared to work hard for your education.