Some local universities seem to be in the news lately, for good and bad reasons.
Heap a Trouble for For-Profits: Check out this investigation by Huffington Post into for-profit schools. It’s eye-opening to read about heavy-handed sales tactics used to entice students into enrolling, where they could take advantage of government funding programs and get themselves in debt while earning degrees of dubious value. The target is Education Management Corp., which operates schools across the U.S., including Brown Mackie College. Jack Conway has joined a national lawsuit against EDMC. As a former instructor at the local BMC campus, I’ll tell you that I don’t doubt any of the allegations are true.
Bellarmine’s Million Dollar Question: The Newburg Road school is asking in a new campaign if Louisville is ready to become one of America’s greatest cities for education — by funding its $100 million capital campaign, which will be used for an ambitious $45 million construction budget. “What Notre Dame has done for Indiana, Emory for Atlanta, Duke for North Carolina, and Vanderbilt for Nashville, Bellarmine can do for Louisville and this region,” says president Joseph McGowan.
Howard’s Legacy: On Saturday, Florida Atlantic dedicated a new 30,00-seat stadium, complete with a statue of Howard Schnellenberger crossing his arms between palm trees. And the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers had to go and ruin things by whipping Howard’s football team 20-0. It was WKU’s first shutout since 2007, and the sixth straight loss for Schnellenberter, who is in his last season as coach.
Hard to Watch Cards: For those still paying attention, U of L lost a football game at Cincy Saturday, 25-16. They’re 2-4, going nowhere, and host Rutgers in a game they won’t be favored to win at home Friday night. As someone who remembers imaginative offenses of John L. Smith and Bobby Petrino, it’s obvious these guys are going to struggle to score 20 against anyone, which isn’t going to keep people in the seats.
More Merger Troubles: I don’t blame the C-J for continuing to produce reasons that the University of Louisville hospital merger won’t work. Yesterday it pointed out that some employees under the merger could lose their coverage for birth control, AND had a story about how Catholic rules have posed problems for hospitals in Arkansas.
