Three Republican U.S. senators Thursday blasted a recent Defense Department decision to sanction the University of Phoenix, calling the action unfair and suggesting that it was politically motivated.
In a letter, Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, both from the giant for-profit school’s home state of Arizona, and Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee asked Defense Secretary Ash Carter to reconsider the decision to place the University of Phoenix on probation.
That status restricts the school’s access to military bases and prevents new students from enrolling at the school using military tuition assistance, though current students will be allowed to finish their studies using the benefit.
The senators wrote that they support oversight to ensure the schools that service members attend operate with integrity and follow a DoD memorandum of understanding, or MOU, related to military education.
“However, it is our understanding that (DoD Voluntary Education Chief Dawn) Bilodeau’s decision and threats of termination of participation in the TA program rely on overly technical violations of the MOU, fail to acknowledge any of the university’s corrective action or pledged cooperation and are based, in part, on unsubstantiated allegations associated with inquiries not initiated by the DoD,” they wrote.
The Defense Department emailed Military Times the following statement, attributed to a DoD official: “The Department has received the letter and is currently in the process of reviewing its content for a timely response.”
An Oct. 7 letter from Bilodeau to the University of Phoenix cited three reasons for the action:
- Improper use of official military seals and trademarks.
- Going onto military bases without giving notice to the proper officials.
- Ongoing investigations of the school by the state attorney general of California and the Federal Trade Commission.
“Although the University of Phoenix has responded to these infractions with appropriate corrective action at this time, the frequency and scope of these previous violations of the DoD MOU is disconcerting,” Bilodeau’s letter read.
McCain, Flake and Alexander questioned every aspect of Bilodeau’s reasoning.
DoD’s actions related to the University of Phoenix, based on the fact that other organizations are investigating the school, “seemingly assume the guilt of the university” before it is proved, the lawmakers wrote.
The two other reasons cited have been corrected, according to Bilodeau’s letter, and were never a big deal to begin with, the senators wrote.
When the University of Phoenix went onto military bases, it did so with the permission of higher-ranking military officials, even if base education services officers didn’t know, they said.
“Approval from the base leadership should be sufficient,” the letter said, noting the importance of the chain of command in the military.
The senators also said the military seal violation that Phoenix committed by reproducing the logos on some challenge coins is committed by some public and private nonprofit schools “with impunity.”
“We remain skeptical that the DoD is evenly and uniformly enforcing its policies on all institutions of higher education and appears to be unfairly singling out certain institutions of higher education based on a letter” from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the letter said.
For-profit institutions have come under intense scrutiny in recent years at the state and federal level, with Durbin becoming one of the industry’s leading critics. Earlier this month, he praised DoD’s move on Phoenix as “a decisive action … to protect service members and taxpayers from a company that offers degrees of questionable value.”
Veterans service organizations have split on the focus by some in government on for-profit schools in particular, with some indicating that they believe it is warranted and others asking for scrutiny of all schools, whether for-profit, private nonprofit or public.
The University of Phoenix was the fifth-most-popular destination for TA students in fiscal 2014, enrolling about 9,400 service members taking nearly 28,000 courses at a cost of more than $20 million, according to Pentagon data.
Following DoD’s action earlier this month, University of Phoenix President Tim Slottow said the school “will continue to hold ourselves to the highest standards of accountability, transparency, ethics and compliance.”
