Ethics in Family History

This is one of my favorite shows!

It is fascinating learning about other people's histories. Probably in part because I don't really know my own. The ethical dilemma here is that Ben Affleck was a guest on the show when it was revealed that one of his ancestors was a slave owner. He was upset and embarrassed and requested that information be omitted from the segment.

Seriously, Ben? If you are a US Born person and White, odds are there were some slave owners in your family tree.  Slavery is the economy our country was built on. Right up there with stealing the land from the people who were already living here.

But the drama does not end there folks. The emails from the conversation Gates had with the higher ups have surfaced! This is the first time anyone has ever made this request- that an unsavory piece of their history be kept quiet. AND Gates was told to not reveal the information for fear of possible fall out!

What do you think? Was it right for Sony pics to authorize Gates to omit a piece of Affleck's history? And again, it's Sony pictures and the emails! The hits keep comin'....

Ethics in Data Reports and Recruitment

Corinthian is being fined for lying to students about job attainment prospects. Their false data led students to believe if they graduated from the school, they would have a very good chance of getting a job or being placed into a job upon graduation.  Corinthian’s job-placement reporting was shoddy at best, and they aren’t alone:

“For-profit colleges are particularly vulnerable to scrutiny over job-placement rates because most of them qualify for federal student aid by preparing students for careers and because their accreditors specifically require them to meet job-placement standards. But in some cases, accreditors’ policies for such reporting leave a lot of room for inconsistency.”

I find this practice highly unethical. It hurts the student in so many ways. A for-profit college is more expensive than their not-for profit counterparts and students are more like to become enmeshed in student loan debt. These students have wasted resources (time and money) that can’t be given back. They’ll have to begin anew somewhere else and hope they can afford it.  It makes me wonder what other recruitment efforts and data are misconstrued or falsified on all campuses.

April 15, 2015

$30-Million Fine for Corinthian May Portend Tougher Scrutiny of For-Profits

By Andy Thomason and Goldie Blumenstyk

Washington

The U.S. Department of Education has fined Corinthian Colleges $29.6 million for "misrepresentation of job-placement rates to current and prospective students in Corinthian’s Heald College system," the department said in a news release on Tuesday. The department also said it was cutting off Title IV federal student aid to two Heald campuses.

"This should be a wake-up call for consumers across the country about the abuses that can exist within the for-profit college sector," the secretary of education, Arne Duncan, said in the release. "We will continue to hold the career-college industry accountable and demand reform for the good of students and taxpayers." Corinthian said that the allegations were based on flawed analysis and that it planned "to contest everything."

The department’s readiness to impose the fine — one of its largest ever — over allegations of falsified job-placement rates may also be a sign that it is devoting renewed attention to such reporting by for-profit colleges, and could have implications that extend far beyond Corinthian.

"Clearly the department has an increased focus on this," said Debbie Cochrane, research director at the Institute for College Access and Success, an organization that has pressed for tighter regulation of for-profit colleges. "Anyone who oversees college-placement rates should also take notice," she said, referring to accreditors, state agencies that monitor colleges, and other regulators. "Everybody should be on the lookout for the kind of funny math that Corinthian seems to have been using."

For-profit colleges are particularly vulnerable to scrutiny over job-placement rates because most of them qualify for federal student aid by preparing students for careers and because their accreditors specifically require them to meet job-placement standards. But in some cases, accreditors’ policies for such reporting leave a lot of room for inconsistency.

"It’s been a kind of Wild West" in job-placement reporting, said Robert Shireman, a former department official who now runs the organization California Competes. When Mr. Shireman was in the department, he was involved in efforts to toughen regulations governing "misrepresentation" by colleges in recruiting students. He said that the department’s action on Tuesday "may be a warning signal" that it planned to pursue more such investigations on those grounds.

In its news release, the department said it had found 947 false placement rates provided to students and prospective students, as well as to accreditors and to the department.

Read the department’s letter to Corinthian Colleges.

Last year the department stepped up its financial oversight of Corinthian Colleges, a move that unexpectedly precipitated the for-profit educator’s collapse. It reached an agreement with the department to sell 95 of its campuses and teach out the rest.

The two Heald campuses were among a dozen slated to be sold, but in recent days the college’s president, Eeva K. Deshon, had asked for leniency from California’s attorney general, Kamala D. Harris, who is suing Corinthian. The Sacramento Bee reported that Ms. Deshon had said the attorney general’s office’s "unreasonable demands" were, in effect, blocking the sale of the Heald campuses.

‘Let Off the Hook’

A spokeswoman for the attorney general said on Tuesday that the office has no official role in the sale of the colleges and that Heald’s request that potential buyers receive a guarantee that would shield them from liability from the lawsuit was not acceptable.

"They want to be let off the hook for the way they defrauded students," the spokeswoman said. And even after a sale, some students who had entered Heald under "false pretenses" during Corinthian’s ownership would still be enrolled. "It’s not as simple as saying, ‘Oh, new buyers, fresh start,’" she said.

In a written statement, a spokesman for Corinthian, Joe Hixson, called the department’s claims "highly questionable" and "unsubstantiated," and he said they would threaten the sale of the Heald campuses. "These unfounded, punitive actions do nothing to advance quality education in California," he said, "but would certainly shatter the dreams and aspirations of Heald students and the careers of its employees."

Corinthian also maintained in its statement that the department had taken its actions based on "faulty data and analyses discovered and disclosed more than 18 months ago. Yesterday, we attempted unsuccessfully to forewarn the department that it should not rely upon data driven by a single erroneous report."

In an interview, Mr. Hixson said potential buyers had met with officials of the California attorney general’s office on Monday and had "received the most positive signals so far" that the state’s case might be close to settlement. Corinthian is eager to sell the campuses because it is facing pressure from its creditors and it needs the money. "We’ll only be able to extend this for so long," said Mr. Hixson, adding that the timing of the new federal fine "is very detrimental to getting that deal done."

But the California attorney general’s office said on Tuesday that its case was continuing. The California case includes allegations that echo the federal ones, as well as claims that Corinthian misused official military seals in the recruiting of veterans and misled students about the transferability of credits.

Attorney General Harris said in a written statement that she applauded the department for its action. She also took the opportunity to reiterate a request that the department "act quickly to relieve these students from their student-loan debt burdens."

Andy Thomason is a web news writer. Follow him on Twitter @arthomason.

Goldie Blumenstyk writes about the intersection of business and higher education. Check out www.goldieblumenstyk.com for information on her new book about the higher-education crisis; follow her on Twitter @GoldieStandard; or email her at goldie@chronicle.com.

- See more at: http://0-chronicle.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/article/30-Million-Fine-for/229355/#sthash.7YJw6wIX.dpuf

Ethics in Social Media, #SAInvest

I participated in a webinar this morning through NASPA. It was about ethics and social media. It was refreshing because they talked about students and professionals, including examples and etiquette tips. It did not bash students, it did provide some interesting take aways.

Take Away 1

Context Collapse

“We mitigate ourselves in different ways as part of the human condition and there are different contexts in which we act and speak. Social media causes all of those contexts to collapse upon one another. All of those different contexts can see each other at once. Students have a difficult time understanding that.”

I like the way the speaker explained that we are different parts of ourselves in different areas of our lives. The way we act in church is different from the way we act in class, which is different from the way we act at home, around friends, around family, and at work. He called these the various contexts. When it comes to social media, all those different areas can see what we post, filters withstanding. So the cultural norms and rules of etiquette we follow in real life at all these different contexts do not exist and are not at play when we use social media. One post might be fine for one context and completely inappropriate for another, but all contexts see it. So there is tension.

Take Away 2

“We are all one tweet away from being fired.”

So true.  I think we need to be careful about what we put on social media, but I also think people should just be good people in general. If someone is scared of putting out hateful, racist, misogynistic remarks for fear of being fired, maybe they should really examine why they are so hate filled in the first place.

Take Away 3

“Our posts matter and we should have a social media presence, but oversharing is a problem.”

I like that the presenters suggest as professionals we should have a social media presence. We can be role models, we can be current, we can add to the creative process and share resources. Multiple reasons exist in support of us being on social media. However, I also like that the presenters gave examples of how we ourselves overshare and can do better about balancing our personal truths and the extent to which we share healthy behaviors. They provided an example of a professor who tweets often about wanting to lose weight or drop a couple of dress sizes. Instead the professor could tweet about finding a great lo-calorie recipe or a great place for hiking or walking to get exercise. The same sentiment of being health comes across without the tones of body shaming.

Take Away 4

“Social media did not create bad behavior, it just amplified it.”

So true! It also made it available for everyone to judge and comment on. 

I thought the presenters (pictured below), had great points. 

Do y'all see social media as an online place we can navigate ethically? In particularly when there are times when you are forced to participate in un-ethical  posts at no fault of your own because of the way social media works?