Public complaints have been piling up against University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hartβs decision to join the board of a troubled for-profit college firm, but the president isnβt backing down.
Despite criticism from students, academics and alumni, Hart says she still believes her side job with DeVry Education Group is a good idea. Also, the head of the Arizona Board of Regents voiced her support for Hartβs decision.
βI agreed to serve on the DeVry Group board in order to be a voice for quality and for positive student outcomes,β said Hart, who will make $70,000 a year plus $100,000 in stock from DeVry on top of her $665,000 pay package from the UA.
Hart said she plans to βwork toward assuring that higher education is available to a segment of Americans who will never be able to attend universities like the University of Arizona.β
Jim Finkelstein, a George Mason University professor who has researched corporate board service by university presidents for nearly 20 years, says Hart is the only public university president in the country serving on the board of a publicly traded, for-profit college firm.
Her decision to do so has raised eyebrows in higher education circles, Finkelstein said, because βpeople consider it to be really on the very outside edge of whatβs appropriate for a public university president.β
Another public educator who signed on with DeVry the same day Hart did, University of California-Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, quit the board within days after a public outcry.
Illinois-based DeVry Group, parent firm of DeVry University, is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly deceiving students, allegations the firm denies. Hart and Katehi joined the board a few weeks after the FTC filed suit in January.
Seventeen people, including alumni, employees and parents of UA students, have submitted written complaints about Hartβs DeVry job to the university, the Arizona Board of Regents or both.
Hart also faced questions at a Faculty Senate meeting Monday. A half-dozen senators who questioned her were about evenly split between supporters and opponents of the presidentβs decision, said Lynn Nadel, chair of the faculty.
As well, about 50 UA students and employees marched outside Old Main on Friday shouting anti-Hart slogans such as βDeVry can take her! We donβt want her!β
Hart was not on campus at the time. She was in Las Vegas attending the Pac-12 Conference basketball tournament, UA spokesman Chris Sigurdson said.
Many who object to Hartβs board position said she has hurt the UAβs reputation by working with a firm accused of misleading students about their career prospects.
βI believe her association with this pseudo-university tarnishes the image of the University of Arizona,β wrote Merrie Brucks, a marketing professor at the UAβs Eller College of Management.
Critics said Hart receives a generous salary to lead the UA and shouldnβt divide her loyalties.
βShe is well-paid to be president of the U of A. Itβs not a part-time job and requires her full attention,β wrote alumnus Robert Kahl.
Some asked the regents to adopt restrictions that would require the stateβs university presidents to get permission for outside work.
Under current policy, Hart didnβt need anyoneβs OK to serve on the DeVry board. The policy requires only that she let regents know about it, which she did. The policy also says campus presidents must make their jobs running the universities their primary focus.
Eileen Klein, president of the Board of Regents, said she supports Hartβs decision.
βI do not question Dr. Hartβs commitment to the University of Arizona. It is strong and the universityβs brand or status hardly will be undone by her decision,β Klein wrote in an email.
She said Hart can help DeVry become a stronger organization. βIn this rapidly changing landscape of higher education delivery, done right, both institutions can learn from one another as a result of her appointment,β she said.
Klein said while thereβs nothing wrong with Hartβs decision, the board may review its rules for outside board work by university presidents in response to public concerns.
Hart said DeVry does not compete with the UA for students because DeVryβs main target market is older students who dropped out, flunked out or never had the chance to go to college.
She said she vetted DeVry thoroughly before joining the board and is confident the company is on solid ground.
The FTC says DeVry βdeceived consumers about the likelihood that students would find jobs in their fields of study, and would earn more than those graduating with bachelorβs degrees from other colleges or universities.β
For example, the federal agency said DeVry falsely claimed that 90 percent of its graduates who actively sought work landed jobs in their fields within six months.
The figure is bogus, the FTC said, because DeVry included graduates who were working in unskilled jobs such food service, car sales, or delivery driving as well as those who were still in the same jobs they had before they started school.
DeVry denies wrongdoing and has pledged to fight the federal enforcement action.
A. Lee Fritschler, a former assistant secretary of higher education for the U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton administration, said its not unusual for retired university presidents to join the boards of for-profit college operators.
But he agrees with Finkelstein that its virtually unheard of for the sitting president of a flagship public university to do so.
βA university president serving on another universityβs board is highly irregular,β Fritschler said.
βWould the president of General Motors serve on the board of Ford or Toyota?β