University of Phoenix Legal Woes

For such a large university with over 397,000 students and over 200 campus locations, you would expect the University of Phoenix to have some lawsuits filed against them. This is just an inventory of some of those suits.

1. Latrish Elaine Tarhini was an enrollment counselor at the Houston campus of the University of Phoenix. She was told that she wouldn't get a promotion due to her filling a pregnancy discrimination charge against the Apollo Group Inc. ( parent of the University of Phoenix ). In essence the University of Phoenix violated the retaliation statutes of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The company settled the lawsuit for $32,500 in June, 2009.

2. The Apollo Group Inc. (parent of the University of Phoenix ) is presently in settlement talks to bring a 6 year old Fed. whistle-blower legal action over its inducting methods to a close. The trial is about to start soon in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento and fundamentally at the guts of it is the fact that the University of Phoenix paid recruiters based totally on the quantity of scholars they enroll. Apparently resulting in all kinds of assertive recruiting methods. The court action was brought by 2 University of Phoenix advisors back in 2003. The settlement is predicted to be in the $40 million to $250 million range.

3. In December 2008, 3 previous students at the University of Phoenix were looking for class-action standing for a federal legal action which accuses the college of wrongly saying its record on study loan defaults. According to the suit the University of Phoenix reportedly pays off federal student loans and then goes after the scholars themselves to collect the amounts due under more onerous terms than the the federal loans. By doing this, the school impedes those loans from being considered in its official default rate. Colleges with high default rates can be barred from federal student-loan programs or face other restrictions. We are unable to get any more details on the suit including any settlement terms under consideration. It is vital to note though that Fed. Title IV loans are the backbone of the revenue stream for the whole for-profit education industry and that Apollo derives over 77% of their income from these loans. Accordingly, this may be a big problem for the University of Phoenix.

4. In January 2008, Apollo Group Inc. Lost a stockholder instruments fraud lawsuit saying damages of as much as $277.5 million. The jury agreed with the investors that Apollo with previous boss Todd Nelson and CFO Kenda Gonzales, cheated investors by not disclosing a February 2004 U.S. Education office report. The office accused the Phoenix-based company of violating a Fed ban on scholars based upon the number of scholars they enroll. It seems like the Apollo Group was successful at getting this call over-turned in Aug of 2008. We aren't sure what the current status of the legal action is today.

5. In November 2008, Apollo Group, Inc. Settled a federal suit claiming discrimination against non-Mormon staff at the University of Phoenix on the web. This class-action court action was filed by 52 former enrollment counselors who charged that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were favored in sales leads, promotions, schooling waivers, and more at the faculty. The settlement was allegedly for $1.89 million.

If you're aware of any other court actions that impact the University of Phoenix or any other college or varsity, please let us know. We have an interest in following all lawsuits especially those concerning online colleges and varsities. It is inevitable that these for-profit establishments will experience some suits given how big they have grown to be.
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University of Phoenix Legal Woes
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