University of Phoenix Legal Woes

For such a massive college 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 a list of some of those suits.

1. Latrish Elaine Tarhini was an enrollment advisor at the Houston campus of the University of Phoenix. She was told that she would not get a raise due to her filling a pregnancy discrimination charge against the Apollo Group Inc. ( parent of the University of Phoenix ). Basically the University of Phoenix violated the retaliation statutes of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The company settled the suit 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 six year old Fed whistle-blower legal action over its hiring tactics to an end. The trial is ready to start shortly in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento and basically at the heart of it is the fact the University of Phoenix paid recruiters based mostly on the quantity of scholars they enroll. Apparently ensuing in all types of aggressive hiring tactics. The court action was brought by 2 University of Phoenix counselors back in 2003. The settlement is estimated 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 status for a Fed. legal action which accuses the college of improperly saying its record on loan defaults. According to the suit the University of Phoenix allegedly pays off federal student loans and then goes after the students themselves to collect the amounts due under more onerous terms than the the federal loans. By doing this, the college 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 not able to get any further 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 money stream for the entire for-profit education industry and that Apollo derives over 77% of their revenue from these loans. Accordingly, this may be a huge problem for the University of Phoenix.

4. In Jan 2008, Apollo Group Inc. Lost a stockholder securities fraud lawsuit saying damages of as much as $277.5 million. The jury agreed with the speculators that Apollo together with previous head honcho Todd Nelson and CFO Kenda Gonzales, mislead shareholders by not disclosing a February 2004 U.S. Education Department report. The department charged the Phoenix-based company of violating a federal ban on students based on the number of scholars they enroll. It seems like the Apollo Group was successful at getting this call over-turned in August of 2008. We are not sure what the present standing of the suit is today.

5. In November 2008, Apollo Group, Inc. Settled a federal suit alleging discrimination against non-Mormon workers 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 reportedly for $1.89 million.

If you're aware of all other suits that impact the University of Phoenix or any other school or varsity, please let us know. We are interested in following all lawsuits especially those concerning online colleges and universities. It is inevitable that these for-profit institutions will experience some suits given how massive they have grown to be.
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University of Phoenix Legal Woes
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