University of Phoenix Loses Super Bowl XLIX
Harvesters,
Over the last several years a negative connotation has slowly began to attach itself to the proprietary education sector in response to the countless government investigations as well as the increased federal regulations that proceeded them. Despite this stigma, regulators in the past have been unsuccessful in passing bills that would potentially prohibit the numerous fraudulent practices employed by for-profit colleges.
The inability to pass this type of legislation is made possible by the millions of dollars corporations like the Apollo Education Group (i.e. parent company of The University of Phoenix) spend on lobbying each year. In addition to this, they also make political contributions to congressmen like John Kline, Chairmen of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Per the Darwinian nature of capitalism, as a rational investor it would be illogical to assume that this this morally bankrupt industry will fail to payoff the right government officials and receive the punishment it deserves. Nevertheless, a larger, much stronger governing body remains: The American Public.
The fundamental element of this sector relies on the corporaitons ability to manipulate vulnerable Americans and as of recently, deceive our nations veterans. For proprietary colleges, the aforementioned demographics are seen as perfect targets per their access to federal aid.
After my intensive research on the Apollo Education Group, the only viable scenario where this company experiences a financial collapse is not a change in regulation, but a change in the public perception. So, the obvious question looms: How in the hell could you possibly educate a entire nation simultaneously that the largest for-profit university on the planet gives zero shits about their students? Well, one of the obvious answers that comes to mind is, what if the University of Phoenix showcased their social irresponsibility at a largely televised even, say, the Super Bowl.
After being accused of taking a disproportionately large share of federal aid, spending the majority of their revenues on marketing instead of student instruction, and leaving virtually all of their students with debt instead of a diploma, it's going to be hard sale to the American public on Sunday that these accusations are anything but the truth.
Although I am not attempting to speculate on behavioral psychology, I feel that most agree that Super Bowl Sunday embeds a high amount of patriotism. Naturally, the University of Phoenix will attempt to exploit this and most likely portray their loyalty in the form of some bullshit scholarship and NFL agreement.
As evidenced by the virality of social media and the backlashes seen before, there is an increasing probability that content will be distributed across social media outlets that will illustrate the deception used by the University of Phoenix on our veterans. We've seen how anecdotal evidence can spread via Facebook, especially through the political extremist media.
The Apollo Education Group is highly susceptible to a domino effect, if less students enroll they will have less money to contribute to marketing and student recruiting, and will thus have even less students returning and enrolling next semester; as each domino falls, the problem will be exacerbated exponentially. Albeit a rarity, this issue is something that virtually all Americans can agree on; The University of Phoenix is the logical opposite of Robin Hood, they steal from the poor and give to the rich.
In combination of this potential marketing blunder and my projected earnings miss by ITT Technical (ESI) this week, today could be the day the first domino begins to fall.
Over the last several years a negative connotation has slowly began to attach itself to the proprietary education sector in response to the countless government investigations as well as the increased federal regulations that proceeded them. Despite this stigma, regulators in the past have been unsuccessful in passing bills that would potentially prohibit the numerous fraudulent practices employed by for-profit colleges.
The inability to pass this type of legislation is made possible by the millions of dollars corporations like the Apollo Education Group (i.e. parent company of The University of Phoenix) spend on lobbying each year. In addition to this, they also make political contributions to congressmen like John Kline, Chairmen of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Per the Darwinian nature of capitalism, as a rational investor it would be illogical to assume that this this morally bankrupt industry will fail to payoff the right government officials and receive the punishment it deserves. Nevertheless, a larger, much stronger governing body remains: The American Public.
The fundamental element of this sector relies on the corporaitons ability to manipulate vulnerable Americans and as of recently, deceive our nations veterans. For proprietary colleges, the aforementioned demographics are seen as perfect targets per their access to federal aid.
After my intensive research on the Apollo Education Group, the only viable scenario where this company experiences a financial collapse is not a change in regulation, but a change in the public perception. So, the obvious question looms: How in the hell could you possibly educate a entire nation simultaneously that the largest for-profit university on the planet gives zero shits about their students? Well, one of the obvious answers that comes to mind is, what if the University of Phoenix showcased their social irresponsibility at a largely televised even, say, the Super Bowl.
After being accused of taking a disproportionately large share of federal aid, spending the majority of their revenues on marketing instead of student instruction, and leaving virtually all of their students with debt instead of a diploma, it's going to be hard sale to the American public on Sunday that these accusations are anything but the truth.
Although I am not attempting to speculate on behavioral psychology, I feel that most agree that Super Bowl Sunday embeds a high amount of patriotism. Naturally, the University of Phoenix will attempt to exploit this and most likely portray their loyalty in the form of some bullshit scholarship and NFL agreement.
As evidenced by the virality of social media and the backlashes seen before, there is an increasing probability that content will be distributed across social media outlets that will illustrate the deception used by the University of Phoenix on our veterans. We've seen how anecdotal evidence can spread via Facebook, especially through the political extremist media.
The Apollo Education Group is highly susceptible to a domino effect, if less students enroll they will have less money to contribute to marketing and student recruiting, and will thus have even less students returning and enrolling next semester; as each domino falls, the problem will be exacerbated exponentially. Albeit a rarity, this issue is something that virtually all Americans can agree on; The University of Phoenix is the logical opposite of Robin Hood, they steal from the poor and give to the rich.
In combination of this potential marketing blunder and my projected earnings miss by ITT Technical (ESI) this week, today could be the day the first domino begins to fall.
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