Saturday, August 23, 2014

Cooley's Michigan Campuses going to take a Faculty Haircut

This was the next logical step after Cooley, now known as "Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School," instituted a "Financial Management Plan," was to swing a battleax at Rapunzel's way-too-long hair and lay off large amounts of faculty and staff.


The Lansing City Pulse reported on Friday, August 15th, that Cooley is "right-sizing."  According to the newspaper:
Sources in Lansing who are being laid off say the cuts are deep, upwards of 50 percent, according to one. Another said the impact could be as high as 70 percent. A Cooley spokesman disputed the amount, but said he did not have numbers.
Thus, Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School, which has a total faculty of 271, reports the LCP via WMUTMCLS's website, could be looking at RIF's of 135 to 190

Coupled with a 9% tuition increase this year, it becomes apparent that the law school is trying to have its cake and eat it too by apparently getting more $$$ per student (it may be that increased scholarships will cause real tuition per student to faltline, decrease, or increase slightly, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there).

Cooley Associate Dean Jim Robb (who is an alumni of Wayne State) declined to confirm any layoff numbers, and said that Cooley may not end up releasing any layoff numbers.  An anonymous source in the ABA article said that the faculty who were bought out signed "non-disparagement and confidentiality clauses," so we may end up only with speculation as to the how many people got the axe.

As an aside, isn't it Cooley-esque that the professors they are buying out have to sign a "non-disparagement" clause?  It is reminiscent of Cooley suing an anonymous blogger for criticizing Cooley.  Gotta keep the bad press to a minimum, even if it means paying ex-professors to keep their mouths shut or to sue poor law graduates to stop complaining.

This article is fairly short, but others have already done it better, so I'll end with a couple links.

This story is a reminder that there are extreme consequences for over-enrolling, over-charging, and under-delivering. 

Campos
Nando  (warning, explicit images of fecal matter)



12 comments:

  1. This is a watershed moment in the law school scam movement! I am proud to have played a role in this development.

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  2. Dean Leduc had a paltry 450k in base compensation in the 2011 tax year. I sure as shingles hate that hasn't been "right-sized," or else the school would have to pay him like $M in base, easily.

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  3. The relevant number is the total number of full-time faculty, including deans and "others who teach." Nearly half of that 270 number for last year was made up of part-time faculty, that is adjuncts who don't get paid hardly anything. The adjunct total was already slashed between 2012 and 2013, but you can't save much money that way. The school has to file a new 509 form next month, so unless they choose to cook the books by listing a bunch of bought-out former full-time faculty as still employed, the depth of the cuts among the tenure-track faculty will be known soon. But don't expect Cooley to go out of business -- they'll fire lots of people, close a campus or two, and keep shoveling federal tax dollars via loans into LeDuc's bank account, along with those of a few of Tom Brennan's favorite relatives.

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  4. "Right-sizing" would be shutting this debt-factory down.

    From Cooley's webpage:

    _______________

    Tuition and Cost of Attendance

    2014-15 Tuition Rates

    First 30 credits:

    $1,550 per credit hour (JD Level I)


    31 and more credits:

    $1,475 per credit hour (JD level II)



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  5. So.... we elect a Congress to lay and collect taxes, to pay the Debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare.... coin money.... regular commerce.... and make laws necessary and proper.... but instead they get to work on cocaine and hookers and can't even muster the friggin' will to limit student loan money to suckers being sodomized by scam clowns like this.

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    Replies
    1. Take a look at Janet Yellen's Jackson Hole speech. She dissects unemployment in the country and concludes that low labor force participation is due to: people dropping out, retirement, swelling of the social security disability rolls, and...drum roll, please...more adults in higher education programs.

      Federal student lending is an economic stimulus plan that masks unemployment, bails out counter-parties (schools), and screws over the conduits of that the stimulus: students.

      This is all intentional.

      Congress knows full well what is going on.

      When some of the biggest players in for-profit education are married to Senators of the US Congress, whose lobby matters?

      Unless student debtors get serious and rip the curtain back, nothing changes. Get serious means use the only power you have, which is the power of massive, collective default.

      The swine that run this country as a centrally controlled, centrally coordinated extortion ring do not care about what happens to students. Unless students figure out the propaganda of "everyone should go to college" is a fraud, designed to deceive them into cooperating in a circus for the benefit of Congress' numerous reelection goals, and schools, they will simply commit genocide against a whole generation of people.

      Not even the most oppressive regimes on earth have had the genius to bring back slavery the way this country has under the guise of "education."

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    2. True that. How many jobs actually require a 4 year college degree? How many people ever end up using a significant amount of whatever knowledge they learnt in college? Few and few.

      But lets say college is as mandatory as high school (which is what the "college for all" advocates are claiming), then shouldn't most colleges be funded the same way most high schools are, entirely by government so students aren't burdened by debt?

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    3. Ah.. But where's the profit in that, my good fellow?

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  6. Hopefully students that actually started at Cooley will be more willing to drop out after (or during) the first term.

    To be fair to these lemmings, the Law School Scam isn't a top news story. They may not be all that informed, or maybe they didn't realize how legitimate it actually is. Given what actually happened at this school, I think their eyes will be opened and they'll react accordingly.

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  7. Here is how Cooley grads can expect to live after graduating:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2733975/Our-summer-better-Rich-Kids-Instagram-head-school-three-months-partying-hard-maxing-daddys-500-000-credit-card-limit.html

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