Professor Gets Fired After He Uncovers University Scam At His Workplace So He Reveals It To Students

Professor Goegan said that teachers were asked to fail students to substantiate the use of the Cengage program, alleged to be rewarding the school with grants.

Stephanie

• Published in Interesting
• April 26, 2019

To say there is a pretty substantial list of ways that colleges in the United States have come up with to bleed money from students is certainly nothing new. From the cost of tuition itself to textbook prices to dorm costs to parking passes, most students are drowning in debt.

So, it doesn't come as that big of a surprise when a fed-up college professor alleges a profit scam at his own institution.

Arizona State University Economics Professor, Brian Goegan, did just that. In an email to his students, Goegan alleged the university had enforced fail quotas to maintain their relationship with the Cengage MindTap program, an online textbook and homework website that was required for students to complete and submit homework in some courses.

Professor Goegan sent the email to the entire university, hoping to expose two policies he believed were unethical.

His allegations later went viral when he posted his email to Reddit.

Professor Goegan felt he had no other choice than to go public when the university opted not to renew his contract in December 2018. “I basically ran out of people to go to at the university,” he said of his choice to voice his concerns to his students and the public.

Professor Goegan said that teachers were asked to fail students to substantiate the use of the Cengage program, alleged to be rewarding the school with grants.

In his email, Goegan disclosed two intertwined policies.

The first allegation was that the school had “agreed to require all ECN 211 and 212 students to use MindTap,” and in exchange, the dean would receive a “large monetary grant.”

The professor alleged for the second policy, to maintain the mutually dependent relationship, ASU had mandated fail quotas, which prevented at least 30 percent of students from passing, to justify the continued use of the online education program.

Goegan wrote that instructors, like himself, had been forced to move assignments behind the MindTap paywall to ensure students must pay Cengage to pass the class.

He added that it was his disagreements over these policies that had resulted in him being fired.

In the email he writes:

“Students,

For the past few years the Economics Department has been enforcing two policies I believe to be unethical, and I feel obligated to disclose them to you.

In order to convince Cengage to give the Provost a large monetary grant, the department agreed to require all ECN 211 and 212 students to use MindTap – a Cengage product. This deal requires students to pay just to turn in their homework. Instructors who were making assignments available on Blackboard/Canvas have been forced to move those same assignments behind the MindTap paywall to ensure students must pay Cengage to pass the class. Students are being saddled with unnecessary costs so the Provost can fund a pet project.

The second policy was put in place to ensure that the Provost’s project was made to look good. All ECN 211, 212, and 221 courses were required to prevent at least 30% of students from passing the class. We were told that we needed to set a baseline against which the Provost’s project could be compared. For many instructors, this meant setting students up to fail so it could seem like the Provost swooped in and fixed a problem that doesn’t exist.”

In response to the allegations, ASU Executive Vice President Mark Searle said:

“There are many reasons that a faculty member’s contract might not be renewed, including when a faculty member resists course-correction of multiple shortcomings despite supervisory intervention.”

While the ASU spokesman Bret Hovell said the university has never received a dime of “grant” money from Cengage, which was backed up by the company in their own statement. Research from AZ Central states that “ASU misspent more than $1 million in federal research funds.”

While many were shocked by the allegations, others shared their own similar experiences.

Stephanie