WGU Layoffs

[collegechick]

I just spoke to Audrey, the manager in Graduate Studies at WGU & she verified that actual humans grade the papers. She also confirmed a human mentor will always be available. She said 160 staff members were laid off, amongst 1000's of employees.

Thanks for making the call collegechick. This sounds more credible than an A.I. conspiracy theory post on a chat forum. Could A.I. grading of papers happen? Sure, anything's possible. Would the school attempt to hide this from the public? Probably not a good PR move. 

While the general sense is WGU could have handled the communication of staff layoffs better, it doesn't sway my opinion of the school in the least. I would rather administrators furlow 160 excess staff members vs keeping bloated departments and raising tuition higher for all students. 

Colleges, just like many other businesses have had to make tough choices to adjust to the economic fallout of 2020. In March TESU significantly reduced the number of non-RA credits they would accept. This was a huge tuition hike but they did what they had to do. 

WGU is raising tuition this year after about 5 years of little to no increases and is STILL one of the lowest cost schools in the country. Yes, I am a recent graduate who believes 
WGU is a great school. I would recommend them to anyone. I write this note in hopes of balancing the conversation in this thread for those seeking information before they make decisions.

No problem.  I also posted this issue on Reddit and was downvoted as low as the Titanic.  They felt JusticeNamaste is a troll as they only have one thread on this site.   

The tuition increase does not affect any of the degrees I'm considering.  It's still a low-cost price range as far as I'm concerned.  I love that WGU offers scholarships too.  If I end up switching to M.Ed, I'd be eligible for the Pell Grant again too.  M.Ed is one of the only federally grant-funded master's degrees.

Congrats on your recent graduation!  Appreciate your comment validating the school.

[jsd]

"AI" (or more likely just automated) grading of coding projects for the technology college makes sense and I wouldn't be surprised (we do this to some extent at Georgia Tech for example for our students' coding projects) but AI grading of other project types seems like a nonsense rumor and completely unlikely.

The layoffs were definitely handled poorly internally from what it sounds like and no doubt the student communication afterwards was slow to come, but that's pretty typical of any layoff situation, for reasons dfrecore went over.

The tuition increase is drastic in a bubble, but if that's the last major one for the next decade, as they've handled past increases, it's reasonable and still among the cheapest you'll find (depending on your speed through the programs). I know we're blaming the new CFO, but these decisions weren't made, approved, an executed in the week or two that he had been there. That's not how organizations of this scale operate. This was coming long before his hire.

Other than it being awful for people to lose their jobs no matter the situation, and for the fact that it sucks to lose a mentor you have a good relationship with, this seems much ado about nothing.

[ss20ts]

 I know we're blaming the new CFO, but these decisions weren't made, approved, an executed in the week or two that he had been there. That's not how organizations of this scale operate. This was coming long before his hire.

According to a mentor who was in the meeting where they made the announcement, the decision to lay them off was decided 3 days beforehand. It was the last day of the fiscal year. Yeah the new CFO had a hand in this. They wanted the books to look better for the next fiscal year.

[jsd]

While I don't doubt the timing of the execution was planned precisely for such financial optics, the notion that this was a 3 day decision is laughable.

[ss20ts]

While I don't doubt the timing of the execution was planned precisely for such financial optics, the notion that this was a 3 day decision is laughable.

I've been at corporations who make rash decisions like this. It's not that rare.

[jsd]

A rash decision of this scale, for a company of this scale, from start to execution, would still be no where close to 3 days. 3 days is simply not a reasonable claim.

Regardless, even if I conceded this impossible 3 day timeframe, my overall point stands. Much ado about nothing.

[ashkir]

YIKES! I wonder how AI evaluations work with accreditation? I'm sorry but I'm not paying any college for AI evaluations. I want to be evaluated by someone - a person - who has knowledge and experience in my courses. I don't want a robot to say good job. The way this was handled has me really reconsidering getting an MBA from WGU. I was going to do their MBA in a few years but after this I'm not sure I want to be associated with a school who doesn't have an ethical bone in it's body. They handled this soooooo poorly! The lack of communication and transparency was astounding. I see more BIG changes (not good ones either) in the works with a new CEO and CFO who do not come from academia. CEO came 6 months ago and CFO came onboard 9 days before the layoffs. CFO is from AT&T. Why any higher education institution would bring in executives who don't have a background in higher education I'll never understand. Well unless WGU wants to start operating like a for profit then it all makes sense. Add in an 11%+ tuition increase to this mix and the red flags are flopping in the wind.

Yeah. AI is brilliant in use cases. But I feel education still needs humans to touch it, because we're guiding people, not making them spit answers out for a test. We need our degree holders and higher educated people to be able to problem solve, interact with our civilization, and react to feedback. If it's robotic, it holds no value. This is potentially great for a mass program like Sophia or SDC, as it's a consistent grader. But, nowhere near what I'd expect from an actual institution.

Is WGU going to turn into the next diploma mill? If they do, I feel bad for everyone who WORKED HARD on their degrees to get this shitty change. These people worked hard on their education, etc, and use it to boost WGU's name. Now WGU is pulling a skyrim soldier and taking an arrow to the knee. 

Sounds like WGU is wanting to break out of being funded by the government and become a for-profit mill.

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 I know we're blaming the new CFO, but these decisions weren't made, approved, an executed in the week or two that he had been there. That's not how organizations of this scale operate. This was coming long before his hire.

According to a mentor who was in the meeting where they made the announcement, the decision to lay them off was decided 3 days beforehand. It was the last day of the fiscal year. Yeah the new CFO had a hand in this. They wanted the books to look better for the next fiscal year.

Very possible they're copying Reddit with Ellen Pao. Bring a new executive on. Make the changes under THEIR name. Let the public outcry happen, slightly adjust it to "seem" better and safe face. Then give them millions of dollars and fire them, and tada, these planned changes that have likely been years in the making is all good in the public eye again

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A rash decision of this scale, for a company of this scale, from start to execution, would still be no where close to 3 days. 3 days is simply not a reasonable claim.

Regardless, even if I conceded this impossible 3 day timeframe, my overall point stands. Much ado about nothing.

I've seen a fortune 500 make the decision to lay off over 1500 people in less than 3 hours before from start to finish, after an analysis my company provided for them. No notice, no preparations, etc. Entire departments cut, the fortune 500 barely read the report and went with our recommendations the moment they found out about it.

ooof.

[jsd]

Make the decision, or make the decision and actually execute the layoffs? How do you even run the specifics by legal within 3 hours?

[ashkir]

Make the decision, or make the decision and actually execute the layoffs? How do you even run the specifics by legal within 3 hours?

Sad thing is, they probably didn't. I've seen large companies do things like this, without regard for legal consequences.

[GizmoJack]

Make the decision, or make the decision and actually execute the layoffs? How do you even run the specifics by legal within 3 hours?

Sad thing is, they probably didn't. I've seen large companies do things like this, without regard for legal consequences.

The sad thing is the grasping at straws to prove a ridiculous point. (At least ridiculous for this forum). Casting aspersions or making unverifiable claims is not a good look and only proves how ridiculous this thread has become.