WGU Layoffs

[sacredrain]

135,000 students x $3475 x 2 times a year = $938,250,000 a year WGU is taking in. And that $3475 is the cheapest tuition. Most programs are higher so they're really bringing in more $$$. Yet there's layoffs that were mishandled. The whole situation is a disaster. WGU keeps bragging about their number of students. Enrollment is not down. In 2017 there were 83,000 students and there are now 135,000.

They're paying these kinds of salaries:
Scott D Pulsipher PRESIDENT & TRUSTEE 40 $1,092,372
Dr Robert Mendenhall FORMER PRESIDENT 0 $944,495
Marni Baker-Stein CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER 40 $505,208
David Grow CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER 40 $447,520
Carey Hilderbrand CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER 40 $320,511
Patrick Partridge CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER 40 $306,325
Damien Cooper CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER 40 $303,839
Bonnie Pattee SR VP, PEOPLE & TALENT 40 $263,609
Melissa Flores VP OF STATE OPERATIONS 40 $261,516
Sarah Demark VP OF PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT 40 $249,762
Jan Jones-Schenk SR VP, COLLEGE 40 $240,905
Deborah Fowler SR VP, STUDENT SUCCESS 40 $216,579

https://nonprofitlight.com/ut/salt-lake-...university

These salaries are nothing in compared to what I see at my large state university supported campus, trust me, the chancellor where I work full time, is making over 1 million USD, plus free room and board at a home that is worth about 2 million. Not to mention our vice chancellor is making almost 800K a year. This is at a non profit state supported university that has far less students than WGU. So actually based on the number of students, the administrators where I work are overpaid, compared to the WGU ones. Plus they raise tuition every year as the state continues letting them raise tuition, which currently is about 15,000 Usd per year for in state students, which does not include room and board.

Anyways you are forgetting attrition in you calculations. The attrition rate at WGU is very high, I have colleagues who are there full time. The number of students is based on how many who have enrolled and that number changes every month as they are intaking students each month. I was told that in the College of Business in the last year alone, they lost over 1500 students, while in the Healthcare College almost 900, and in the IT College almost 800, so while they have many students they are losing them as well.

You also forget that not everyone is taking a year to complete a degree at WGU, so your calculations of how much they bring in is not correct. Some can do the entire degree in 1 term, so the money is not always guaranteed as it is at a regular university where students cannot accelerate or complete their degrees in one term. And this is why the competency model is not wanted at traditional universities (the lack of guaranteed finances) and why some universities that had competency based flex programs have did away with them, like Hodges, because they can be somewhat costly to the university, despite serving the best interest of students.

WGU is also one of the more generous employers in higher education, they always gave bonuses to program mentors, course instructors, and even covid bonuses last year. They have also added paid parental leave etc...While people are upset and thinking this is greedy WGU, think again because this has happened at many universities across the board, the problem is that WGU went for helping students first by over hiring in those  2 colleges and not keeping them running lean as the Teachers College and the It College is ran. And I will continue to stress they could have simply kept everyone and raised tuition quite high to do this, but they have not.