Founders flounders

[Dragonfly]

Theory and practice.

[Robert Campbell]

Dragonfly,

I'd heard that Founders was in trouble--its travails have attracted some attention from the Chronicle of Higher Education-- but this extremely detailed local story makes the situation look dire.

It also looks as though all of the ARI affiliates have abandoned the project, starting with Gary Hull, who apparently designed the curriculum.

One of the professors who bailed out before classes opened, Eric Daniels, has resurfaced at Clemson:

http://business.clemson.edu/BBTCENTER/cci/...lty_daniels.htm

The Institute for the Study of Capitalism is run by Brad Thompson, another ARI affiliate who made his exit from Ashland University a couple of years before John Lewis was denied tenure there.

Robert Campbell

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Good Keeriiiiist!

This looks like something out of the wrong side of a Rand novel. The general impression I get is a bunch of obnoxious vain rich people with strong political connections playing and posturing at living in Rand-world. Grandiose claims wedded to irrational business plans and a just plain flaky business concept (starting with what looks like complete neglect of defining a target customer base).

They are trying to wed a higher learning institute with a vacation resort at the outset (complete with equestrian center, golf course, etc.)! What are these people thinking? People who have an academic study load don't have time to play golf. Nor do they have time to hang out with those who do.

Outside the lawsuits, public financial information and other signs of professional rejection by the academic world, there are some really strange indications of general incompetence. From the article School of Hard Knocks by Mary Eva Cassada for The News & Record of South Boston, Virginia, dated January 14, 2007:

Even on the academic end, he said, instructors were expected to create revenue-generating programs.

. . .

Staffers of both institutions [distance learning institutions eCollege and Learning House] reported that CEO Fuller was difficult to deal with and sent highly positioned employees on her personal errands.

. . .

Staff meetings could be contentious, emotional affairs: "I saw one woman ... take a lashing that I'm sure General Patton wouldn't have given to a soldier," said a separate source.

. . .

Most troubling to a half-dozen sources are what they describe as attempts to tarnish the reputations of some employees who leave.

A really cute touch is given at the end of the article:

Note: To protect anonymity, the gender of all unnamed speakers has been designated by the masculine pronoun "he."

Of course, I am basing my comments on this article. The official website gives a prettier picture: Founders College.

I skimmed through the site, but I get tired of reading a bunch of unsubstantiated claims and self-praise that were short on concretes.

My unsolicited business advice would be to junk the college and develop the resort. Unless these people like losing money.

A harder course would be to junk the resort for the time being and develop the college, but they would have to get a real hotshot college administrator and give him real power to do what needs to be done. I don't see the vanity of those behind the venture permitting that.

Or they could go whole hog and do a Monadnock Valley routine to get their money back since (so far) they have made a mockery of Objectivism in higher education anyway. What do they have to lose?

Michael

[Chris Grieb]

Wasn't there a real 20th Century Motor Company that was revealed as a big fraud in the 80ths.

I hope Marsha Enright will keep this story in mind with her college.

[Martin Radwin]

Wasn't there a real 20th Century Motor Company that was revealed as a big fraud in the 80ths.

I hope Marsha Enright will keep this story in mind with her college.

Chris, I was going to mention about Marsha Enright too. You beat me to it!

I actually attended a meeting here in the bay area in which Marsha Enright presented her plans for starting a new liberal arts college that would focus on teaching the ideas of the enlightenment, objectivism, free market economics, etc. I don't know what ever happened with that, or whether this is still in her plans. If it is, and she intends to proceed, the story of Founders College should be an object lesson for her and her business partners in what to do and what not to do in building a new college from scratch.

Martin

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Those interested in the Marsha Enright's venture can start here:

The College of the United States of the Reason, Individualism, Freedom Institute. (The sites look the same, but they have different URL's.)

I intend to help with this later, but I am still in the middle of my own projects. It looks like a good undertaking.

Michael

[Chris Grieb]

My own dealing with Marsha show her to be a very level headed and intelligent person. The mailing I received was very professional.

I wish someone on OL could confirm my memory of some woman who started a real 20th Century Motor Company and was revealed as a fraud during the late 80ths.

[Robert Campbell]

Marsha Enright's venture is entirely different from Founders College.

For instance, she has done her homework on accreditation and would never make the mistake of treating it casually, as the Founders College people did.

Robert Campbell