Report Hits For-Profit Colleges for Aggressive Recruiting at Homeless Shelters

Accreditors and a top official in the U.S. Department of Education are responding to a report by Bloomberg BusinessWeek on aggressive recruiting tactics by for-profit colleges, including accounts that representatives of the University of Phoenix, Chancellor University (in Cleveland), and Drake College of Business (in Newark, N.J.) troll homeless shelters and pressure their residents to take out loans to enroll. The accreditor for Drake said it was investigating allegations that the college had lured students by offering them biweekly stipends of $350 for good attendance and a C average. Robert Shireman, a deputy under secretary of education, is quoted in the report as saying that “targeting vulnerable populations who are not likely to benefit” is the reason the department has proposed stricter rules to contain overzealous recruiting.