Almost exactly one month after the Federal Trade Commission filed suit against the operators of DeVry University, alleging that its advertisements deceived consumers about the likelihood that students would find jobs in their fields of study, it announced that DeVry Education Group had appointed Ann Weaver Hart, Ph.D., president of the University of Arizona and Linda Katehi, Ph.D., chancellor of the University of California, Davis, to serve on its board of directors.
Last week, Katehi resigned from the $70,000-a-year board seat after California State Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and other interest groups questioned “why she would bestow the stature of the University of California on a for-profit institution facing serious questions,” according to the Sacramento Bee.
DeVry board members earn $70,000 annually, as well as restricted stock units with an approximate value of $100,000, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, reports the Sacramento Bee.
The ADI reported in January that DeVry’s claim that 90 percent of DeVry graduates actively seeking employment landed jobs in their field within six months of graduation was allegedly deceptive. The complaint charged that another key claim made by DeVry, that its graduates had 15 percent higher incomes one year after graduation on average than the graduates of all other colleges or universities, also was deceptive.
The complaint noted that these claims appeared in the defendants’ advertising on television, radio, online, print and other media. The 90 percent claim was central to their marketing efforts since at least 2008 and the income superiority claim began in 2013, according to the FTC. For example, one television ad that ran on national television as well as on YouTube showed people in business attire hanging hundreds of “offer letters” on a wall, with a voiceover discussing the importance of getting a job offer to college students. The voiceover said all of the offer letters seen came from just the last year – followed by the 90 percent claim. Another ad portrays a student saying “And when I finish my degree in business, a new job at a great company – that’s the graduation present I want,” followed by the 90 percent claim.