(Formerly Lutheran) College, Inc.

I'd kept the link to the Frontline special College, Inc. in my inbox for several months, hoping to eventually get back to it this summer. Last night was the night--and a little extra surfing brought the issue into even sharper focus. The program looks at the rising phenomenon of for-profit colleges and universities, the significant debt load with which it burdens its students (much higher than even non-profit private schools, much less non-profit publics), and the inordinate default ratios such loans are generating...



As a Gustie grad (Class of '91, yee haw, etc.) it's particularly interesting to me to see how ELCA-related schools have been affected by the changing landscape brought on by recession & educational for-profit speculation. Readers of the Chronicle of Higher Education have been able to monitor the death throes of Dana College, outside Omaha. A little surfing brought a new stunner to me: Waldorf College in Forest City, IA was sold to a for-profit last year...

Some background: My grandmother Lois still lives in Forest City, and my late grandfather Wilfer worked at Waldorf for several years as a custodian. From my first day as a professor, I thought about how his work at college had laid the foundation for my own. So Waldorf has a soft spot in my heart...

One of the things education speculators look for is existing accreditation, so that they can buy into legitimacy (and have a pipeline to those all-important federal student loans). The failure of such a transfer means the end of Dana College. Waldorf College continues, but is now much closer in spirit to the University of Phoenix than it is to Gustavus Adophus College, I'm afraid.

My hope is to see my grandmother this fall (long overdue), and maybe I will have a chance to get a first-hand sense of what's happening at Waldorf. If any of you have ties with any of these schools, and/or have first or second-hand experience with for-profit higher education, I'd love to hear about it...