Taking a course at the U of O? Don't be so sure.
Oregon's flagship state university is in the national news again, embarrassingly so. The ace blogger at UO Matters tells the story better than I could, here. The school basically sells out its academic reputation for $600,000 a year. It's not the only university that has done it, but it's a sad statement about the suits in Eugene.
It’s happened everywhere. I remember seeing advertisements for coding boot camps offered by “Georgia Tech.” I embarrassingly admit that I also looked into the data science program shown in the picture above. Found out that they didn’t take the GI Bill because they weren’t actually affiliated with the university. After telling them I wasn’t interested they harassed me for weeks with phone calls and emails. This should have been stopped a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteTime for this lady or some other unhappy bootcamper to bring a suit against 2U under the Unlawful Trade Practices Act, ORS 646.608(1)(e) -
ReplyDelete1)A person engages in an unlawful practice if in the course of the person’s business, vocation or occupation the person does any of the following:
(e)Represents that real estate, goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, quantities or qualities that the real estate, goods or services do not have or that a person has a sponsorship, approval, status, qualification, affiliation, or connection that the person does not have.
UTPA provides that you can sue for damages (your tuition) and if you win you get your attorney fees paid.
In a just world, you could bring that against suit against UO itself too, but the definition of “person” in the UTPA exempts all governments, which are free to defraud you at will: ORS 646.605(4) “ Person” means natural persons, corporations, trusts, partnerships, incorporated or unincorporated associations and any other legal entity except bodies or officers acting under statutory authority of this state or the United States.”