Grand Canyon, nation’s largest Christian college, says it’s interesting ‘ridiculous’ federal high quality
WASHINGTON — The nation’s largest Christian college says it’s combating a $37.7 million high quality introduced by the federal authorities over allegations that it lied to college students about the price of its packages.
Grand Canyon University, which enrolls greater than 100,000 college students largely in on-line packages, mentioned it’s submitting an enchantment with the U.S. Education Department on Thursday. If it fails, the Phoenix-based faculty mentioned it’s ready to file a federal lawsuit.
In a 40-minute speech, college President Brian Mueller known as the high quality “ridiculous” and questioned whether or not the varsity is being focused due to its religion affiliation. He famous that the nation’s second-largest Christian college, Liberty University, is reportedly being threatened with a $37 million high quality over alleged underreporting of crimes.
“It’s interesting, isn’t it, that the two largest Christian universities in the country, this one and Liberty University, are both being fined almost the identical amount at almost the identical time?” he mentioned. “Now is there a cause and effect there? I don’t know. But it’s a fact.”
The Education Department fined Grand Canyon on Oct. 31 after an investigation discovered that the college lied to greater than 7,500 present and former college students about the price of doctoral packages.
As far again as 2017, the college informed college students its doctoral packages would value between $40,000 and $49,000. The division discovered that lower than 2% of graduates accomplished packages throughout the vary, with 78% paying a further $10,000 to $12,000.
The further value usually got here from “continuation courses” that had been wanted to complete dissertation necessities, the division mentioned.
Mueller denied any wrongdoing. He mentioned college students got disclosures about continuation programs and different prices. He mentioned there’s no proof of something “nefarious.” He alleged: “There’s a group of people in Washington, D.C., that has every intention to harm us.”
Grand Canyon beforehand mentioned it was being focused by federal businesses in retaliation for an ongoing lawsuit the varsity filed in opposition to the Education Department in 2021.
The faculty sued after the division rejected its request to be categorised as a nonprofit school. Grand Canyon grew to become a for-profit school in 2004 when traders saved it from monetary collapse. It utilized to turn into a nonprofit once more in 2018, however the Trump administration blocked the transfer, saying the school remained too near its earlier mum or dad firm.
It’s thought-about a nonprofit by its accreditor and the Internal Revenue Service.
The college enrolls roughly 20,000 college students at its campus in Phoenix, however most of its enrollment comes from college students who take on-line courses from exterior Arizona. It had 80,000 college students in on-line packages as of 2021.
