Complaint Review: Norwich University

I was an enthusiastic on-line student within Norwich University's Masters in Diplomacy Program. Very quickly, I became very disapointed with how unprofessional the staff behaved. Firstly, the teaching platform was antiquated and the formating of materials was very sloppy. The staff was non-receptive to any creative interaction, or input regarding the class, structure and materials. Overall, I found the staff to be discontinuous in their communications with me and with each other. 

Books are sent to the students and mine were sent late, about a month late. Yes, for one entire month into a three month class, I had no books. To say I struggled is an understatement. I was drowning. All of my assignments were consequently late and the grading wasn't done until the very end, when they decided to fail me. 

Not only did they charge me for that class, but for the next one as well. Their grading was done late, but my money was withdrawn on time. There is a strict schedule that the faculty is aware of. After a certain period into the first class, the teacher gets paid her money. After that, she doesn't care how many people drop out, or why. She doesn't get paid enough to care, or to work on weekends, which was literally conveyed to our class. After a certain period of time into the first class, which is about three months long, if you don't withdraw according to their schedule, they charge you for the next class. There was no flexibility in this, even though they were a month late in sending me my books. 

While I waited for the teacher to grade my assignments and issue my final grade, I was sent my books for the second half of the sememster, which was the second class, given my syllabus, but kicked out of the program with none of my money being refunded.

I caught and stopped the teacher, professor paula wylie, from doing this to another female student in my class. After I blew the whistle, the teacher stopped harassing her, but then completely gave up on me. Daniel Alcorn, who was our point of contact in the program, did absolutely nothing to help. Everybody pointed the finger at everyone else and at the end of the day, I was the one who got seriously ripped off. 

Do you have any idea how expensive this school is!?

I forwarded my entire complaint, which is public information upon request, to the OCR, Office of Civil Rights - Education Department. They took my case up to the very end, even with the "smoking gun" in hand, but then suddenly turned down the case. They also urged me, very strongly, to drop the complaint. Their sudden change in tune and attitude surprised me and even my attorney. 

Right after I was kicked out and my money stolen, the United States Attorney's Office, District of Vermont published the following:

December 21, 2012

United States and Norwich University Settle Allegations of Fraud in Student Aid

The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated today that it has settled a potential False Claims Act matter involving student aid requested by Norwich University for a number of its students. The settlement includes the payment of $1,281,168 to the Government by the University.

The Government's investigation arose in 2008 following an audit by the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid Division. During the course of that audit, it became clear that a high ranking officer of the University, who has since been dismissed by the University, had been instructing students to assert that they were independent of their parents, even when they were not. While the University does not admit that it approved or authorized the misconduct, the practice greatly increased the amounts of student aid available to those students, which aid was immediately used to pay tuition at Norwich.

The Government's investigation focused on three school years, ending in the 2006-2007 school year. When the audit disclosed the problem, Norwich repaid those amounts which were open for the last period of time in which the improper aid was available. While Norwich has been extremely cooperative since the audit disclosed the problem, the Government believes that the matter must be treated as one involving fraud. While Norwich does not admit to any institutional fraud, it acknowledges that its students did receive a significant amount of federal aid to which they were not entitled, as a result of Norwich's actions, and Norwich and the United States have settled to avoid the burden, expense and risks inherent in litigation and a trial. The Government acknowledges that Norwich has made significant internal changes since 2008 to limit the possibility of similar misconduct in the future.

This matter was investigated by the United States Attorney's Office, the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General, and the Department of Education's Federal Student Aid Division. The United States was represented during the investigation by Assistant United States Attorney James Gelber. Norwich University was represented by Pietro Lynn of Lynn, Lynn &Blackman, P.C. of Burlington, VT.

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I contacted the school to get my money back and/or get back into the program, but they denied me. Other students in my class were shocked at the treatment I received at how I was singled out and how the professor was treating the other female student in my group. Groups are REALLY small, by the way, so students don't really get a chance to vet out how they feel about the class with each other. Everyone is kept very seperate, which makes the situation ripe for abuses of all kinds. 

When I brought up these issues, uniformally, I was denied. 

I'm still pursuing this. I will get justice. Anyone who has anything to add, or that knows of a good attorney that I can talk to about this, please post it. The attorneys I met with agree that I have a valid False Claims Act, but finding an attorney that knows how to deal with on-line schools, discrimination and fraud has been the challenge.

People have a right to know. If they are openingly doing it to me, then they are doing it to thousands of students.

My theory: They admit just enough of the protected classes to qualify and maintain their status for government funding and to be able to accept student loans, but then they discourage those people from continuing, or just outright kick them out, like they did to me. 

They didn't learn their lesson with the USAO, so that's why I am posting this. I will bring this to everyone's attention again.