I worked for ITT for a number of years. I can tell you the instructors are not all bad. I do know of numerous instructors that could only fog a mirror in the content area. The key for ITT is getting the most from you, while giving up the least to anyone. The instructors working for ITT at times were good at the campus level. ITT senior management is the problem. For example, I worked at a somewhat successful campus. The HQ management grumbled about the fact we had a higher percentage of full time staff. They complained that our salaries where higher, since we had mostly very well educated and certified instructors.
ITT changed the method of hiring and maintaining of faculty. They decide they were going to go to adjunct faculty predominately. The reason was to eliminate benefit retirement participating faculty. It also lowered the salaries dramatically, since the higher quality faculty could not work adjunct(lower pay) and non-benefits participating. The movement was to lower the overall cost.
ITT did something similar a few years back that lowered their costs dramatically. They went to custom publishing of textbooks. ITT hired a company NIIT to write/publish textbooks for them. They were horrible for the students as well as faculty. It was so bad they moved away from NIIT and hired I think it was Pearson or Prenhall to take over for NIIT. The new guys basically slipped something together by cut and paste. It was horrible to read. The styles of writing varied from chapter to chapter so you could tell it was a splice job. The faculty was also not provided the materials early to prepare learning materials for them. The assignments at times asked for knowledge not offered previously. A real mess. ITT did this since textbooks costs are very high. If you custom publish you get what you want and you get it at a very low price. What you don't get is a good book for your students to use in future courses and reference after you complete. The books have ZERO value to anyone.
ITT went to online course to eliminate general education courses at the local campus and also to load faculty to the maximum number of students possible. Online instructors are loaded heavily. They can't do much but be a robo grader. The students are referred to others locally for support/maintenance. This actually saves a lot for management. The instructor of record is loaded heavily thus reducing the cost per student per hour. The local campus uses local salaried faculty and lab people to "tutor" the student. The "tutor" is in fact teaching the material doesn't have the credential and the instructor of record has the credentials acceptable for accreditation. Costs are lower and you are on paper legal.
You are not total taken. Some complaints have better merit. The worst complaint is a statement you were induced to sign the agreement with falsehood. That is fraud. You should check with an attorney if that happened, since he maybe able sue to invalidate the instruments(your contracts). Say you were helped on your entrance exams, you could argue you were in a program or school that they knew you could not be successful.
If you want to deal with ITT effectively you have to document everything they do for a few quarters. Create a laundry list of issues. Document every contact with the instructors, staff, administrators, and management. An example would be contact hours. You write down when you start, break, return from break, and departure time. Be sure to time-stamp and initial those. You make all requests for anything and everything in writing. When you have tutoring you write down how many hours you are tutored. Save all correspondence from them since it shows patterns. The reason I say these things, you signed a binding arbitration agreement. You must do your legal arguments through that process.
Not really. You document everything, you go through the process with ITT, and corporate HQ. If you were shorted hours you can prove it. Your kit was not complete you documented that and it was not made right. You had to be tutored x amount of hours because the online instruction was not sufficient or not available, you have it documented. You have the books and you have proven errors or better yet something measure was not covered in the book or course notes. Document the questions someone asked and was not answered, even if they aren't your questions. If the instructor texts, talks on the phone, and/or leaves the classroom a lot document that.
You go through the ITT grievance process all the way to Corporate HQ. Your remediation request is for return of your student loan monies to the bank for those classes, option to retake the course, and of course... credit for the course.
At that point you have exhausted most of your options, and you can take all your notes and statements with ITT correspondences and organize them. You photocopy them and write a larger complaint to include the possible misstatements of the administrators. This bundle goes to the accreditation body. The compliance people with the accrediting body review this and ITT will get a letter from the accreditation body if your claim has merit or not. You can't sue ITT in court, part of the agreement you made was you would pay their attorney bills if you sue them in court. You can sue the accreditation body for vouching publicly for them and for not taking action if ITT violated any customary teaching convention. An example is: My instructor was texting/talking on the phone for 45 minutes in 4 classes. Can you imagine the havoc of trying to defend that with a few quarters of documents? You paid for a kit and your incomplete kit was not made complete after reasonable requests. You delivered a kit that had all the required materials except these? Why were they not replaced? How could you learn well without all the required materials? You did not get help that you needed from a credentialed person. Is the instructor overloaded? The books were substandard and did not provide the necessary coverage. The tests/homework/labs measured skills in which the book and instructor did not cover the material. The book required lots of instructor explanation because it was substandard. The instructor was asked these questions and did not answer the questions. Why can't the instructor answer the question, doesn't know the answer? The instructor's failed to provide the full hours the commitment agreed to. We departed early 30+ minutes on 4 class nights and we had 60 minutes of breaks 8 classes. This is showing the contact hours were not met. Since you paid for them and they were not given aren't you due a refund? If your grades were low is it possibly from shorted contact hours? Also not providing the contact hours as the accrediting body was led to believe numerous times is a accreditation violation. short contact hours is hard for ITT to answer from an accrediting body requirements stand point. Accreditation basics are simple you have so many contact hours you can offer so much credit. If the hours are less then is the credit less? If you can prove your points you have a very powerful ally. The accrediting body can inspect anything and they can make ITT jump with a simple whistle.
ITT can't receive federal funds(student loans) without the proper accreditation. A campus can be placed on probation and inspected often in the future to prevent violations. They can even have accreditation revoked for just cause. ITT has to pay for every expense of the inspectors and that includes their room and board. Very costly huh? Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools accredits ITT has far as WIKI says. The second stop is file a complaint with the US Department of Education with all your materials in hand. ITT will soon learn, you aren't going away. They will begin to consider your offers. The costs of arguing with you, accreditation, and the Dept. of Education has a high price. All you had to do is document, save, and photocopy. By all means keep your documentation process and record keeping private. Don't brag or tell anyone. Somehow ITT will find out and they can be a vengeful bunch.
For more effect, if you can afford it, hire an attorney to handle the paperwork with ACICS and the Department of Education. Show your agreements with ITT to your attorney. I am pretty sure the binding arbitration and paying their attorney fees for suits is still in there. You have no limitations with ACICS.
ITT is like most wrong things; wrong things and wrong people can't stand in the light of day. If you and your associates document and force them into the light, they are much easier to work with. I would venture to say you will begin to have some respect from ITT and if completed correctly you will be recompensed.
