Union Institute And University - Union Institute School goes back on all agreements made at matriculation to detriment of students academic life and at great cost Cincinnati Ohio

FROM: Rev Sedgwick Heskett

DATE: June 30, 2004

RE: Union Institute & University (UI&U) complaint

There are three basic issues, with a number of specific problems. In this section of my Complaint I will detail and document only the first issue, as it has affected me, my program, and my financial situation. I will begin with a short summary, followed by an example of how it has affected me and continues to affect me, and then list a number of specific difficulties that reflect on UI&Us ability to function to facilitate education during this entire past year.

Short Summary of Issue 1:

Failure of UI&U to respond or communicate on issues critical to student progress for the entire year, resulting in impediments to my progress and academic program and in great additional costs to me, including jeopardizing financial aid eligibility. This has been true in every area of my program.

It has been impossible to get accurate information about the currently ever-changing policies and procedures, yet students are held to constantly new formations of procedures and dates. At the same time the administration fails to answer student questions and to do its part in explaining and implementing these procedures and policies, and fails in almost every area when trying to correct incorrect documents (incorrect due to their errors) and to sign documents required for academic progress.

On the occasions in which UI&U has responded with any action, the effect has been to create more difficulties, delay progress longer, and require much more of my time fighting to get errors corrected and work done. My attempts to correct any of this are avoided and seem to be viewed at this point as attempts at harassment; but I have been at this now for 9 months. I have not had the baby, and progress continues to be impeded and my time taken up with this mess.

An Example of How This Has Operated to the Detriment of My and Others Academic Program:

The clearest example of this concerns my attempt to get a correct version of my transcript recorded. This is necessary for a number of reasons: compliance and the release of financial aid, evaluation academic progress, holding of my pre-graduation meeting, eligibility to continue in the program under different payment plans, ability to make appropriate changes in my Learning Agreement, which must be signed by my Core faculty and the Dean. While my adjuncts, peers, and consultant have been very active and helpful, I have received nothing but resistance, unfulfilled promises, and denial of error from UI&U. Even in the latest situation where, because some of the information in my transcript has direct bearing on compliance, and because UI&U had failed to release financial aid that had been approved for release, I was able to obtain information from USED and wrote to Ms. Walker of the UI&U Compliance Office (with copies to everyone at UI&U even remotely relevant), Ms. Walker did not respond to me. My Core, who had been unresponsive because of being over-burdened, busy, and about to move, finally returned my phone call and, instead of addressing my concern, said that Ms. Walker had requested him to make a review of my program. Rev Renee and I tried to explain the current errors on the official Web transcript and get him to look at the Outline of Coursework and Credits Equivalency in my Learning Agreement, which clearly lays out the units in my program. He responded, rather than checking anything out, with an official review of my program, which, in blatant contradiction to the facts, claims the wrong number of units and wrong format in my Learning Agreement, and a perfect correspondence between my official documents and the Web record. As you will see from one of the attachments, is simply false.

My entire Committee, having watched me attempt to get this straight for 9 months, was absolutely infuriated. It appeared to them that Dr. Preston, my Core and a Dean at UI&U, had falsified my record, and had lied that he had gone through all my documents (as is his responsibility as my Core), in an attempt to cover up for UI&U administration.

At this point, I filed a formal complaint with USED. Ms Crim was able to talk with Ms. Walker and Dr. Preston (unlike me) and issued a finding that my units and my program were, in fact, as I had stated and my Committee had confirmed. My Committees and my requests that Dr. Preston clarify what happened have been ignored. My letters in which I accused him of participating in a cover-up of errors have also been ignored. Finally, after enough letter-inundation, I received an email in which he claimed that he had simply made a mistake and that he had passed on the correct information to Financial Aid. He failed to address any of the other issues, and explained that he would be leaving for the airport in a few minutes and would be away until July 2, 2004. This is one day after the deadline for approval of the pre-graduation meeting, which he as my Core should be sharing. He also did not resign as my Core, even after I pointed out that this is an apparent conflict of interest and commitment. In fact, I had raised the question of conflict of interest which might have been making it hard for him to sign anything for me, with him earlier; and he had said he needed to consider whether that was the case.

Thus, UI&U did respond to USED, but not to me. The USEDs findings confirmed what I had said about my program but were limited to those issues relevant to compliance and financial aid. UI&U, therefore, in one of the two matters that have been addressed and corrected, did release the first semester financial aid and did confirm to Ms. Crim the length of my program and its correspondence to the transcript she has. However, UI&U has yet to fix that same issue on my record, which is currently preventing me from moving forward with other required processes in the University to hold my pre-graduation meeting.

In other words, UI&U fixed its relationship to USED, but did not solve most of my problems.

Now, as usual, further attempts to get the administration to update and correct my records and my program, have met with silence and inaction. This is only one string in this very long and complicated series of problems in which all attempts to get things cleaned up have met with, at most, a momentary flutter of activity that has resulted in no significant changeexcept for often creating more problems.


Extension of program: On December 4, 2003, in accordance with the procedure in effect at that time, I filed a request for an extension of my program with Dean Richard Green. This has remained unanswered despite writing to almost every conceivable office at UI&U trying to get this resolved. My current program ends July 31, 2004. (See Attachment 1: Extension of Program Documentation.)

I had made many attempts to get this official extension, although having been repeatedly assured there would be no problem with it. One of these attempts was an official complaint to President Subletts office, after which his assistant Dr. Neal Meier, assured me that he would make sure this was taken care of. (See Attachment 1: Extension of Program Documentation.)

(I have attached one of these numerous letters, dated June 20, 2004.)

On June 22, 2004, I received an official letter from Dr. Green addressed to learners who had been enrolled more than 7 years (which I had not), indicating that they were subject to the 1998 policies that were in effect when they matriculated (which was only 6 years ago and in any event did not apply to me). He noted that we could apply for one more year to finish our programssomething I had done 6 months before, with no result. I responded to him on June 23, 2004, indicating that this letter did not and could not apply to me. (See Attachment 1: Extension of Program Documentation.)

Also note: the need for such an extension contradicts the policies in effect at my matriculation on August 1, 1997. (See documentation of this under Section 2, Ex post facto application of policies.)

Signatures: Assistant Dean Larry Preston agreed in December 2003 to be my Core faculty member. In order to do anything with my program, I need my Cores signature. Dean Preston needed to sign the document appointing himself as my Core. I finally got him to sign this in mid-June, despite many phone calls and emails. I finally sat on the phone with him and persuaded him to find the form on his desk and sign it right then. (Documentation will be provided if needed.)

Committee: After Dean Preston finally signed off on what he had accepted as a given, that he was my Core, he approved the new members of my Committee. This was weeks ago. Another Assistant Dean must approve these appointments, and Dr. Preston assured me that (a) there was no problem, and (b) he would follow up to get this done. It has still not happened. Dean Preston had in December or January advised me to wait to appoint new Committee members, which I did. Now, after finally getting his signature on the relevant document, the Committee has still not been officially approved. However, based on Dr. Prestons assurances and my need for a working Committee, the members have been functioning as my Committee. (See Attachment 2: Committee Documentation my official Web record shows an approval for an unnamed Adjunct, and a named Consultant with no approval.)

Financial aid probation: On March 5, 2004, I received a letter erroneously placing me on financial aid probation on the ground of not meeting satisfactory academic progress. I have tried for months unsuccessfully to get this resolved, despite promises from UI&U President Sublett, through his assistant Dr. Neal Meier, that he would get this done. Meanwhile, Ms. Susan Crim of USED and Dr. Meier have both confirmed verbally that I am and have been in satisfactory academic progress. However, financial aid probation has not been officially revoked. In fact, Dr. Preston indicated to me that Ms. Walker had again raised questions to him about this. (See Attachment 3: Financial Aid Documentation.)

Financial aid compliance: Separate from the financial aid probation issue above, the Compliant Office informed me verbally that my financial aid for year 2003-04 had not been released only because my Core Dr. Preston needed to sign an Agreement form for the second semester. Ms. Walker of the Compliance Office informed me on June 10, 2004, that she would get Dr. Prestons signature. When I talked with Ms. Crim of the USED, she told me that only the second semester of aid had been denied (for the reason Ms. Walker gave), but that the first semester of aid had been approved. However, it had never been credited to my account.

On June 22, 2004, I sent an email entitled URGENT: USED CONSULTED (attached here). In that demanded, once again:

that my financial aid request be resubmitted to USED;
that my record be cleaned up in consultation with me and Rev Renee Levant;
that due to the continual errors made by Ms. Walker and the continued nonresponse by the Presidents office and Dr. Neal Meier to these issues, I be consulted before any changes to my program were made;
that a number of other issues be addressed. (See Attachment 4: Financial Aid Compliance Documentation.)

I have received no response to date from UI&U.

On June 23, 2004, I wrote to Dr. Preston, President Sublett, and Ms. Walker, outlining the facts of my financial aid situation and demanding that no changes be made to my record without consulting me and Rev Renee Levant.

On June 23, 2004, Dr. Preston called to say that Ms. Walker had made an inquiry to him about my program. Although he did not consult with me or seem to have any of my official documents before him, he made an official statement about my program, in which he made several statements that are simply contrary to fact. (See Attachment 4: Financial Aid Compliance Documentation.) Members of my committee and I responded that my Learning Agreement has always included 98 units, explicitly spelled out in the Outline of Coursework and Credits Equivalency, pages 53 and 54.

Finally, after many calls and emails and following a conversation between Ms. Crim and Ms. Walker, that aid has been disbursed. However, the refund due to me from first semester has been held, on the ground that I have a balance owingsecond semester tuition.

Since then, despite many calls and emails, a complaint to the USED, and Ms. Crims official finding that confirmed the number of units in my program and the fact that I have completed all these units at the end of this term, July 31, 2004, and Ms. Crims finding that the USED would approve my resubmitted claim for second semester aid as long as it includes that signed Agreement form, I have not heard about any resubmission, and my record has not been corrected to reflect having completed all 98 units. Again, this has implications for my ability to register for certain things, continuing in my program, etc. I have made many phone calls and sent many emails and received no responses from the administration, and only one from my Core, whose note did not address most of these concerns, and indicated that he would be going away in a few minutes, not returning until July 2, 2004. (See more details and examples in the beginning of this Complaint.)

Transcript: I have been attempting to get correct information into my official transcript since the new USED-mandated documentation process began in September 2003. Information entered into my transcript by the Compliance Office and other UI&U staff has been consistently (a) changed, (b) wrong, or (c) both, despite my continual appeals to higher administrative levels and the Presidents promise through Dr. Meier that this would be correct. This has made it impossible to register correctly, to have the documents required for my pre-graduation meeting, or even to know what documents UI&U has and/or is consulting at any given time. This issue has involved me in literally weeks or more of attempting to find a fair and accurate way to present my work with no serious response from the administration, no cooperation in the process, and no success. (Documentation of our various attempts to rectify these transcript problems in various ways will be provided on request.)

Transcript: When I used the official process that the Compliance Office gave for making the changes (in order that my official transcript would conform with the official documents that have been submitted about my program), some changes were not made, some changes were implemented piecemeal, some changes were made in error, some changes I had not requested were made in error, and I was not contacted by anyone about any of this. The result is another official transcript that is incorrect even according to their documents, with no communication from anyone at UI&U despite many, many attempts on my part. (Documentation of our various attempts to rectify these transcript problems in various ways will be provided on request.)

Notice: New decisions that have great financial repercussions to me as a student are made with little or no notice, and constantly change. When I matriculated in 1997, I could have completed my program with financial aid with no problem. Now I am cut off after Year 7 (hence the need for the program extension). This decision was made in my Year 6. However, in Year 6, it was assured that there would be no problem with getting an extension, which merely required a letter to Dean Green. Hence, I wrote my letter to him in December 2003. I was also told various changing and different statements about the financial aid situation. Most recently, I was told not to worry, that I should rush to do my pre-graduation meeting because of a new policy that allowed anyone who had had their pre-graduation meeting to pay only $1,080 for 6 months on a month by month basis.

The form for this new policy was created very recently and revised two days ago. Additional facts came out in the new revised policy, which was not on the website on June 28, 2004, and goes into effect July 1, 2004. Now we are told that this applies only to learners who have completed all their coursework; that we are not eligible for financial aid for this period; and that this period counts as less than half time. The effect of this is that registering for UGP 990 triggers the beginning of my student loan grace period, thus depriving me of that time while still requiring me to pay UI&U.

Further, these payments extend until final approval of my completed program and relevant documents by the Dean, which has been taking as long as 4 or 5 months. In some places, it is stated that learners pay for only one month past the date of the pre-graduation meeting, but in other places that is not stated, and I no longer know what is true.

I also no longer know whether it is true that I can pay for this period month by month, or must pay the whole amount and have any unused months prorated for a rebate.

Formal complaints: Given the lack of response by my Core Dr. Preston to my concerns, I made formal complaints to the Presidents office. Though the initial one got a response, resulting in the President assigning Dr. Neal Meier to resolving my issues, only one of the problems was handled; and many subsequent communications that the rest are still unresolved have been ignored, as has virtually all communication to UI&U. (See documentation already provided in Attachment 3.)

My formal complaint from June 21, 2004 (of which I sent a copy to you), has been ignored. (See Attachment 5: Formal Complaints Documentation.)


FROM: Rev Sedgwick Heskett

DATE: June 30, 2004

RE: Union Institute & University (UI&U) complaint, Part II


This section of my complaint describes several parts of the second issue, which is the ex post facto application of new policies both to learners who matriculated under a different set of policies, and also to work already completed and documented, and even to the degree for which we are working!

A. Time given to complete the degree (the 7-Year Rule)
B. Milestones in measuring satisfactory academic progress (SAP)
C. Transcripting units from Learning Agreements
D. Degree to be conferred


A. The 7-Year Rule: I matriculated on August 1, 1997. At that time I was subject to the policies outlined in The Graduate School Interim Learner Handbook of 1994 (it had always been called the Interim handbook, for reasons which I dont know.) On page 27 of that Handbook (attached), there is this language:

A minimum of two years in the program is required between matriculation and the Final Degree Meeting, exclusive of Interim. The Graduate School expects you to have completed your doctoral program within four years of matriculation.

During the 10-day Entrance Colloquium, at which all the Graduate School policies were discussed exhaustively, there was no mention made of this expectation. On the contrary, the colloquium facilitators mentioned that there were a good many learners who had been in the program 10 or 12 years or more; and while this was given as an example not to emulate, no one said anything like, And, in fact, you have to finish within four years. No one said anything about any time limit.

The current guideline adopted as of July 1, 2003, is found on the UI&U website at: http://www.tui.edu/current/phd/policyst.asp:

Time in Program
The minimum time in the UI&U doctoral program is three academic years and sixty-five (65) credit hours. The maximum time allowed in the program is seven years and ninety-eight (98) credit hours. Refer to the Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy.
(A copy of the SAP policy is attached here.)

It is certainly within the power and privilege of UI&U to change its policies regarding length of enrollment at any time, this new policy has been applied ex post facto to learners who entered under entirely different policies and understandings.

B. Milestones and SAP: When I matriculated in 1997, certainly milestones were in place. Under policies in July 2003 (and a few between 1997 and 2003, but almost all the problematic points arising in 2003), there are different milestones. For example, under the rules and practices in place in 1997, there was no maximum time by which one must have had his or her Certification Meeting. In fact, many faculty encouraged learners to wait until later in their programs to hold this meeting. The only time-related comment made in our Learner Handbook was the suggestion that the Certification Meeting should normally be held within the first two years. (See page 21. On page 22 there was a small graph showing a possible typical timeframe to completion.) The new milestone requires that Certification Meetings happen no later than month 18.

I held my Certification Meeting in month 19 of my program. In conversations with Ms Walker of the Compliance Office, she told me that I was out of compliance for not meeting this 18-month milestone.

In addition, see my Second Formal Complaint in Attachment 5 of Part I of this Complaint to the Higher Learning Commission of the NCA.

C. Transcripting units: In the Transcript Guidelines, given to me when I entered, it clearly states that UI&U operated on a semester system and, that if your Learning Agreement set up your coursework as quarter units, you and your Committee should apply the appropriate conversion formula. (See Guidelines For Preparing Your Union Institute Graduate School Doctoral Transcript, attached. Also see my First Formal Complaint in Attachment 5 of Part I of this Complaint to the Higher Learning Commission of the NCA.)

In the new documentation process, UI&U originally required that all learners document our work in the form of two semesters per year. Later, however, we were required to redocument everything in the form of 3 terms per year prior to July 1, 2003, and two terms per year after that time. To make this change, the Compliance Office entered into our official record (shown on the UI&U website) all of our learning activities, assigning them to terms by using the completed date shown on the original two-semester documents. Therefore, if a learning activity was said to have been completed in Semester 1 under the old system, the ending date of which is January 31, that activity was entered into the Fall/Winter Trimester. Thus, learning activities that occurred during Semester 1 but during the Summer Trimester (ending November 30) would not show up in that Trimester.

The result of this is that some terms show no units at all, although work was being done continuously, and others show too many units. In addition, learners were not permitted to convert our units from a two-semester to a trimester system, as would be the case at any other university. Thus, a 3-unit semester course remained 3 units, rather than becoming 4.5 units.
My program works out all right according to the new system, but that of many learners will not.

Degree Title: I entered in order to obtain a PhD in Religious Studies. Others entered to obtain a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Those who entered in 1997 are now told, following the 1998 guidelines, that we will receive a UI&U PhD with a concentration in [whatever our field is]. These degrees are not equivalent, either for professional licensing or in the eyes of faculty. I would not have entered UI&U for the latter degree.

Rev Sedgwick
Racine, Wisconsin
U.S.A.