AMU Students "Beg" to Leave
Mon, May07, 2007 - Category: University
The bullying appears to continue at Ave Maria
University. According to several AMU students and
parents, students are being forced by the University
to submit housing and insurance forms for the next
academic year (Fall 2007) at AMU or face "fines".
What is curious about this practice is that even
students who tell AMU that they are transferring to
another university are still being compelled to
submit the forms.
At least one transferring student who resisted completing the forms was sent to AMU Vice President John (Jack) Sites. Apparently, she was "interrogated by Sites about why she was leaving"; she also had to "plead her case before department after department" in an "ordeal that lasted over 3 hours."
The insistence that students transferring out of AMU must complete the forms may be tied to AMU's upcoming applications for accreditation to AALE and SACS. Ave Maria administrators have a history of making their numbers appear larger than actual. In Fall 2003, AMU President Nick Healy bragged about the University having 101 students [1,2] What he did not say was that 80 of those 101 students were actually enrolled in Ave Maria College (Michigan), not AMU (New Oxford Review, Sept. 2004). At the time (August 2003), AMU had also submitted an application to SACS (Naples News, August 2004). Recently, "Healy said he hopes to reapply with SACS in May" (Naples News, April 21, 2007).
Enrollment figures are also used by the federal government to receive institutional aid (IPEDS report).
It was suggested that students and parents who find this to be coercive should file a complaint with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the American Academy of Liberal Education (AALE), and the Florida Department of Education (FL-CIE).
At least one transferring student who resisted completing the forms was sent to AMU Vice President John (Jack) Sites. Apparently, she was "interrogated by Sites about why she was leaving"; she also had to "plead her case before department after department" in an "ordeal that lasted over 3 hours."
The insistence that students transferring out of AMU must complete the forms may be tied to AMU's upcoming applications for accreditation to AALE and SACS. Ave Maria administrators have a history of making their numbers appear larger than actual. In Fall 2003, AMU President Nick Healy bragged about the University having 101 students [1,2] What he did not say was that 80 of those 101 students were actually enrolled in Ave Maria College (Michigan), not AMU (New Oxford Review, Sept. 2004). At the time (August 2003), AMU had also submitted an application to SACS (Naples News, August 2004). Recently, "Healy said he hopes to reapply with SACS in May" (Naples News, April 21, 2007).
Enrollment figures are also used by the federal government to receive institutional aid (IPEDS report).
It was suggested that students and parents who find this to be coercive should file a complaint with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the American Academy of Liberal Education (AALE), and the Florida Department of Education (FL-CIE).