Becoming One of the World’s Biggest Universities
Sperling’s new career as an entrepreneur was anything but secure. The organization that accredits colleges and universities in California, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), opposed what Sperling was doing. Documents quoted in Sperling’s memoir indicate that WASC officials were uncomfortable with the number of group projects IPD allowed; WASC thought only individual projects should be permitted. WASC was also concerned that IPD was “making excess profits.” WASC officials threatened to strip accreditation from the schools Sperling was working with.
By the time Sperling started IPD, he was no longer a socialist. He believed the free market was the best way to bring innovation to higher education. He writes that being for-profit imposed a kind of “discipline” that was missing at traditional universities. “It left us no alternative but to produce a service for which customers were willing to pay a price high enough to sustain a growing concern.”
And Phoenix was offering her college credit for her work experience
The pushback that Sperling got from WASC and from people at traditional schools, some of whom called IPD a “diploma mill,” was par for the course, in Sperling’s opinion. He writes in his memoir:
The battles fought by IPD. against the educational establishment were. largely proxies for cultural battles between defenders of 800 years of educational tradition, and an innovation that was based on values of the marketplace — transparency, efficiency, productivity, and accountability. To me, the defenders of academic traditions were protecting undeserved middle-class entitlements. (more…)