The U.S. Department of Education has fined a Michigan college $2.5 million for years of “substantial misrepresentation” of career outcomes.
The department said in a news release on Tuesday that its investigation of Baker College found that the institution’s misrepresentations “could harm students, who may reasonably rely on this information when considering their higher education options and potential outcomes.”
The federal review was launched following a joint investigation by ProPublica and the Detroit Free Press in 2022 that detailed the college’s low graduation rates and the heavy debt that many students shoulder. For decades, the college promoted a near-100% employment rate, which, the investigation found, was based on shaky, self-reported data. The nonprofit college regularly spent more on marketing than on financial aid, and experts identified conflicts of interest in its governance structure.
In 2023, the news organizations — along with The Chronicle of Higher Education — reported on growing financial problems at the institution.
As part of a settlement, the college agreed to make no misrepresentations in the future, provide the department with its marketing materials for review over a period of three years and tell current students and employees about how they can submit complaints or information to the department about alleged misconduct.
President Jacqui Spicer said in a statement that the college maintains that it did not commit any misrepresentations and that the settlement contains no admission of wrongdoing. The findings “did not assert the College provided false information, as part of our marketing and recruitment data,” she said, but rather instances “in which our materials had what the DOE viewed as insufficient background or explanation.”
Good journalism makes a difference:
Our nonprofit, independent newsroom has one job: to hold the powerful to account. Here’s how our investigations are spurring real world change:
We’re trying something new. Was it helpful?
“Baker College is committed to continuous improvement and meeting and exceeding DOE’s expectations and has already taken steps consistent with that commitment,” Spicer said in the statement.
Dan Nowaczyk, a 2016 graduate from Baker’s now-closed Flint campus, cheered news of the penalty and settlement.
…
