After a years-long authorized battle, the U.S. Division of Training has dropped its historic $37.7 million superb in opposition to the biggest Christian college within the nation.
Grand Canyon College, primarily based in Phoenix, Arizona, was cleared by a Joint Stipulation of Dismissal order of any wrongdoing after the Biden administration claimed it misrepresented the price of its doctoral applications, based on a press launch from the college.
The dismissal order issued by the Division of Training (DOE) famous “there are not any findings in opposition to GCU, or any of its workers, officers, brokers, or contractors, and no superb is imposed.”
College President Brian Mueller welcomed the choice to rescind the superb.
“The details clearly help our competition that we had been wrongly accused of deceptive our doctoral college students, and we admire the popularity that these accusations had been with out benefit,” Mueller stated. “GCU is a frontrunner in innovation, transparency, and finest practices in greater schooling, and we sit up for working cooperatively with the Division sooner or later – simply as we have now with all regulatory companies.”
As CBN Information has reported, the allegations stem from the DOE’s Federal Pupil Support (FSA) report that discovered that greater than 7,500 former and present doctoral college students incurred extra prices of no less than $10,000 to finish their applications.
“GCU falsely marketed a decrease price than what 98% of scholars ended up paying to finish sure doctoral applications,” the report claimed.
Mueller denies the allegations and informed CBN Information he believed the federal government was unfairly concentrating on the college.
“This all began 14 years in the past … (when) Grand Canyon was in a really troublesome spot,” he stated, noting the college buildings had been aged and the establishment was hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in debt. “We switched from a nonprofit to a for-profit standing and went to the general public markets to get entry to capital.”
Mueller continued, “We needed to make non-public Christian greater schooling reasonably priced to all socioeconomic courses of People. And the plan labored higher than we thought.”
The varsity started to flourish, and years later, GCU leaders needed to return to being a nonprofit college.
“We thought, for the legacy of the establishment, (we) could be finest served by doing that,” he stated. “We went by the method, and the IRS, who has the authority to do this work, did it, and stated, ‘The operation you’ve got arrange qualifies as a nonprofit, and we’re supplying you with the authorized authority to function as a nonprofit.’ After which the state of Arizona bolstered that.”
Nevertheless, the DOE didn’t acknowledge the college’s nonprofit standing. For 4 years, GCU reportedly tried to work with the federal government, however to no avail.
In 2023 the division issued the high-ticket superb. In 2024, former U.S. Training Secretary Miguel Cardona vowed to close down the college.
“We have levied the biggest superb in schooling historical past in opposition to a college that lied to college students,” Cardona claimed throughout a Home Appropriations Committee assembly. “We’re cracking down on them not solely to close them down however to ship a message throughout the nation that you simply can not prey on our college students and count on to achieve success.”
GCU filed an attraction to clear its identify claiming that the “accusations had been gross mischaracterizations primarily based on remoted, out-of-context statements from sure enrollment paperwork.”
“GCU has persistently insisted that it might contest any superb quantity – even $1, not to mention $37.7 million,” the college introduced in a current assertion.
Mueller beforehand said that the DOE’s superb was “ridiculous” and famous how the division had additionally fined Liberty College for a similar quantity.
“It is fascinating, is not it, that the 2 largest Christian universities within the nation, this one and Liberty College, are each being fined virtually the an identical quantity at virtually the an identical time?” he stated. “Now’s there a trigger and impact there? I do not know. However it’s a truth.”
In a 2024 report, The American Rules Undertaking, a conservative think-tank, discovered that the DOE’s Workplace of Enforcement imposed about 70% of its penalties in opposition to Christian universities though the colleges comprise simply 10% of scholars within the U.S.
Fines in opposition to Christian faculties averaged round $815,000, whereas private and non-private establishments had been fined $228,571 for violations.
“Not like the earlier administration, we won’t persecute and prosecute schools and universities primarily based on their spiritual affiliation,” Ellen Keast, a DOE spokeswoman, informed The Washington Occasions. “The Trump administration will proceed to make sure each establishment of upper schooling is held accountable primarily based on details — however division enforcement will likely be for the aim of serving college students, not political bias.”
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