Posted on 11/15/2008 3:23:10 AM PST by Gamecock
The University of Phoenix will pay nearly $1.9 million to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit. The school admitted no wrongdoing in the matter.
The suit, filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleged that the private university discriminated against enrollment counselors who were not associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The suit also alleged that non-Mormon counselors were given fewer student recruiting leads and more reprimands.
The EEOC said 52 counselors will be paid as part of Monday’s settlement. The university agreed to adopt a zero-tolerance policy toward religious discrimination and hire a diversity officer.
The University of Phoenix is owned by the Apollo Group Inc. of Phoenix
Pesky Gentile Ping
Is UoP a Mormon school or affiliated in any way with the LDS Church? Does it have a religious/spiritual mission statement and a doctrinal statement?
IF UoP is not a Mormon school, then why would it discriminate agains non-Mormons. IF it is, and so states so in its mission statement, then why would non-Mormons want to be on the school faculty or staff?
PING
The real crime is that some people actually think online degrees are respected as much as real ones.
Is UoP a Mormon school or affiliated in any way with the LDS Church? Does it have a religious/spiritual mission statement and a doctrinal statement?
IF UoP is not a Mormon school, then why would it discriminate agains non-Mormons.
"The University of Phoenix and Apollo have been dogged by murmurs of Mormon influence for years. Apollo's longtime president and chief executive officer, Todd Nelson, was active in the church. He left the company unexpectedly in January. New president Brian Mueller is not Mormon, nor is Apollo founder and Chairman John Sperling.
O'Neill said the UOP case reflects a broader trend the agency is seeing of "intolerance in the workplace for people of other religions."
Last year, the agency settled a case alleging discrimination against non-Mormon employees at Desert Schools Federal Credit Union and another alleging discrimination against a Mormon supervisor at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. Overall, it currently has several religious-discrimination lawsuits in litigation, O'Neill said.
"It's not OK for employers to prefer a group of people because of their religion or to discriminate or adversely impact them in any way in their job because they don't belong to a certain religion," she said. "That's what you have in this case."
What is a University of Chicago degree worth, when the school has chosen a domestic terrorist as a "distinguished professor"?
I doubt if UoP has any terrorists on their payroll.
Personally I believe that employers should have the right to discriminate for any reason they want. As far as choosing a person on the basis of their religion, in many cases there are reasons other than just religious to pick someone who is a member of some specific faith. Some religious people have a reputation for working hard and viewing their occupations as a calling from God. Puritans, traditional Presbyterians, traditional Methodists, Amish, and Mormons would be numbered among them. If I owned a business and I needed a hard working employee and I had the choice between a self absorbed agnostic and a Mormon with 5 kids, I don't think there would be any doubt about which one I would choose.
Mormons have a reputation for working hard. It may or may not be true (but in my own experience I would say that it is true), but I think that an employer who favors Mormons or Amish over atheists or people from wishy washy self absorbed religions such as the Unitarian Church or the Presbyterian Church USA or Trinity UCoC, is being a good steward of his business.
IMO a solid church membership in a denomination or religion that stresses hard work and discipline is worth a lot more than a fancy diploma from Harvard or Yale.
I'm prejudiced. :-)
The Mormon should simply stop hiring non-Mormons as counselors.
You and the rest of the publications you read have it wrong. This professor is NOT a University of Chicago professor. He is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. TWO VERY DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS. The University of Chicago was the home of intellectual giants Milton Friedman (nobel prize winning free market economist), Enrico Fermi (nobel laureate who inaugurated the atomic age), Edwin Hubble (of the famous space telescope), James Watson (nobel laurate famous for discovering the structure of the DNA). The University of Chicago is a PRIVATE university. The University of Illinois at Chicago is a PUBLIC university.
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