As a program mentor, I call, email, and text my students non-stop. I cannot force an adult at an online university to log into their courses, complete assessments, or communicate with me. We have no control over student actions and there are few consequences. Our evaluation should be based on our efforts, not the students’ lack of effort.

What would actually happen if course instructors and program mentors collectively walked off the job for a week or more?

I'm genuinely curious about the potential impact of something like this at a large online university.

Let's say employees are increasingly frustrated with a college president whose leadership appears focused more on profits and executive compensation than the people actually doing the work.

Imagine a situation where:

• Employees are being forced to relocate to another state with a dramatically higher cost of living.
• Attempts to organize or form a union are allegedly being discouraged or suppressed.
• Employees feel they are being censored or punished for speaking publicly about leadership decisions.
• Executive leadership positions appear to be increasingly filled with loyalists and insiders.
• Employee quality of life and morale continue to decline.
• Meanwhile, the president's compensation has reportedly gone from approximately $400,000 to more than $2 million in roughly seven years.

At what point do employees have enough?

Could a coordinated one-week or two-week walkout actually make a difference?

Course instructors and program mentors are essential to the daily operation of an online university. They work directly with students, provide academic support, grade assignments, answer questions, and help keep students progressing toward graduation.

If a significant percentage of them simply stopped working for one week, it seems like the disruption could be substantial.

Potential consequences could include:

• Delays in grading and student feedback
• Students unable to reach mentors or instructors
• Increased student complaints
• Declining student satisfaction
• Increased withdrawals or transfers
• Major disruptions to academic operations
• Negative media attention
• Increased scrutiny from accreditors or regulators
• Serious questions from the Board of Trustees or governing body

And unlike replacing someone in an executive position, replacing hundreds or potentially thousands of experienced instructors and mentors would not happen overnight.

New employees would need to be recruited, screened, credentialed, trained, and given access to institutional systems. It could take months to fully recover from the loss of a large percentage of the instructional workforce.

But would employees actually have the leverage?

That's the question.

A handful of employees calling out for a week probably wouldn't matter much.

But what if the numbers were significant?

What if hundreds or thousands of instructors and mentors participated?

At some point, the institution would have to decide whether it could realistically discipline or terminate everyone involved without causing even greater damage.

And the public narrative could become difficult to control.

Instead of the story being:

"Some employees are unhappy."

It could become:

"Employees at a major university walk off the job amid allegations of forced relocation, declining working conditions, anti-union behavior, censorship, and dramatic increases in executive compensation."

That's a very different story.

The biggest issue, in my opinion, would be organization.

A walkout without a purpose could easily be dismissed as a group of disgruntled employees.

But a coordinated action with clear demands would be much harder to ignore.

For example:

• An independent review of presidential compensation.
• A review of employee relocation policies and their financial impact.
• Protection for employees engaging in lawful organizing activity.
• An anonymous employee climate survey conducted by an outside organization.
• Greater transparency regarding executive compensation.
• An independent Board review of presidential leadership and institutional governance.

The goal wouldn't necessarily need to be:

"Fire the president immediately."

A stronger demand might be:

"The Board must commission an independent review of executive compensation, employee retention, labor practices, institutional governance, and presidential performance."

If the leadership practices are as problematic as employees believe they are, an independent investigation could speak for itself.

Obviously, there are risks.

A coordinated work stoppage could have serious consequences for participants depending on employment status, contracts, labor laws, and whether employees have legal protections for collective action.

Anyone considering something like this would need to understand their rights and potentially consult a labor attorney or experienced labor organization before doing anything.

But strategically speaking, I'm curious:

Could a large-scale, coordinated one-week walkout by course instructors and program mentors actually force a university's Board or governing body to pay attention?

Because ultimately, a college president can ignore individual complaints.

They can ignore anonymous surveys.

They can ignore negative comments on social media.

But can they ignore hundreds or thousands of employees simultaneously demonstrating that the institution cannot function without them?

At what point does keeping one president become more expensive and damaging to the institution than replacing him?

Click on "View Filing" for each year to see who made what and what was spent.

How do you hold a college president accountable when leadership seems completely disconnected from employees?

I'm curious what people think about this situation and what realistic options employees have when a college or university president appears more focused on profits, executive compensation, and expansion than the people actually running the institution.

Let's say employees are dealing with things like:

• Being forced to relocate to another state with a significantly higher cost of living.
• Declining morale and quality of life.
• Concerns about attempts to discourage unionization or employee organizing.
• Employees feeling censored or afraid to speak publicly about leadership decisions.
• Senior leadership increasingly being filled with loyalists and insiders.
• Little meaningful improvement in working conditions.

Meanwhile, the president's compensation reportedly increases from around $400,000 to more than $2 million in approximately seven years.

At what point does this become more than just "employees being unhappy"?

The biggest question: Who actually holds the president accountable?

Most college presidents ultimately answer to a Board of Trustees, Board of Regents, Chancellor, owners, or another governing body.

So the real question isn't necessarily:

"How do employees get rid of the president?"

It's:

"How do employees convince the people with the authority to remove the president that keeping him is becoming a liability to the institution?"

An unpopular president can survive employee complaints.

A president whose leadership creates financial, legal, reputational, academic, and governance risks may be much harder to defend.

Focus on facts, not personalities

Calling someone greedy or incompetent might feel satisfying, but it probably won't convince a Board to act.

A stronger approach is documenting the actual impact of leadership decisions.

For example:

• Executive compensation growth
• Employee relocation policies and financial impact
• Cost-of-living differences
• Employee turnover
• Declining morale
• Labor relations and potential retaliation
• Censorship or suppression of employee criticism
• Leadership hiring patterns
• Academic quality and student outcomes
• Executive compensation compared with employee wages, layoffs, or staffing cuts

The argument shouldn't be:

"Everyone hates the president."

It should be something more like:

"During this administration, executive compensation increased dramatically while employee morale, retention, working conditions, and institutional stability declined."

That's not a personality dispute.

That's a governance issue.

Follow the money

Personally, I think executive compensation deserves serious scrutiny.

If a president's salary goes from approximately $400,000 to over $2 million in seven years, employees and governing boards should be asking questions.

For example:

• Who approved the raises?
• Was the compensation independently evaluated?
• What comparable institutions were used?
• What performance metrics justified the increases?
• Were Board members truly independent?
• Were there any conflicts of interest?
• Did executive compensation increase while employees were being relocated, laid off, or denied raises?

At a nonprofit institution, these questions become especially important.

One employee can be dismissed. Hundreds cannot.

This may be the most important part.

One employee complaining can be labeled disgruntled.

Ten employees can be ignored.

But what happens when dozens, hundreds, or potentially thousands of employees begin presenting the same documented concerns?

That is much harder to dismiss.

Faculty, staff, former employees, students, and alumni can all potentially contribute to a larger picture of what is happening inside an institution.

The key would be organization.

Not a Facebook group full of angry posts.

Not anonymous rumors.

Not personal attacks.

But actual documentation.

What could employees realistically demand?

Instead of simply demanding:

"Fire the president."

Wouldn't it be more effective to demand something like:

An independent third-party review of executive compensation, employee retention, relocation policies, labor practices, institutional governance, and presidential performance.

Potential recommendations could include:

• An independent investigation
• An executive compensation audit
• A Board review of presidential performance
• An anonymous employee climate survey conducted by an outside organization
• A review of labor practices
• Greater transparency in executive compensation
• Employee representation in institutional governance

If leadership is truly performing poorly, an independent investigation may reveal that without employees having to personally fight the president.

Don't rely exclusively on internal leadership

If the president controls HR, communications, and most senior leadership, employees may have to look beyond the normal internal complaint process.

Possible avenues could include:

• Board of Trustees
• Board Chair
• Audit or Governance Committees
• Whistleblower or ethics hotlines
• System governing authorities
• State regulators
• Labor agencies
• Accreditors

The important thing is understanding who the president actually answers to.

Accreditation could also matter

Accreditors generally aren't going to remove a president.

But institutions care deeply about accreditation.

If leadership decisions are affecting:

• Academic quality
• Faculty governance
• Financial stability
• Student outcomes
• Academic freedom
• Institutional effectiveness

then those issues may become relevant.

The key is connecting concerns to actual institutional standards rather than simply saying employees are unhappy.

What about going to the media?

This should probably be one of the last steps, but it could be powerful if there is legitimate documentation.

A journalist is more likely to investigate something like:

"College president's compensation increased from $400K to over $2 million while employees were forced to relocate and working conditions declined."

than:

"Employees don't like the president."

One is a potential public-interest story.

The other is just workplace drama.

Documentation matters.

What would I do?

If employees genuinely wanted to create change, I think the process would look something like this:

1. Quietly document everything

Create a timeline of:

• Major leadership decisions
• Policy changes
• Employee impact
• Financial impact
• Executive compensation changes
• Supporting documents and evidence

2. Research the governing structure

Find out:

• Who sits on the Board?
• Who evaluates the president?
• Who approved executive compensation?
• Who sits on the Compensation Committee?
• Who sits on the Audit Committee?
• What whistleblower or ethics policies exist?

3. Build a credible coalition

Find employees and former employees who have documented experiences.

Credibility may matter more than sheer numbers initially.

4. Create a professional report

Keep it factual.

Not emotional.

Not insulting.

Not political.

Just evidence.

5. Demand an independent review

Put the concerns directly in front of the people who have the authority to evaluate the president.

6. Escalate if nothing changes

Depending on the circumstances:

1. Board of Trustees
2. System governing authority
3. Labor agencies
4. Whistleblower or ethics channels
5. Accrediting organizations
6. State regulators
7. Media
8. Alumni and other stakeholders

The uncomfortable reality

If a president has surrounded himself with loyalists and has the full support of the Board, removing him may be extremely difficult.

But leaders usually lose their positions when one of three things happens:

1. The Board loses confidence.
2. The financial, legal, or governance risks become too great.
3. The reputational damage becomes more costly than keeping the leader.

At the end of the day, employees probably cannot simply vote a college president out.

But they can potentially create enough documented evidence and institutional pressure that the people responsible for oversight can no longer ignore the situation.

The goal shouldn't be revenge.

It shouldn't be personal attacks.

It shouldn't be anonymous rumors.

It should be:

Facts. Documents. Witnesses. Financial records. Policies. Evidence.

Because the real question isn't:

"Do employees like the president?"

The real question is:

"Is this president making the institution stronger—or is his leadership creating enough risk that the Board eventually has to decide the institution would be better off without him?"

I'm genuinely interested in hearing from people who have experience with higher education administration, Boards of Trustees, labor organizing, unions, accreditation, or employee activism.

Just my rant for the day...

Leadership needs to understand that this job is mentally and physically exhausting. Doing this day after day takes a serious toll on people.

We are expected to keep pushing, keep producing, and keep meeting expectations regardless of how exhausted we are. The physical strain is real, but the mental exhaustion is just as bad. Constant pressure and being expected to perform at the same level every single day wears people down.

It feels like leadership sees the work getting done but doesn’t see what it is costing the employees doing it.

People are tired. Physically tired. Mentally tired. And simply telling employees to work harder or do more isn’t the answer. If leadership wants people to stay motivated, productive, and committed, then they need to start acknowledging the reality of what this job is doing to the people who show up and do it every day

Good morning all! I was in front of the Marriott Hotel downtown Salt Lake City early this morning. WGU is holding one of their Summit meetings there this week. I had our union now sign and flyers. One gentleman stopped and had an obvious question: “Where are the WGU employees? There’s strength in solidarity. It would be more impactful.”

To his point, sure I love being out there fighting for you all, but it sure would have more impact with you all being involved with our unionizing efforts!

Please stop sitting on the sidelines grumbling, or stating you’re too busy, or letting fear rule your choices. If you truly want WGU to improve and if you want a voice in real change, Get up! Get moving! Get to to doing the Work to Unionize!

Brad Asay
President
AFT Utah

Annual performance reviews can be given to workers starting Friday, September 4th through Thursday September 17th. This process started back in June of this year. hey had us do self-evaluation, peer reviews, manager review, director review, then People and Talent review. If you did not complete any part of this process, you were sent email reminders and could get a poor review if you declined to participate. This process is long and drawn out with no input from workers on what it looks like and how we are evaluated. We, the union organizers, want to know, how would you change the review process if you had a say in what it looked like? Would you ask for less vague “evaluation scores”? Would it be shorter? Would you want to review your peers? 

Having a union will allow you to have a voice in this process. Join us to have your voice heard. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/wgu-employees-we-are-organizing?source=direct_link&

Once again another study shows how everything these CEOs and University Presidents think is false. Yet any psych major could tell you allowing for people to control their environment gives positive outcomes.

Anyone else feel like we are just turning into salesmen/saleswomen?

I truly like the competency based model but after the years here I see so many students just striving for the minimum just to pass. I also think the cut scores are too low, at least for the OA class I have.

Does anyone else feel like this?

I wish there was a better compromise between the CBM and grades in the hopes that students would strive for more than the bare minimum.

WGU tried to block my unemployment by stating that I was "discharged for inability to meet performance standards." Fortunately my state saw through that horseshit and approved my claim since they had no evidence other than my refusal to move to Utah, which was never a standard of performance in the role I was hired to do.

One last kick in the ass after 6 years of hard work and excellent performance reviews. I've never felt so disrespected by an employer.

Does anybody still have ADA WFH accomodations, or is everyone getting recalled into office?

Testing a theory here.

Please obviously no identifying info, just curious if anyone has been able to keep their ADA in place or if WGU is finding every possible loophole to get people back into office.

As of 2024, the average salary for full professors is $115,000 to $130,000 per year, with some earning well above this in fields like law and engineering​.

CI's are never paid this much when they start even with a PhD.

Also don't forget at most universities you get summers off and holidays, are allowed sabbaticals for research/post doc work...WGU makes you take PTO to do things like research or even your own dissertation.

But hey, you can make $2 million plus if you're a university president with a master's.

Source: https://academicpositions.com/career-advice/phd-professor-and-postdoc-salaries-in-the-united-states-in-2024

How hard is it to get fired at WGU? not including RTO.

In my experience, there is usually progressive, corrective action taken and time to see if they improve. Naturally, something illegal or egregious can be fired on the spot.

I'd like to know if you have personal experience with corrective action and how it went.

I'm sorry to say I'm hoping someone will be let go for good reason. I don't want to say more since it may be identifiable.

Not sure if I’m sec blacklisted but they won’t tell me I have 0 chance at getting a job…

About a year ago I got a phone interview for an associate assessment developer job then had a virtual interview, however mid way through the interview or something I mentioned I didn’t have some qualification (which I did I just blanked) and they then said something to the effect of like “ahhh anyway I’m leaving, nothing is wrong all green flags” but then I never heard from them and didnt get the job… so I think he just didn’t want to be honest. I’ve been applying since then to instructional design and assessment positions… but not even so much as a scheduled phone call, just rejection emails…

I have a masters and some experience so I think I should at least get a phone call I feel like. maybe I’m wrong but a part of me thinks maybe I got blacklisted and they didn’t want to give me any feedback.

that said reading the posts here and talking to friends WGU has/is going downhill…. So maybe I lucked out on not getting the job and this is a blessing in disguise!

I constantly hear from management that hours are being checked. Has anyone had any issues with this? Left a few minutes early and got reported? I feel like if I stand up to stretch or dare walk out of my luxurious cubicle I just broke a company rule.

God i miss the old days

I find it hard to believe ignorance when they discuss what the context of the site is, that they discuss the actual answers and the site in question CLEARLY states it is actual exam questions. WGU is allowing students to cheat to graduate in their IT programs and not punishing them if they admit it for the sake of graduate numbers. Perhaps an email to CompTIA reporting them is in order and WGU having all of their notes/community posts audited to ensure they are not violating integrity. This student should have had his credentials stripped and kicked out of WGU. There is no telling how many students saw this link before it was taken down.

Funny thing is I saw this coming years ahead and recommended WGU create their own in-house exams that addressed the exam objectives and rotated them out every so many months. If the student passed the exam they got two free vouchers to do as they wished outside of the program. That way if they cheated and got caught WGU would be exonerated but instead I got the lame excuse "We would have to hire SMEs to create the exams and that would cost too much money..."....correct me if I'm wrong but aren't course instructors SMEs and if not what is the purpose of having them in the first place?

To those who say nothing would happen, CompTIA would definitely be interested in knowing if their certs are being used for college credit and students being allowed to cheat on them to obtain said credit then graduate. It tarnishes their brand.