Sunday, August 9, 2015

Having trouble navigating trust at UA

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that a university, hard-pressed for cash and students, decided to hire  "coaches" to help more than 4,000 freshmen meet with success.

And let's say that in their wisdom, the university president and trustees hired a Cleveland company that just started up for the task.

And let's say that the coaches will fill in for student success faculty who had already been doing the job but were laid off in the school's crackdown on debts.

And let's say that even the company bosses conceded that their outfit had no experience in the role that they will be assigned.

And let's say the university folks have had a helluva time explaining why they chose the  company named, oh... Trust Navigator, to do the work...for $840,000!

Would such fiction be too much for you to swallow, even as a joke?

Sorry, it isn't fiction.  Trust me. I couldn't make it up


1 comment:

Ron said...


Another good column on this particular bit of folly at UA.

The Plain Dealer, Bob Dyer and others have done a good job picking this up. But one question I wish someone would ask the brain trust at Trust Navigator: How, out of all the businesses you could start in which you have no experience, did you choose one that purports to serve university students? I mean, the founders of TN are a finance guy, his wife and a guy with a machine company. When TN was founded last year was it because they knew UA would need exactly that same service after they fired the experts who had been student success coaches? Who at UA told them to get ready for the windfall, and who told them to come in with a bid that was half what a genuine student success company would post?

Ron