The Art Institute of Las Vegas Review: Picketing

 

(The video version of this blog post if you would rather not read all of this.  This post does contain more information, however.  Direct link to video:   http://youtu.be/jhc08cXiKyc)

On Friday, October 24th, 2014, I picketed out front of the Art Instituted of Las Vegas.  The following led me to that decision:

1.  The education is extremely poor at AILV.  Definitely not worth the near $85,000 in tuition alone they want.

2.  I called the VA (I went to the school on the G.I. Bill) to file a complaint.  I was instructed to file an official complaint at https://afaems.langley.af.mil/pecs/VAPECS.aspx and did so.

3.  A couple days later, I was pulled out of class for nearly an hour to have a meeting with two of the top officials at the school.

4.  The following week, I went in for another meeting only to be told that there were only two actions from the multitude of complaints I made.  I didn't see the point of that meeting, especially with the suggestions not even satisfying me.  Most of that meeting was spent talking about the transfer of credits through The Art Institute of Las Vegas. 

Both officials both stated that transfer of credits between Art Institutes has never been a problem.  I know of one student who moved to Florida and that student is expected to go an extra two quarters because so many AILV credits didn't transfer to the Art Institute near her.  One of those classes was Web Scripting.  The student was a Photography student.  AILV requires its photography students to take Web Scripting.  No idea why.

5.  About 7 weeks later, I received an email from the VA with the school's response to my complaint.  This response summarized that my only complaint was the inconsistency (albeit a huge problem at the school) and the little talk about the transfer of credits issue.  In this response, there were basic English mistakes ("me and Name" and it literally said "...you're your..." in a sentence) and it featured a repeat paragraph.

(The first two paragraphs after my response in the school's response to my VA complaint)

 

These mistakes made me feel that they sincerely didn't care or take me seriously.  The leadership didn't bother to proofread or have anyone else look over the letter.  If you are running a college, it is inexcusable to be making elementary mistakes.  They obviously didn't take me seriously.

6.  A couple days later, I sent a 2.5 page response.  I had ten days to respond.

7.  Three and a half weeks passed by with no response.

8.  I contacted the local police to make sure I wasn't breaking any laws with the protest I wanted to do.

This is when I realized nothing was going to get done unless I did something.  I went to the sidewalk in front of the school and held my signs for about 6 hours.  These are things I learned from that experience:

1.  MANY students are very upset with the school.  This included students in their second quarter.  After getting in to the Junior/Senior year, however, students go ahead and finish because they are so close to graduating.  Many of these students, of course, are in fear of protesting or riling up the school. 

2.  Time in class was still being wasted.  On that day in the afternoon alone, I found out that two classes were being wasted.  In one class, students showed up at 1:00 P.M. only to have until 3:00 P.M. to do homework.  Why are students still showing up to class to do homework?  In another class, the combined Portfolio Preparation/Defense (which the Prep class was a large part of my complaint because it was such a big waste of time) found the Defense students showing up at 1:00 P.M. only to be told to go work on their work until 3:30 P.M. when the instructor would be done with the Prep students.  Why did the Defense students show up at 1:00 if they were only to be seen at 3:30?  Even then, how much of the rest of the hour and a half would be dedicated to each student?  And what about the other hour and a half for the Prep students?

3.  While I was out there, there were a lot of people stopping to ask what school I was protesting (ITT Tech is right next door).  The school may have had a function going on because shortly after I started picketing the two top officials at the school I had meetings with months prior showed up.

4.  The two officials wanted me to go inside to have a discussion.  They really wanted to go inside.  I wasn't going to budge.  I was sick and tired of talking and things not getting done.  Here are a couple highlights from my conversation with them:

     a.  A second quarter student showed up while they were out there to see what was happening.  I shared with him a few things.  He said the quarter prior he had two classes that were almost mirrored in what they were learning.  At about Week 6, he finally complained to one instructor and that instructor changed what they were learning for the rest of the quarter.  One of the top officials was completely satisfied with that solution.  Here is what I wasn't satisfied with:

          - I made my complaint about Week 3 of Summer quarter.  If the student complained on Week 6, there was no review of any courses for a couple weeks.

          - The fact that two courses had the same instruction.  This again shows that you are taking an instructor and not a class.  If the classes were properly built with instructors who were qualified to teach the classes, it wouldn't be an issue.

          - What about all of those first 6 weeks students wasted in one of those classes?  There was no inquiry on anything from the top two officials about the situation other than "Did the instructor change what was taught?"  What classes were they?  Which instructors were they?  Did the classes follow the syllabi?  Most importantly, who was the student?  The lack of pursing the problem showed me education was not the priority.

     b.  One official kept wanting to make lists of issues I had with the school.  They have my blog where I have plenty of issues listed.  We talked about many of my issues in the meetings I had with them.

     c.  When they were getting ready to leave, I brought up the point that when they shut down a photoshoot at the school because a student was shooting artistic nudes.  I, nor anyone I have discussed this with, understood why the shoot was shut down.  The student made a copy of the model's ID, had the model sign a release, and had her sign an understanding that there was a security camera in the room that was going to be recording the whole session.  I brought up the points that the school is a safe environment, that the school hangs up artistic nude photographs, and it really adds to a photographer's portfolio.  The response I was given?  One official stated "You only got a part of the story."  The other official then stated, "Yeah, you only got a part of the story."  When I inquired what the other part of the story was, they WALKED AWAY.

I received one final request to go inside and sit down to talk about things.  I said I was protesting.  I didn't want to go on private property during the protest.  They didn't like that answer.

5.  The most hilarious part of my endeavor that day was when two ITT Technical Institute representatives came out to talk to me.  First, they didn't even identify themselves - they asked what school I was protesting.  After I told them, they asked why I wasn't on the school's property.  They then identified themselves with ITT Tech. 

They wanted to know why I was out there and I told them, including my belief that school has been a complete waste of time.  Their reaction?  THEY TRIED TO RECRUIT ME!  Not only that, one of them tried to recruit me for their drafting program (for reasons unknown).  I also at one point asked when that ITT branch opened up, and the response was, "Well, ITT Technical Institute has been around since 1997..." in a complete sales pitch voice.  I ended up asking for a business card just to get them to go away, and neither of them had business cards on them.

On October 29th, 2014, I did another protest out in the same spot in front of the school.  This protest was much less eventful.  I talked to a few people about The Art Institute of Las Vegas and let them know about my experiences.  Hopefully it helps them make a better decision on where to go to school.

If you believe I completely wasted my time and nothing is going to change, it sure is a possibility.  The reason I protested yesterday is because that is when Pizza with the Deans was scheduled for the 29th.  It is on their quarterly calendar.  I don't ever remember that event getting cancelled or post-poned.  However, on Monday, October 27th, the weekly bulletin board did not have the event listed.  A couple days later, a sign appeared stating that Pizza with the President and Deans would be in "late November." 

Did I make this happen?  I don't know.  I do know I forgot to mention in the video that one of the school's instructors came up to me and told me that he is still doing work for free.  That's awesome.

Nonetheless, I think I am ready to admit defeat to The Art Institute of Las Vegas.  I believe this country's belief that a degree is absolutely necessary and it doesn't matter one bit what you have to put up with to get it is wrong.  I've heard so many arguments on why I should waste so much more time and money and I don't agree with any of it. 

No one agrees with me quitting school.  As I see it, there is no reason to waste six more months and thousands of dollars to get a piece of paper.  Why support a weak and pathetic institution?  The school really wants me to graduate because their numbers are so low.  People want me to graduate because they are brainwashed.  It doesn't matter how poor the education is or how much it costs.

As long as this ideology is prevalent in America, we will be holding back our youth from any real progression. 

List of all the posts I have about my experiences at AILV