What do I need to do to become involved with the class action suit against Walden University? I have never wanted or believed in suing anyone unless it was malicious death but this is death for me. I came to Walden with $86,000 in student debt which was from my BS and my Master’s. I am now over $600,000 and unless I graduate this term can’t keep going. I have been working on my PhD for 10 years, and in the dissertation only phase for 5 years.
The dissertation processes lack institutional oversight and operates in complete disregard for Walden University’s own policies creating an endless process that drags on for quarter after quarter, year after year for students. This prolonged process causes students to spend more money on tuition than was represented to them by Walden University.
I am over $600,000 in student loan debt and it is a trap. I would qualify for student loan repayment at my work and public service student loan forgiveness after 10 years, but I have to graduate first and get licensed.
As alleged, the process for students to obtain a dissertation or thesis supervisory committee chair and member is extremely difficult. Even worse, retaining the committee chair and committee member throughout the entire process is an additional challenge.
The first person who agreed to me my Chair was fired from Walden. After that it took me another year to find my Chair and then 18 months and over 100 emails to find my second committee member. Most faculty didn’t even respond, I emailed the school complaining about that and all they did was give me updated lists of faculty who when they did respond say they had too many students or were not interested in the study.
The Complaint claims that most Walden University doctoral and master’s students experience a loss of a supervisory committee chair or member at least once – and usually many more times – during the course of their dissertation or thesis. Walden University’s failure to regulate the supervisory committee program thus unnecessarily prolongs students’ efforts to obtain their degrees, and results in students extending their enrollment in their respective dissertation or thesis course and paying additional tuition.
The first person who agreed to me my Chair was fired from Walden. Then it took me a year to find a new one. It took me 18 months after my finding my chair to find my methods person, that person quit Walden last August (2015) at that point I had already been working on dissertation for 19 terms (with 4-5 terms per year). They sent me an email stating I needed to find a new member, I told them they needed to assign me one as we were at the point of turning my dissertation into the URR for review which is final stages of dissertation. The school assigned me a new methods person and she signed off for prospectus to go to the URR in October, and I didn’t hear from her again in 2015. Then in December 2015 they fired my Chair because I was his only student and assigned another chair. The new chair took me all the way back to rewriting Chapters 1-3, which took one whole term to receive her approval. Then it went to my methods person who had forgotten she was my methods person and she has taken over the 14 days to review twice this term.
The dissertation and thesis processes lack institutional oversight and operate in complete disregard for Walden University’s own policies creating an endless process that drags on for quarter after quarter, year after year for students. This prolonged process causes students to spend more money on tuition than was represented to them by Walden University.
I did receive one term of tuition reimbursement for the term they blocked my chair from the classroom and he could not submit dissertation or do anything. I explained to them it wasn’t just tuition it was the time it costs me because my work schedule was changing and we had coordinated everything for completion. The new chair and methods person are not following the process and timeframes outlined by the policy (which changes every year).

I am now having to go back and work on my Chapters 1-3 with multiple reviews and corrections appearing to contradict remarks prior even though it approved about 2 years ago and after I have already been to the URR once with the completed dissertation. The entire program has been revamped by changing criteria, rubrics, and procedures in both the prospectus and proposal phases. The changes to the program without grandfathering current students, and a process of habitual delays to stretch out tuition costs, payment, increasing tuition, and reducing services (terms went from 12 to 11 weeks without notification and tuition was raised each year.).

Overall, the lack of progress I have made does not appear to be directly related to my effort (not only have I maintained a 4.0 GPA with this program, but a 3.97-4.0 GPA through my previous BS and Master’s with other schools), but to the lack of responsibility and cohesiveness of Walden University. This has caused extreme financial and emotional distress for both myself and my husband.

How do I get legal representation?

Teresa Fresquez
[email protected]