A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article for the Chronicle (“College Finances are Being Eaten from the Inside“) that argued that OPMs are taking over some of the colleges with which they work. My article derived in a part from a recent report by Stephanie Hall at the Century Foundation, called “Invasion of the College Snatchers,” that resulted from some open records requests they made at about a dozen schools known to be involved with OPMs. (The report is awesome in that it sustains the “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” metaphor through to the end.)
In response to my article and to Kevin Carey’s earlier article in the Huffington Post, Kellie Otter at Georgetown, wrote an article called “Online Program Managers are not the Enemy.”
I found her response unpersuasive.
Just last night the Chronicle published my letter in response.
I hope to do more with this, especially as the Century Foundation is still making more open records requests, some of which are being resisted with astonishing determination.