<p>Bubble</a> U.: High Point University - Businessweek</p>
<p>Article in this weeks magazine about Highpoint U.</p>
<p>I’ll do my best to put this lightly to leave this open for discussion but… There are about two dozen factual mistakes used by the writer. The sloppiest, IMO, starts with Dr. Qubien’s background. He is from Lebanon, not Jordan. His wife is from Jordan.</p>
<p>The picture this article paints about our school is so… off. It’s sad that liberal bias and even race came in to play to write what ended up being an opinion article rather than news piece. What a shame. </p>
<p>I also find it quite sad that this author would attack the ethics of Dr. Qubien. She brings up his salary, yet forgets to mention that he has donated over TEN MILLION dollars of his own money to the school. Again, what a shame. </p>
<p>I could go on forever about this article, but i’ll leave it at this. Its regretful that an author with an obvious agenda came to our campus and walked away with little to no understanding of the HPU way. The essence of our campus was totally ignored and achievements of our students were also absent from the article. The future of HPU is bright and I see it everyday as a student. I hope that Bloomberg takes the time to fact check the article to, at the very least, fix the sloppy reporting that was done to reach outrageous conclusions.</p>
<p>Hello, I am the author of the article. (I joined the CC website while doing my research, which enabled me to correspond with a number of students and parents who were very helpful … and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of them for their assistance.)</p>
<p>Regarding the alleged factual errors:
Dr. Qubein indeed grew up in Jordan. He confirmed this to me during an interview.
As for the $10 million, in fact Dr. Qubein has donated/pledged a total of $11 million, not $10 million. This was stated prominently in the article.
If there are any factual errors in the article, I stand ready to correct them, but so far you have not identified any.
Sincerely, Carol Matlack</p>
<p>Dr. Qubien is of Lebanese and Jordanian DESCENT, yes… but he came to the United States from Lebanon. Sure, his donation was 11 Million, hence the reason I said OVER 10 Million. More of my personal issues come from the portion of the article that attempts to describe our student body. You seemed to have ignored that concern in your response to me.</p>
<p>You make us sound like rich brats sent by mommy and daddy for a mediocre education. None of my closest friends fit the rich brat picture you painted and my education here has been fantastic. I am in the process of completing my second internship and having HPU on my resume was a huge help to me in attaining both. You totally avoid mentioning how many service hours our students put in last year alone (a number that is expected to grow ever more this year). You make us sounds like some sort of cult by suggesting students are not allowed to post flyers/info/ect around campus… which is totally false. You just didn’t take the time to get a real answer. I would estimate I get about 3 flyers under my door every week from student organizations. Since we are so small, HPU allows us to “dorm storm” to pass out info. They even help with printing so organizations can pass out a high volume and reach more people. Most of our other events on campus are advertised through a daily campus email which saves paper and keeps campus looking nicer. </p>
<p>Its the little things like that that prove you came to our campus with an agenda and took no time to get a true feel for our campus. I’m not against alternative opinions, in fact, if this article was just about the debt of the school and ones business opinion, I would have been fine with it. That would be a great debate… but you brought our student body into the equation which is when the article took a turn for the worse.</p>
<p>I am suprised that this article has not generated more discussion.
I will visit HPU this spring with my son, who is a jr.
Have always heard that the facilities are hard to beat.
But, the article did raise some interesting points.
The large debt vs the small endowment is a concern.
The pay of the president does seem out of line.
The school using the presidents family business is a conflict of intrest.
Those facts are hard to dispute.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if the University has put out any kind of statement to address the points raised? Maybe there is an explanation. On the face of it, I agree that some of these concerns sound rather serious.</p>