Hawaii Pacific University

Date: Jul 19 2012
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
I am not big on complaining nor hearing others rant but when it comes to purchasing services or products, other potential customers should be warned of defects that exist. With that said, I will try to provide a detailed review of Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) plus I will provide other useful and relevant information for your benefit.

HPU is a private academic organization. Unlike, public academic institutions (city or state schools) private schools don?t have to adhere to the same federal/state regulations. Private academic institutions have more freedom. Basically, the customer (students) will not have the same legal rights as if they were attending a public institution. Public academic institutions have more federal regulations to adhere by due to financial reasons, such as financial aid. The more financial aid an organization receives from the government, the more regulated it is. In addition at HPU, United States citizens receive less scholarship and grant opportunities compared to International Students. This fact was not stated to attack International Students but to show where the marketing priorities are. The school receives most of its profits from International Students, the military and from consistent tuition hikes. I forgot to mention, the school is also known for catching you off guard with ridiculous fees and being inconsiderate of your financial needs if you request a refund of some sort even if it?s your OWN money.

Although, HPU is accredited by WASC its academic quality is poor. In addition, not all programs within the organization are accredited. Please note that many undergraduate/graduate programs should be independently accredited by specific agencies. For example, MBA programs should be accredited by AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business). To date the MBA program at HPU is not accredited. This is a standard that many U.S. and International businesses require when hiring MBA graduates. I mean some people may say it doesn?t matter, but think about it. If you are going to invest your time and money you want to make sure that in the end you will not be refused a job or found stuck in a lower level paying managerial position all because your MBA degree was not accredited by AACSB (all the while you have to repay back your loans!!!!). There are many other programs not accredited at HPU, so I suggest that you do your research thoroughly to ensure that in the end even if you feel that you did not get your moneys? worth, at least and hopefully your program of choice was accredited accordingly.

Organizationally, the culture at HPU is very lax. So what does that mean at HPU? It means that many departments and many staff members are not held accountable for their actions. To give you a better understanding I will provide some examples showing the negligent ambiance that defines HPU?s careless towards the customers (students) culture. Some examples include but are not limited to:

?If you call a specific department with a question be prepared to be put on hold for a long time while the unintelligent representative who answered the call tries to find the answer for you or if they just don?t care to assist you they will transfer you to several different departments who might transfer you back to the original department you contacted. Be prepared to play tons of phone tag.

? Many of the academic counselors at HPU are useless or perhaps just lazy. Don?t rely on your assigned academic counselor to help you with issues she/he was hired to help you with. Such skill and or talent is practically non-existent at HPU. Heck, you may even be registered for a class you don?t even need. So make sure if you have to meet with an academic counselor that you do your homework beforehand so that you don?t have to spend time listening to useless spiel.

?The school has been hit with a class action lawsuit from students in the nursing program (Google it). Why should this matter? Well, because the nursing program is not the only program that has acted negligently towards their customers (students).

?The school has also been hit with another lawsuit regarding campus security. The truth is SECURITY is non-existent at HPU. Anyone can enter any of the HPU properties whether owned or rented by HPU. I have personally experienced homeless people walking inside my class room. Are there security guards? Yeah, but they only monitor whether individuals carry any forms of food or liquids inside HPU. If you complain about an incident, don?t expect the security guards hired to ensure campus safety to do anything. They will say, ?It?s not in my jurisdiction to do anything.? Really? AND guess what? According to campus security, it?s not their calling, it?s HPU?s.

?The downtown library doesn?t monitor who can go in and out of the library to use the libraries resources. Weird, isn?t it? I mean no one needs to show ID to get inside. In addition, it has been reported in the news of people entering the library fondling women (Google it). AND the best part?..wait for it?..the school informed students and staff a day after the fact allowing other students to be potentially victimized! Really? Extremely, negligent?.again showing the ?I don?t care about the students who pay for my salary attitude.? ?The downtown campus is not pleasant. It is dirty, filled with homeless people, and dope heads. ?The school has been in the news on several occasions over the years for corruption due to staff stealing money (Google it). ?At the end of each semester students are issued a survey to rate their professor for that semester. To date, I have no idea why the school wastes leaves to conduct such surveys when they don?t even care to take action in removing instructors who continuously receive poor ratings from their customers.

?Depending on the instructors tenure at HPU don?t expect your complaints to make a difference. Actually, don?t expect any complaint to make a difference. HPU implements a complaint process that is really a loophole especially if you?re a student complaining about an instructor. It really doesn?t matter what the instructor does such as but not limited to calling you names and or harassing you, YOU will lose even if you are the victim. They will process the paper work needed (for audit purposes) just to cover their butts to show that they made an attempt to do their jobs but the reality is, it is a loophole?.and expect forms of masked retaliation.

?Many academic institutions assist students in finding internships or employment. Good luck with that at HPU. Again, HPU?s career center is another useless department that looks good on paper.

To future potential students or just inquisitive minds curious about HPU, know that HPU is an institution that is marketed to look good on paper. The reality is that the quality of the services you receive to date is not up to par with respect to the price and headaches the customer has to pay for attending HPU. To the staff at HPU, without the customers you would be out of business. HPU staff, perhaps you can make an effort to modify your attitude towards your customers and use this review to better your business by ensuring that your customers are provided with the services that they pay for.