Dennis Manzo, President Of Kaplan College, Fired Over English-Only Flap

Dennis Manzo, the president of Kaplan College in Chula Vista, CA, has been fired regarding his response to a classroom situation in which students were instructed not to speak Spanish, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

More details have emerged about the controversial case, during which Kaplan instructor Patricia Dussett told a student that school rules forbade speaking Spanish in class. The student's aunt, Leticia Maldonado, complained to the school and then flew to campus to discuss the issue with officials.

According to the Chronicle, Manzo at first told Maldonado that "he wanted to make sure that students were held to the highest levels of professionalism and that having a side conversation in Spanish was unprofessional."

Officials apologized to Maldonado and dismissed Manzo, who had been president of the campus since December.

A spokesman for Kaplan told the Chronicle that the school and Manzo "agreed it would be best if [they] parted ways."

Comments

[wilbur19]

01:08 PM on 06/03/2010

Shame on Kaplan for firing someone who was following policy by adhering to professionalism on campus. Side conversations, in ANY language are rude, unprofessional, and distracting in a classroom environment. The instructor made the error, not the president of the campus. Kaplan could have AND should have handled this better. Any why was a students aunt involved???? What authority over the campus does she have? Her nephew threw a temper tantrum because he was called out for his unprofessional behavior, shame on them too for making it a bigger issue than it needed to be.

[Democommon Sense]

06:38 PM on 06/02/2010

Well I hope this overrated for profit school also gave that girl some free schooling. If not I think this run in with the teacher will be the least of her woes.

[Jasel]

09:34 AM on 06/02/2010

The teacher should have been tossed too.

[smoovejef]

11:21 AM on 06/02/2010

Agreed.

[MBA is King]

05:00 AM on 06/03/2010

You can't toss a professor. They have halos around their heads. Haven't you noticed?

http://www.mbaunderground.blogspot.com/

[v eyepete]

03:17 AM on 06/02/2010

It seems to me everyone over reacted. The TEACHER told the student school rules forbade Speaking Spanish in class. (Chula Vista has a high Spanish speaking population.) The president of the school supports the teacher and he is fired? It seems that no one had the presence of mind to diffuse the situation with any skill. The administration buckled to the students, thus putting people who know little, in control of the school. I think the president was fortunate to get away from a system so broken. The teacher will suffer long after with such poor administration. The students will get a degree but will have learned nothing and this is where teabagers come from.

[FairProgressive]

11:14 PM on 06/01/2010

another victim of PC. sad

[tpondering]

05:23 PM on 06/01/2010

Love the irony of this happening in Chula Vista. Some languages are less professional than others? Since we off-shore most of the non-executive roles these days, they should be encouraging multi-lingualism. A good boss should have a clue when the off-shore "help" is calling him a dick in their native language.

[shthar]

04:13 PM on 06/01/2010

How big is his golden parachute?

[hypnotoad72]

05:14 PM on 06/01/2010

Probably $21 million...

[jsump]

06:18 PM on 06/01/2010

what makes you say that?

[TeeSC]

02:35 PM on 06/01/2010

Yeah... interesting comments so far. Hard to know the true story. I agree there should be NO talking in class... no matter the language. Definitely NO talking in ANY language during exams. But to say a student can't speak Spanish during an unrelated conversation is also wrong. Sounds like a very unfortunate situation.

[jsump]

06:36 PM on 06/01/2010

If one can't talk they can't ask questions. What kind of class would that be. Or, What if it's a discussion class? Perhaps its a class that has labs and student must work together. Hard to do that without talking.

You see why your rule is uninformed? The prof sets behavior rules. However, if they worry about trivia they will loose track of their mission.

[wendelswerk]

02:28 PM on 06/01/2010

This is strange. First, why would the Professor care. 2. Why would the President care? 3. Why would the Aunt care? (She flew all the way to discuss this? Whats wrong with her phone?)

[jsump]

06:22 PM on 06/01/2010

So the aunt can't be an advocate for her niece? Why can't she care how her niece is treated? For all you know she is paying for the education. Clearly she was the right person to go, since she caused the situation to be corrected.

It seems the professor was following orders. It seems the President gave the orders, but was wrong headed.

[davewill]

09:28 PM on 06/01/2010

We don't know the circumstances. It's possible that flying down wasn't a big deal, perhaps she was already planning to visit. Also, there are huge advantages to having a confrontation in person. It's much harder for the other person to avoid you, or to end the conversation before you're done. You also get all kinds of cues from their demeanor.

And it's not a small thing. If the school you're paying thousands to for an education is allowing racially-motivated policies to be applied...a talk in person seems to be an entirely reasonable approach.

[SF TKF]

01:42 PM on 06/01/2010

Having a side conversation in any language is unprofessional.

[blakej19]

04:40 PM on 06/01/2010

True, but this should not be forbidden in a school as it is not forbidden at work just unprofessional.

[jsump]

06:30 PM on 06/01/2010

If the President had issued a directive saying all side conversations were prohibited, he would still be there, although under scrutiny. It's clear he did not think side conversations, in general, were unprofessional. His problem was his language bigotry, which as was pointed out earlier, is ironic since the school is in Chula Vista. If a student said the city's name would she be speaking English or Spanish?

[wilbur19]

01:30 PM on 06/03/2010

The president is not the one who made "language" the issue. He was supporting the instructors attempt to gain control over her classroom by stating any side conversation is a problem. It was the aunt and student who made it about speaking spanish.

[nappyman]

12:31 PM on 06/01/2010

I teach at a hispanic serving institution and rule one in my class is, no talking in class (english or spanish). A quick word or two between students is their business as long as it isnt disruptive.
And definitely no foreign language if an exam is in progress.

[wilbur19]

01:27 PM on 06/03/2010

Good for you!

[fromdnorth]

11:33 AM on 06/01/2010

Ballzie