I have been working with the AICPCU organization based in Malvern, PA. I live in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The incident began in early January (1-4-05) and has continued up to the present. See details below.
I am looking to obtain the CPCU insurance designation. I asked for two waivers, one for CPCU 540 and one for CPCU 560. The waiver for CPCU 560 was granted since I have an FLMI designation from LOMA. The waiver for CPCU 540 was not granted, and the story is quite long.
I had requested the waiver for CPCU 540 since I have my masters and specialist certification in Education Administration. Per CPCU's guidelines, a waiver for CPCU 540 will be granted if you have an MBA or equivalent degree from an accredited institution.
Here's a brief synopsis of the string of events leading up to the final memo, as well as my observations:
I received a letter dated December 29 indicating the CPCU 540 waiver could not be approved. They indicated the focus of CPCU 540 was in accounting, finance and other quantitative business subjects, and that my courses did not have sufficient concentration to qualify. I initially sent in this request when I talked to a colleague of mine. She received a waiver for CPCU 540 and did not have an MBA.in fact, she had no master's degree course in finance.
I sent e-mail correspondence to CPCU on January 4th to appeal this decision. I noted that I had sufficient concentration in the topics of CPCU 540, and noted both my studies in FLMI and Education Administration. I also noted that my Education Administration studies qualified me to be a school superintendent, the CEO of the school.
On January 6th, CPCU's vice-president of examinations replied indicating their decision stood. Per Donald Oakes, "With regard to your studies in education administration, in making waiver decisions, the Institutes do not take into consideration courses, degrees, and certifications other than those contained in our published guidelines." Their published guidelines indicate an MBA or similar degree from an accredited institution. If you look at the timelines of the e-mails I have, this was reviewed in about a 24-hour period.
On January 11, I asked for my company's Learning and Development's help with this situation, to go to bat for me. Per their response, "We do not "go to bat" or represent cases for individuals in decisions that are strictly up to the sponsoring organization. To do so would be using our association with an organization to try to influence their business decisions, which is something we ethically can not and will not do." I did not ask them to act unethically. The tone I received from them was quite derogatory. I completed a company complaint form and asked for the manager that oversees insurance education at my company's Corporate Learning and Development, to respond to me. To date I have heard nothing. The only thing they did was to give me another name at CPCU to complain to.
I responded to Dr. Oakes on January 13, citing their published guidelines and how my degree applied.
On January 14, Dr. Oakes replied to my message. He basically told me to take the CPCU 540 test if I felt my Education Administration studies have prepared me. The undertone I perceived here is, "Well, if you're so smart, just take the test!"
On January 15, I appealed this decision by e-mail to Dr. Kenneth Dauscher, Senior Vice President at CPCU.
On January 19, Dr. Dauscher replied. Per his e-mail, "When our curriculum department reviewed and established the concept of waivers, they knew we would have to establish a general policy guideline and procedures that could be administered with a minimum of resources. We are not in a position to have people send us their textbooks and course materials for comparison, and often materials from courses taken earlier are no longer available any way. They felt comfortable giving waivers for MBAs because such programs usually require a grounding in corporate finance, regardless of the otherwise major of the program. We can in no way gauge what content has been covered by general course descriptions that you have shared with us from your past course work, which is geared toward school district administration. That is not to say there is no overlap, but we cannot be sufficiently satisfied (without a fairly thorough course content comparison that is impossible for us to do) that the bulk of the same content material is covered." I immediately wondered several things. They feel comfortable with the MBAs because they USUALLY have grounding in finance? If they're not in a position to review materials from other courses, how did they do my colleague's?
On January 22, I sent Dr. Dauscher additional information, basically doing the research that he indicated he did not have the resources to do. I thought since they did not have the time to do the analysis, that I would do it for them.
On January 26, Dr. Dauscher replied, again declining the waiver. Per Dr. Dauscher, "to re-iterate my earlier statement, the policy statement is intended to allow some leeway for degrees that cover substantially the appropriate material. We do not view your Masters as in that category, and cannot perform the detailed content comparison necessary to prove equivalency. Your charts discussing job roles or showing assignment numbers do not really address specific content. And quite frankly, they are your analyses, not ours or an independent source. We have discussed your waiver request here and our decision not to grant the waiver remains our final decision." Since they did not want to do the analysis, I did it for them. Dr. Dauscher replies "quite frankly, they are your analyses, not ours." It's a no win situation! And he still did not address why my colleague received the waiver and I did not. And I guess you can be qualified to run a school district and have a wealth of knowledge regarding finance, but CPCU won't recognize that!
I would like to know why my Master's and Specialist Certification in Education Administration do not count for the CPCU 540 waiver.
I would like to know why they had the resources to look at someone else's non-MBA curriculum, etc. But not mine.
I would like to know why they did not consider my analysis of the situation, especially when they said they did not have the resources to do so.
I would like to see an audit of their previous decisions involving giving waivers for CPCU 540, especially with regards to non-MBA master's degrees.
I would like to see an audit of all decisions made regarding credit granted for CPCU 540. It seems that some people get a thorough review and some don't. And per Dr. Dauscher, they accept MBAs because they USUALLY require grounding in finance. What about the cases where the college DOES NOT require this grounding? Also, even if a finance course is listed on a transcript, many colleges use different textbooks, cover different topics, etc. Per Dr. Dauscher, he cannot perform the detailed content comparison necessary to prove equivalency. I would assume that the detailed content comparison is not done on anything, yet some get waivers, some do not.
I would like to know why they have published guidelines stating that credit for CPCU 540 will be granted for an "Masters of Business Administration (MBA) or similar degree from a college or university accredited by one of the following accrediting agencies recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and/or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. I do have a degree similar to an MBA, and it is accredited by an association approved by CPCU: North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Why would they publish this information if they do not abide by it? Or why do they abide by only sometimes?
Per Dr. Dauscher, We can in no way gauge what content has been covered by general course descriptions that you have shared with us from your past course work, which is geared toward school district administration. Also, per Dr. Dauscher, the concept of waivers for national examinations is based on the premise that the person has substantially covered the same content. If you look at the two attachments I provided to AICPCU, I did a thorough comparison of topics covered in CPCU 540 to my studies in both FLMI and Education Administration. As noted in these documents, I have substantially covered the same content as CPCU 540.
I would like to know how a person could be qualified to be a school superintendent and have a wealth of knowledge regarding finance, but CPCU does not recognize that as good enough for CPCU 540 credit.
All in all, I want to be treated fairly, and ultimately receive credit for CPCU 540.
I have involved the Better Business Bureau in Pennsylvania, but they have been no help. Here is my last correspondence with them dated May 24:
Dear,
Today I received your letter dated May 18 regarding my complaint against AICPCU.in response to your letter, once again I am more dissatisified than satisified, and am requesting further action.
Please let me know what further action you intend to take. This is a clear case of bias against me, and the fact that they did not address any of the issues below indicates that they know they have serious issues to be resolved.
I do not want this to end with a file documentation. Please use whatever resources you have available. The issues I point out below are very serious in nature, point out serious gaps in their process, and they are simply not using common sense in my individual case. They are merely saying no repeatedly because they know they have lawyers if they need them, and can drag this out forever.
PLEASE DO NOT DROP THIS CASE! Thank you for all you have done thus far.
Original Message
From:
Sent: Tuesday, May 03 8:31 PM
To:
Subject: AICPCU Complaint
Importance: High
Hello,
Today I received your letter dated April 27 regarding my complaint against AICPCU.in response to your letter, I am more dissatisfied than satisfied, and am requesting that you contact the firm again.
There are several reasons why they should be contacted, and why I should be given credit for CPCU 540. Here are some things to mention as you contact them:
I have a colleague who received credit for CPCU 540. She did not have an MBA, and did not even have a course in finance. Why was she given credit? Dr. Dausher said they use the most efficient process available to make the waivers. So in this case, they obviously did not look at course content and do a side-by-side comparison of content.
In Dr. Dausher's response to you, he mentioned, "We would consider a similar degree to be a master degree in finance or something like that." Dr. Dausher is obviously not familiar with the duties of a school superintendent. They are the CEO of a school organization, and are well versed in finance.in fact, in many school districts across the United States, the school superintendent is solely responsible for making all financial decisions, many of which rely heavily on an in-depth knowledge of finance. Whether it's school or business finance, the principles are the same.
Referencing the above bullet, I created two separate documents comparing topics that I learned in Education Administration, as well as FLMI. I did this since Dr. Dausher indicated they were not in a position to do the thorough review.in his letter to you, he said this was unacceptable because I was the one making the judgment, and it did not show the actual breadth and depth of the content covered. I did not make a judgment; I presented facts. Regarding the breadth and depth, I kept it simple because, again referencing Dr. Dausher, they are not in a position to go into depth. I did all of this because they refused to do so.
Dr. Dausher indicated in his letter to you "To our knowledge virtually all MBA programs require a course in finance." Well, that indicates that some might not. And for those that do offer courses in finance, how does Dr. Dausher and AICPCU know that the course content lines up perfectly with their requirements? Since all MBA programs are different, their finance courses are different. This leads me to believe that they have accepted waivers for CPCU 540 when the requirements may not have been met.
Dr. Dausher indicated in his letter to you "We regret that Mr. Casper has difficulty accepting our decision, but we feel we must maintain the academic integrity of our program." Dr. Dausher need only look at my academic record to realize I am no slouch with regards to academic integrity. A few points to note:
In high school, I graduated with honors, and was Salutatorian of my class. I received a full ride Regent's Scholarship to the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, as well as a full ride President's Scholarship to Kearney State College.
I graduated from Kearney State College Summa Cum Laude, with a 3.947 GPA. I was also named an outstanding senior at KSC that year.
During my graduate studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, I received a Regent's Fellowship that paid for much of my education.
Both my master's degree and specialist certification in Education Administration were received Summa Cum Laude, with a perfect 4.0 GPA all the way through my coursework. This coursework prepared me to be a school superintendent, the CEO/CFO of the school!
I received my FLMI designation "with honors." This coursework included almost all, if not all, of the content items needed for CPCU 540 (reference the comparison chart I sent to you).
I feel this is somewhat of a "David vs. Goliath" drama, and know that I have all of the requirements needed for CPCU 540.in addition, during the string of e-mails back and forth with AICPCU, they said "just take the test if you think you know the material." I will not accept this as a compromise. A waiver is just that; you are waived from taking the test! And if this is what they stick to, then I would request that they ask ALL people that have received waivers for CPCU 540 to take the test.
Thank you for your help in this matter. I look forward to hearing from you.
In all, i feel i was treated unfairly by aicpcu, they will not budge in their decision, and the bbb has been no help.
0 comments