As if the University of Phoenix television, print, online an doutdoor ads aren’t enough, they are now expanding into event sponsorships. Not unusual you say? Of course, event sponsorship has been a long-standing way for companies to get there name out there. It usually comes with an ad, a banner somewhere near the main entrance, a logo in the on-site guide…you know, the usual.
But University of Phoenix’s recent sponsorship of NBC’s educational summit is more than financial.

Inside Higher Ed reports:

William J. Pepicello, the University of Phoenix’s president, was one of just a few confirmed speakers mentioned in NBC’s first press release
about Education Nation and the only college president other than Susan
Hockfield, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is not an event sponsor. He was also the only representative of a sponsoring
organization to be listed as a participant. He’s listed in the same
sentence as Education Secretary Arne Duncan and New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg. Other sponsors include the Gates Foundation, Scholastic,
Raytheon, American Express and American Airlines

As you know, I’m not 100% in favor of the tactics used by for-profits, but doesn’t this seem shady? To give Phoenix THAT much access to, and control over, the content?