October 20, 2004 - Capella "University" unveils a new home page and, guess what?! Once again, it fails to meet established guidelines for accessibility! Apparently, it's too much to expect an entirely online "school" to focus on the needs of their students - profits are clearly far more important. Running Capella's new home page through two "Bobby" checks reveals:

• "This page does not yet meet the requirements for Bobby Section 508 Approved status. To be Bobby Section 508 Approved, a page must pass all of the accessibility checkpoints established in Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act."
• "This page does not yet meet the requirements for Bobby AAA Approved status. To be Bobby AAA Approved, a page must pass all of the Priority 1,2 and 3 accessibility checkpoints established in W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0." In fact, Capella's new home page, alone, fails on all three of Bobby's Priority 1, 2, and 3 checkpoints!

Rather disgusting, to say the least, that an online "university" that teaches courses on web design, usability, etc. can't even build a home page that is accessible! By the way, if you think Capella's new home page is an embarrassment - their online course room, WebCT, is far worse! Take a look at the reviews for WebCT on our Resources Page.

October 2004 - in yet another feeble attempt to cover their tracks, Capella "University" decided to develop and implement an "official" university policy pertaining to every students' right to obtain a complete copy of their education record. These rights are already guaranteed by an important Federal Law, enforced by the United States Department of Education, Family Policy Compliance Office - the "Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act" (FERPA). It is believed that Capella "University" decided to come up with this policy because the student who filed the complaint against them for Civil Rights Violations (now under investigation by the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights), also filed two FERPA complaints against the "University" - one against one of Capella's highest ranking legal counsels for the disclosure of confidential student information and a second against the University for their refusal to provide information as required under FERPA. It should be noted that the second complaint was filed AFTER Capella decided to cover their tracks. The fact some of the highest ranking officials at Capella were fully aware of their requirements to turn records over to students and then intentionally refused to do so while, at the same time, they were creating a new policy pertaining to FERPA, is further evidence that Capella University deliberately engages in illegal and unethical activity.

September 2004 - the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights has opened a retaliation complaint against Capella "University's" provost, one of their deans, and an instructor! These individuals are all personally involved in taking, what we believe is, grossly unethical and illegal adverse actions against a graduate student who was studying the incompetent design of one of Capella's online course rooms - WebCT. More will be reported on this site when information becomes available.