College President Fired For Allowing Homeless Student To Sleep In Library On Record Cold Night

Brian Carroll, campus president at Vatterott College in Kansas City had a human decision to make.  A student of the school was homeless and had no where to sleep on a night with freezing temperature.  Carroll decided to let the young man who is also schizophrenic sleep the night at the library.  For that, Vatterott (one of our growing number of for-profit schools) fired him, according to Carroll.  The young man did not steal anything or damage anything. Vatterott reportedly fired the president for allowing him to come in from the cold.

To make matters worse, the student had run out of his medication.

The decision by Carroll was prompted by record cold temperatures of four degree below zero.  He said it was a tough choice but “I just didn’t want to take the chance.”

A vice president for the college, Paul Ferrise, affirmed that it was his act of kindness that doomed Carroll:  “Mr. Carroll had a range of options available to him to help the student. He made a bad decision.”  Here is the vice president announcing the decision to the employees of Vatterott:

Of  course, Carroll made a good decision as a human, just not at the ideal profit-driver Vatterott employee.

I can understand the school’s concern and even the possibility of a reprimand for taking the risk as opposed to another alternative. However, to terminate an employee for an act of kindness sounds . . . well like a school that is premised on making profits rather than educated persons.

Vatterott advertises “Better Skills For A Better Life.”  It appears that one of those skills is to divest yourself of any semblance of humanity and focus entirely on making money at all costs.