nyse bpi industry higher education founded 2004 1 headquarters san diego ca us key people andrew clark ceo 2 revenue us 638.7 million 2014 1 operating income us 14.3 million 2014 1 net income us 9.7 million 2014 1 total assets us 558.1 million 2014 1 total equity us 365.9 million 2014 1 number of employees 4 460 faculty 3 200 non faculty staff 1 subsidiaries ashford university university of the rockies website www.bridgepointeducation.com bridgepoint education inc. bpi is a publicly held for profit education services company based in san diego california . 2 it owns two accredited universities ashford university online and university of the rockies . bridgepoint education also owns waypoint outcomes which provides learning and assessment software to educational institutions across the united states . the software combines rubric grading scales with technology to help educators teach writing critical thinking and cognitive skills . 3 contents 1 company 1.1 financials 1.2 regional economic impact 1.3 social responsibility 2 history 3 lawsuits investigations and controversies 3.1 2011 senate hearings 3.2 additional lawsuits 3.3 controversies 4 references 5 external links company edit bridgepoint educations ceo is andrew clark . 2 it employs 4 460 faculty and 3 200 non faculty staff . 1 financials edit bridgepoint education trades on the new york stock exchange under the ticker symbol bpi . 2 for the year ending december 31 2015 bridgepoint education announced a net loss of 70 454 000 . 4 regional economic impact edit in 2012 national economic consulting firm the london group was retained by the san diego regional economic corporation to conduct an economic impact and activity analysis of bridgepoint education within the san diego region where bpi is headquartered . 5 the report determined that bridgepoint education helped produce through its operations 489 million in areas such as travel and capital expenditures supplies advertising and charitable contributions . that helped create 4 505 outside jobs in addition to bridgepoint s 3 900 local employees . its operations indirectly brought the region an additional 590 million through increased spending by the contractors and services it hired . 6 according to the analysis bridgepoint education s projected 10 year cumulative impact will bring approximately 10.8 billion in business output to the region . 5 the london group was also retained by the clinton regional development corporation and the clinton chamber of commerce to conduct an economic analysis of bridgepoint s ashford university within the state of iowa . the report stated that in 2009 ashford university had an estimated economic impact of 40.9 million in business output 782 jobs 12.6 million in employee earnings and 18.6 million in total value added to the state s gdp . 7 social responsibility edit bridgepoint education directs its philanthropic efforts toward three aims education youth and the military . charitable organizations and programs bridgepoint education has partnered with include after school all stars 8 big brothers big sisters of san diego 9 boys & girls clubs of greater san diego 10 computers 2 sd kids 11 the homefront heroes scholarship program 12 the jacobs & cushman san diego food bank 13 junior achievement 14 make a wish foundation 15 a salute to teachers 16 the san diego office of education 17 the teacher appreciation scholarship program 18 united way of san diego 19 and warrior foundation freedom station . 20 the bridgepoint heroes program brings bridgepoint employees together for large scale volunteer efforts . past bridgepoint heroes initiatives included cleaning chollas lake park cleaning balboa park cleaning the san diego river garden revitalizing the mary fay pendleton school on marine corps base camp pendleton and restoring ruffin canyon . 21 history edit bridgepoint education was first incorporated in delaware in may 1999 under the name teleuniversity inc. 1 under the leadership of ceo and president andrew clark and with an investment from private equity firm warburg pincus 22 the company changed its name to bridgepoint education inc. in february 2004 . 1 bridgepoint education purchased the franciscan university of the prairies in 2005 and changed its name to ashford university . in september 2007 bridgepoint obtained the colorado school of professional psychology changing its name to university of the rockies . 23 in 2008 bridgepoint education was named the fastest growing private education company in the united states as well as the fastest growing private company in san diego by inc. magazine . 24 the following year the company went public . on april 15 2009 bridgepoint education began trading on the new york stock exchange under the ticker symbol bpi . 22 in 2010 bridgepoint education became the title sponsor of the holiday bowl postseason college football game . 25 bridgepoint education served as the holiday bowl title sponsor for three consecutive years . in 2013 bridgepoint education s ashford university announced an alliance with business publisher forbes media . under the terms of the alliance ashford s college of business and professional studies was renamed the forbes school of business at ashford university . 26 on december 22 2015 an agreement was made that clinton catalyst llc would buy the ashford university campus properties for 1.6 million according to the clinton herald . for the next 12 months afterward ashford university planned to lease the campus from clinton catalyst llc to make sure that the spring semester classes can continue according to the herald s report . 27 in recent years bridgepoint education has faced and settled several lawsuits . it is currently under investigation in new york north carolina california and massachusetts . a u.s. department of education office of inspector general probe is ongoing . on december 3 2014 a lawsuit was filed in arizona federal court charging that bridgepoint education is violating the telephone consumer protection act by robocalling sales prospects . 28 bridgepoint education enrollment has dropped from a peak of 78 000 to 55 823 in the last quarter of 2014 . 1 bpi stock has also dropped more than 60 % in value since its peak in 2011 29 after allegations of consumer fraud emerged . 30 lawsuits investigations and controversies edit bridgepoint faces numerous lawsuits and is under investigation in new york north carolina california and massachusetts . a us department of education office of inspector general probe is ongoing . 28 on december 3 2014 a lawsuit was filed in arizona federal court charging that bridgepoint education is violating the telephone consumer protection act by robocalling sales prospects . 28 in 2008 the u.s. department of education s office of inspector general oig audit services division performed a compliance audit of ashford university for the period march 10 2005 through june 30 2009 . the oig audit reached the following conclusions audit focus 31 audit result 32 compensation policies and practices relating to enrollment advisers rewarded recruiters based on their success in securing enrollments calculation timeliness and disbursement accuracy of title iv program funds improperly retained at least 1.1 million during the 2006 7 period and disbursed aid before students were eligible to receive the money student authorizations to retain credit balances kept credit balances without the proper authorization maintenance of supporting documentation for a student s leave of absence took too long to return money awarded to students who withdrew or went on leave of absence the stock of bridgepoint education fell the most in almost five months when the misuse of federal student aid was first publicly disclosed in 2009 . 31 when the official results were released in 2011 senator tom harkin said this audit reveals the same troubling pattern of for profit colleges taking advantage of students and taxpayers . the department of education has not yet responded to the findings . 32 2011 senate hearings edit on march 10 2011 senator tom harkin d iowa chaired a hearing of the health education labor and pensions committee that examined a case study of bridgepoint education inc. which has experienced near exponential profit growth in the last few years despite low graduation rates . 33 34 bridgepoint owns two universities that it purchased when both were near bankruptcy ashford university in iowa and the university of the rockies in colorado . when it purchased ashford university in 2005 bridgepoint grew from less than 300 students to more than 78 000 students at its peak 99 % of which were online . 35 senator harkin took issue with the fact that despite such growth student success was lacking . according to information provided by senator harkin 63 % of students enrolled at ashford university during the 2008 2009 school year withdrew before completion of their programs . senator harkin noted that bridgepoint recorded 216 million in profits in 2010 of which 86.5 % of its revenues came from federal funds . in reference to these figures senator harkin was on record as saying in the world of for profit higher education spectacular business success is possible despite an equally spectacular record of student failure . bridgepoint is a private company but it is almost entirely dependent upon public funds ... i think this is a scam an absolute scam . 35 kathleen tighe inspector general with the u.s. department of education testified at the hearing that in an audit of ashford she discovered the university was improperly distributing federal financial aid to students . seventy five percent of the improper disbursements to students in our sample were made to students who never became eligible tighe said . 35 for the 2006 2007 award year during which the audit was performed it is estimated bridgepoint had not returned 1.1 million in improperly obtained student aid to the federal government . 36 tighe said on a recent report she had seen that bridgepoint was sitting on 130 million in total credit balances . 33 bridgepoint chose not to send executives to the help committee hearing while engaged in negotiations with office of federal student aid fsa . 37 rather bridgepoint published a summary of responses called bridgepoint education transparency . additional lawsuits edit in 2014 bridgepoint education settled a lawsuit with the state of iowa for 7.25 million denying any wrongdoing but agreed to not use any unconscionable or coercive tactics to encourage students to enroll . 38 controversies edit the december 22 2015 agreement with clinton catalyst llc by bridgepoint education to sell the ashford university campus properties has generated controversy in the higher education community . 39 critics question bridgepoint s original commitment to the on ground college especially since it no longer needed a physical presence in the midwest to keep its accreditation and to accuse bridgepoint of having broken promises to maintain the clinton iowa campus . bridgepoint officials had previously stated that they were committed to retaining the clinton iowa campus and had essentially tripled its iowa enrollment from 2005 to 2011 through investments in facilities about 40 million scholarships and other financial aid of about 10 million a year subsidized with revenues from online students as well as expansion of academic and athletics programs . bridgepoint now says the company can t continue to subsidize the campus operation . references edit a b c d e f g h i j k l clark andrew ; devine daniel 10 march 2015 annual report pursuant to section 13 or 15 d of the securities exchange act of 1934 for the fiscal year ended december 31 2014 pdf bridgepoint education inc. pp. 12 50 retrieved 13 april 2015 a b c d bridgepoint education inc bpi new york . bloomberg business . retrieved 13 april 2015 . waypoint outcomes achieves certification for learning tools interoperability v1 .1 . marketwatch . 13 august 2013 . retrieved 13 april 2015 . http www.nasdaq.com symbol bpi financials query income statement a b san diego regional economic development corp. releases bridgepoint economic impact analysis pdf press release . san diego regional economic development corporation . 18 june 2012 . retrieved 13 april 2015 . horn jonathan 18 june 2012 . edc