The Deal Is Only Good At A Single For-Profit Diploma Mill With A History Of Complaints And Issuing Worthless Degrees

On Monday, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) announced that all 118,000 U.S. dealership employees at its U.S. dealerships will get the opportunity for free college tuition. The degrees will be offered as a benefit at no-cost to employees, including books and other expenses, at the 2,400 Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and Fiat dealerships through online diploma mill, Strayer University, a private for-profit institution whose entire bachelor degree program can be finished online.

The program will launch at 356 eligible dealerships in the Southeast in the next few weeks. Employees at dealerships in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee will be able to immediately enroll for summer and fall terms with a nationwide roll out at the end of June.

The only requirement is that the employees be on the job at the dealership for a minimum of 30 days prior to enrollment. Employees will be not required to stay at the dealerships after they’ve completed the degree, but Gardner said the whole idea came about in order to attract and retain the best employees.

Al Gardner, CEO of the Chrysler brand in North America told CNNMoney, “I think it’s going to be a huge competitive advantage. We’ll end up with people who are better, more loyal to us, who are better employees and will end up giving a better experience to our customers.”

Unfortunately for FCA, they may have picked the wrong partner for this worthy endeavor that sounds good on paper and in the media.

The website Consumer Affairs is filled with nearly 282 complaints about Strayer, a for-profit university based in the Washington D.C. suburb of Herndon, Virginia, of misapplying student loan payments and GI Bill benefits and then essentially shaking students down for more money in order to let them graduate or transfer their credits.

It is very possible FCA dealer employees won’t have to deal with Strayer University’s creative accounting or their inventive fee charging since FCA is picking up the tab but what happens if Strayer starts playing these games with FCA?

Strayer executives could find themselves getting visits from men wearing Armani suits and leather gloves who speak English with thick Italian accents because everyone knows you don’t fuck with the Agnelli family.