‘Zero findings. Not a single one’: State audit says Grand Canyon University innocent despite ongoing federal suit

Grand Canyon University has been cleared of wrongdoing by multiple state agencies while still facing a $37 million fine from the Biden administration.

The Arizona State Approving Agency, a branch of veteran services, found GCU innocent of the charges leveled against it by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

“This is the fourth group that has looked at the exact same set of facts and have said their disclosures are clear, they’re thorough, they’re robust, there are no student complaints, and yet the Department of Education is issuing the largest fine in its history of $37 million,” GCU President Brian Mueller told local media.

Mueller added the school doesn’t plan to pay the fine.

“We’ve just hired the foremost attorney in the country at trying cases in front of the Supreme Court and it is our hope that this is such an egregious situation that the Supreme Court would hear this,” he added.

The ordeal began in October 2023 when DOE levied a fine and the FTC filed a lawsuit over GCU’s allegedly deceptive marketing of its doctoral programs.

“GCU lied about the cost of its doctoral programs to attract students to enroll,” claimed Richard Cordray, Chief Operating Officer of DOE’s Office of Federal Student Aid. “GCU’s lies harmed students, broke their trust, and led to unexpectedly high levels of student debt. Today, we are holding GCU accountable for its actions, protecting students and taxpayers, and upholding the integrity of the federal student aid programs.”

Similarly, the FTC’s lawsuit alleged GCU “deceived prospective doctoral students about the cost and course requirements of its doctoral programs” and engaged in “deceptive and abusive telemarketing practices.” 

However, GCU believes the government is unjustly retaliating against the school for a lawsuit it filed against DOE in 2021.  

The university says DOE is “intentionally mis-classifying” it as a for-profit institution, which would make it subject to different rules than nonprofits.  

In February 2021, GCU sued for the right to be treated as a nonprofit.  

Since filing that suit – which is still pending – DOE “swamped the university and its education partner with broad requests for voluminous amounts of information and records about our operations – the scope of which made it clear these requests were part of a broad fishing expedition to find issue with the university,” a school press release explained.  

Even so, the federal government’s investigation of the Christian school appears to be coming up empty. 

“They [the auditors] said, ‘Zero findings. Not a single one. Not one,’” Mueller said. “That’s very hard to do if you’ve ever been through those kinds of program reviews.” 

Thus, GCU is being targeted for its conservative beliefs, not its marketing practices, believes Mueller. 

“The hunger for people in this country to have their young people learn about the world in the context of the Christian worldview, perspective, and in a conservative-values orientation, there’s no limit to it,” he explained. “We’ve got these federal agencies that are clearly weaponizing their powers.”