Inflexible treatment of Students with mental health challenges.

I am writing to complain about the lack of understanding that CDI College in Calgary has about the mental health and life challenges of students who attend their very expensive programs.

I am advocating for a student who had good intentions and high hopes of finishing a program at CDI but ran into some serious challenges after 10 months of an 18 month program. He was doing well up to 8 months in his program when he was faced with homelessness and severe depression. He was trying to do his best to continue in the program. He came back to the program to finish even though he was one month behind and was willing to catch up. The student counsellor told him he would be withdrawn from the program. This of course added to his depression just when he had gotten the courage to go back and keep going. He was told that he wouldn't finish and that it was no use continuing.

What I don't understand is why he would not be able to pick up the course he missed with another intake of students who had started part way through the intake that he was in. The courses are modular based and mostly self directed so why there would be such a lack of flexibility and creativity to find a way to help a willing and able student graduate is beyond my understanding. The school makes the rules, not the government.

The request to adapt the program to the student's needs is beyond my understanding. The school does not lose out financially since at this point the school has the full tuition. The failure of a student to complete is a disadvantage for the school as completion rates are closely scrutinized by the Private Institution Branch in Alberta that licenses Private Career Colleges.

There is a reason that adult students choose a Career College; because they need a decent job that requires accelerated training and their life circumstances have driven them to this option. Adults have responsibilities that go beyond going to school so may run into life challenges beyond their school responsibilities. Career Colleges are created as alternative educational options for such individuals but CDI forgets that life happens to adults. CDI is not prepared to support students with life challenges or maybe they choose to put on blinders to the challenges that adult students might face in being able to complete their programs.

One of the CDI campus directors indicates on his LinkedIn profile that he is a "people person". What does that mean? Is he a people person only for those people who have a stellar and stable life? If that is the case, then he doesn't understand his client group and he is just giving CDI lip service to lure in unsuspecting students.

Is CDI the pied piper of adult students?