John Sperling
Encyclopedia
John Glen Sperling is an American
businessman who is credited with leading the contemporary for-profit education movement in the United States. His fortune is based on his founding of the for-profit University of Phoenix
for working adults in 1976, which is now part of the publicly traded Apollo Group
. For ventures ranging from pet cloning to green energy, he has widely been described as an "eccentric" self-made man by the Washington Post and other media.
Ozarks. His father worked for the railroad and his mother was a fundamentalist Christian
. He spent several years as a sailor in the merchant marine, and even as a wandering 1950s beatnik
. He received his undergraduate education at Reed College
, Oregon, a master's from the University of California, Berkeley
under the G.I. Bill, and then went on to attain a PhD
in Economic History at the University of Cambridge
.
institution of higher learning. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo Group
Inc. which is a publicly traded S&P 500 corporation based in Phoenix, Arizona. The University of Phoenix was founded by John Sperling, who felt that "working adult students were often invisible on traditional campuses and treated as second-class citizens." Started in 1976 in the Phoenix metropolitan area
, the first class consisted of eight students. In 1980, the school expanded to San Jose, California
, and in 1989, the university launched its online program.
With a student body in North America
second only to the State University of New York
, it has a current enrollment of 420,700 undergraduate students and 78,000 graduate students, or 224,880 full-time equivalent students. The university has more than 200 campuses worldwide and confers degrees in over 100 degree programs at the associate
, bachelor's, master's and doctoral
levels. University of Phoenix has an open enrollment
admission policy other than requiring a high-school diploma, GED
, or its equivalent. The school also provides associate or bachelor's degree applicants opportunity for advanced placement through its prior learning assessment
, which, aside from previous coursework, college credit can come from experiential learning essays, corporate training, and certificates or licenses.
. He was an activist for several liberal causes during the 1960s, such as building a powerful new California faculty union, and was part of several conflicts with authorities and university leaders regarding his experimental adult education schemes.
John Sperling is also an opponent of drug prohibition and is actively financing initiatives to decriminalize medical marijuana in the United States. According to Time
magazine, Sperling used marijuana to combat pain caused by the cancer he fought during the 1960s. Together with George Soros
, and Peter Lewis of Progressive Insurance, Sperling raised considerable amounts of money for drug and other related causes, especially during the 2004 presidential campaign.
of human beings—research into life extension
technology or "biological immortality
". Wired magazine reported in their February 2004 article "John Sperling Wants You to Live Forever" that his fortune is quickly approaching US$3 billion, and has plans to donate it to human biology research if and when he dies. If he does so, this would be the biggest private program ever devoted to human biology. However, that is no longer the case and Sperling has indicated that his fortune will go to mainly environmental causes.
, which closed in 2006. He spent seven years and $10 million trying to clone a dog named Missy in a project called Missyplicity
. Clones of Missy were produced in December 2007. A subproject of Missyplicity was called Operation CopyCat, which successfully created the first cat clone, named CC.
. It was a sociological treatise attempting to explain the Red America/Blue America cultural and political divisions of the United States.
Despite a $2 million advertising campaign, the book was not widely embraced by its intended progressive audience. Thomas Frank
, author of What's The Matter With Kansas?, ridiculed Sperling's view of American society: "One America, to judge from the book's illustrations, works with lovable robots and lives in 'vibrant' cities with ballet troupes, super-creative Frank Gehry buildings and quiet, tasteful religious ritual; the other relies on contemptible extraction industries (oil, gas and coal) and inhabits a world of white supremacy and monster truck shows and religious ceremonies in which beefy men in cheap clothes scream incomprehensibly at one another."
The book, however, did succeed in causing controversy in conservative media. Gary Gregg of National Review Online called the book the work of a "metropolitan elite who disdain the cultures and values of middle America." R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, called it a work of "hate, cultural condescension, and bizarre proposals backed up with hare-brained analysis."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
businessman who is credited with leading the contemporary for-profit education movement in the United States. His fortune is based on his founding of the for-profit University of Phoenix
University of Phoenix
The University of Phoenix is a for-profit institution of higher learning. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo Group Inc. which is publicly traded , an S&P 500 corporation based in Phoenix, Arizona...
for working adults in 1976, which is now part of the publicly traded Apollo Group
Apollo Group
Apollo Group, Inc. is an S&P 500 corporation based in the South Phoenix area of Phoenix, Arizona. Apollo Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns several for-profit educational institutions....
. For ventures ranging from pet cloning to green energy, he has widely been described as an "eccentric" self-made man by the Washington Post and other media.
Early life and education
Sperling was born into a poor sharecropper family in the MissouriMissouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
Ozarks. His father worked for the railroad and his mother was a fundamentalist Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
. He spent several years as a sailor in the merchant marine, and even as a wandering 1950s beatnik
Beatnik
Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical...
. He received his undergraduate education at Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
, Oregon, a master's from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
under the G.I. Bill, and then went on to attain a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Economic History at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
.
University of Phoenix
The University of Phoenix is a for-profitFor-Profit School
For-profit education refers to educational institutions operated by private, profit-seeking businesses....
institution of higher learning. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo Group
Apollo Group
Apollo Group, Inc. is an S&P 500 corporation based in the South Phoenix area of Phoenix, Arizona. Apollo Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns several for-profit educational institutions....
Inc. which is a publicly traded S&P 500 corporation based in Phoenix, Arizona. The University of Phoenix was founded by John Sperling, who felt that "working adult students were often invisible on traditional campuses and treated as second-class citizens." Started in 1976 in the Phoenix metropolitan area
Phoenix Metropolitan Area
The Phoenix metropolitan area, often referred to as The Valley of the Sun, is a metropolitan area, centered on the city of Phoenix, that includes much of the central part of the US state of Arizona...
, the first class consisted of eight students. In 1980, the school expanded to San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, and in 1989, the university launched its online program.
With a student body in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
second only to the State University of New York
State University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
, it has a current enrollment of 420,700 undergraduate students and 78,000 graduate students, or 224,880 full-time equivalent students. The university has more than 200 campuses worldwide and confers degrees in over 100 degree programs at the associate
Associate
Associate may refer to:* A business valuation concept.* A title used by some companies instead of employee.* A title used to signify an independent person working as if directly employed by the company of which they are an associate...
, bachelor's, master's and doctoral
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
levels. University of Phoenix has an open enrollment
Open admissions
Open admissions is a type of unselective and non-competitive college admissions process in the United States in which the only criterion for entrance is a high school diploma or a General Educational Development certificate.This form of "inclusive" admissions is used by many public junior...
admission policy other than requiring a high-school diploma, GED
GED
General Educational Development tests are a group of five subject tests which, when passed, certify that the taker has American or Canadian high school-level academic skills...
, or its equivalent. The school also provides associate or bachelor's degree applicants opportunity for advanced placement through its prior learning assessment
Recognition of prior learning
Recognition of prior learning , prior learning assessment , or prior learning assessment and recognition , describes a process used by colleges and universities around the world to evaluate learning acquired outside the classroom for the purpose of assigning academic credit...
, which, aside from previous coursework, college credit can come from experiential learning essays, corporate training, and certificates or licenses.
Activism
Before becoming an entrepreneur at age 53, Sperling was a tenured professor at San Jose State UniversitySan José State University
San Jose State University is a public university located in San Jose, California, United States...
. He was an activist for several liberal causes during the 1960s, such as building a powerful new California faculty union, and was part of several conflicts with authorities and university leaders regarding his experimental adult education schemes.
John Sperling is also an opponent of drug prohibition and is actively financing initiatives to decriminalize medical marijuana in the United States. According to Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine, Sperling used marijuana to combat pain caused by the cancer he fought during the 1960s. Together with George Soros
George Soros
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
, and Peter Lewis of Progressive Insurance, Sperling raised considerable amounts of money for drug and other related causes, especially during the 2004 presidential campaign.
Longevity research
More recently Sperling has directed his attention toward extending the life spanLife expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
of human beings—research into life extension
Life extension
Life extension science, also known as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, and biomedical gerontology, is the study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan...
technology or "biological immortality
Biological immortality
Biological immortality refers to a stable rate of mortality as a function of chronological age. Some individual cells and entire organisms in some species achieve this state either throughout their existence or after living long enough. This requires that death occur from injury or disease rather...
". Wired magazine reported in their February 2004 article "John Sperling Wants You to Live Forever" that his fortune is quickly approaching US$3 billion, and has plans to donate it to human biology research if and when he dies. If he does so, this would be the biggest private program ever devoted to human biology. However, that is no longer the case and Sperling has indicated that his fortune will go to mainly environmental causes.
Cloning
Sperling provided financing to Genetic Savings & Clone (GS&C), of Sausalito, CaliforniaSausalito, California
Sausalito is a San Francisco Bay Area city, in Marin County, California, United States. Sausalito is south-southeast of San Rafael, at an elevation of 13 feet . The population was 7,061 as of the 2010 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to...
, which closed in 2006. He spent seven years and $10 million trying to clone a dog named Missy in a project called Missyplicity
Missyplicity
The Missyplicity Project was a project devoted to cloning Joan Hawthorne and John Sperling's dog, a border collie and husky mix. Missy died on July 6, 2002 at the age of 15 years.-History:...
. Clones of Missy were produced in December 2007. A subproject of Missyplicity was called Operation CopyCat, which successfully created the first cat clone, named CC.
Rebel with a Cause
In 2000, Sperling published an autobiography called Rebel with a Cause. In August 2004, he co-authored The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America, released by his newly created publishing firm, PoliPoint PressPolipoint Press
PoliPointPress was a San Francisco Bay Area publishing company, originally founded to print the work of University of Phoenix founder John Sperling...
. It was a sociological treatise attempting to explain the Red America/Blue America cultural and political divisions of the United States.
Despite a $2 million advertising campaign, the book was not widely embraced by its intended progressive audience. Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank is an American author, journalist and columnist for Harper's Magazine. He is a former columnist for the Wall Street Journal, authoring "The Tilting Yard" from 2008 to 2010....
, author of What's The Matter With Kansas?, ridiculed Sperling's view of American society: "One America, to judge from the book's illustrations, works with lovable robots and lives in 'vibrant' cities with ballet troupes, super-creative Frank Gehry buildings and quiet, tasteful religious ritual; the other relies on contemptible extraction industries (oil, gas and coal) and inhabits a world of white supremacy and monster truck shows and religious ceremonies in which beefy men in cheap clothes scream incomprehensibly at one another."
The book, however, did succeed in causing controversy in conservative media. Gary Gregg of National Review Online called the book the work of a "metropolitan elite who disdain the cultures and values of middle America." R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, called it a work of "hate, cultural condescension, and bizarre proposals backed up with hare-brained analysis."
The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America
The Great Divide is a blueprint for the Democratic Party to control the presidency and both houses of congress. Sperling and his co-authors claim that the United States has seldom been truly united and that there currently exists such a wide gap that the country is effectively two nations: "one traditional and rooted in the past, and one modern and focused on the future." Sperling and his co-authors say these two nations are divided along racial, ethnic, religious, cultural, political, and geographic lines. They claim that political conflict in American is not really about left-wing or right-wing ideology but about the differences between what they call Metro America and Retro America; Metro America consists of the two coasts and the Great Lakes states. The authors argue that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are national parties, so there is no point in behaving as such. They recommend that the Democrats concede the Retro states and focus entirely on the Metro states. This would allow the party to develop a coherent message that would connect with voters and to take advantage of the fact that Metro states account for 65 percent of the population. Then, once a strong base is built, the Democrats can work on unifying America.External links
- Executive Officers of Apollo Group
- Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People
- American's 25 most fascinating entrepreneurs Inc.com magazine
- Fast Company magazine, 'The Hard Life and Restless Mind of America's Education Billionaire'
- Utah Initiative B Contribution Details