Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE: BPI), a provider of post-secondary education services focused on providing higher access to higher education, announced today that Ashford University has entered into a national alliance agreement with the United States Postal Service (USPS).
Through the agreement, Ashford University will be a recognized educational partner of the USPS and its 623,000 employees will receive significant cost savings through the waiver of various fees and a prior learning credit evaluation toward their Ashford University degree program.
"Ashford University is proud to be one of a dozen of the USPS's carefully selected education partners. We look forward to offering its employees the opportunity to enroll in Ashford's excellent academic programs and take their education to the next level," said Dr. Jane McAuliffe, chief academic officer of Bridgepoint Education and president and CEO of Ashford University. "The USPS is the nation's second largest employer, and we are excited to welcome its diverse and talented employees into our student body."
"The Postal Service is pleased to be part of this innovative partnership with Ashford University," said Susan LaChance, vice president, Employee Development and Diversity for the Postal Service. "The Postal Service has a long tradition of developing employees and valuing education. This partnership will allow our employees to leverage their years of work experience along with formal education to earn a degree – this benefits both the employee and the Postal Service."
For more information on this agreement, please visit success.ashford.edu/usps or call 888.214.9881.
About Ashford University
Founded in 1918, Ashford University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (www.ncahlc.org). The University offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs online and at its Clinton, Iowa, campus. The University is known for its high quality yet highly affordable online and on-campus programs. For more information, please visit www.ashford.edu or call Shari Rodriguez, director of Public Relations, at 858.513.9240 x2513.
About Bridgepoint Education
Bridgepoint Education's postsecondary education services focus on offering associate's, bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in such disciplines as business, education, psychology, social sciences and health sciences. Bridgepoint Education's regionally accredited academic institutions – Ashford University and University of the Rockies – deliver their programs online as well as at traditional campuses located in Clinton, Iowa, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. For more information about Bridgepoint Education, visit www.bridgepointeducation.com or call Shari Rodriguez, director of Public Relations at 858.668.2580.
About the USPS
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an independent establishment of the Executive Branch of the Government of the United States responsible for providing postal services for the country. It is also one of the few government services explicitly referenced in the United States Constitution. It was established by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia in 1775 by decree of the Second Continental Congress. Officially, the Post Office Department was created from this in 1792 as part of the United States Cabinet, its current form in 1970 under the Postal Reorganization Act.
The mission statement of the USPS is still to "bind the Nation together" through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence, serving all Americans with prompt, reliable, and efficient universal mail service.
As a self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The USPS has 36,000 retail locations and its usps.com website is the most frequently visited in the federal government. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operations, but relies on the sale of postage, products and services to generate revenue. Annual revenue of the USPS is more than $68 billion and it delivers nearly half the world's mail. If it were a private-sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500. Employing 623,000 workers and 200,000 vehicles, it is the second-largest civilian employer in the United States (after Wal-Mart) and the operator of the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world. U.S. Postal Service has been named the "Most Trusted Government Agency" for five consecutive years and the sixth "Most Trusted Business" in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.