The Drew University community of students, faculty, staff, alumni and concerned citizens were blindsided by the August 2026 announcement of the Drew School, a partnership with 2 Hour Learning to provide a 1st-8th grade AI-powered school on the Drew campus. 

Alumni were particularly caught off-guard, given the limited communication from the University in the past decade. From the end of the Drew Magazine, the dismissal of Advancement staff in 2019, to the outright pivot away from alumni solicitations towards major gifts, it is no wonder that Drew is in dire financial straits with a $6 million deficit this year alone. Drew has lost its way, actively rejecting its most valuable asset, the Drew Community. 

The timing of the Drew School announcement, relative to President Link’s shocking revelations of Drew’s financial standing, raises serious questions about the University’s commitment to its stated mission: 

To offer its diverse community of learners a challenging and individualized education shaped by a deep-rooted culture of mentoring, thoughtful engagement with the world beyond its campus, and a steadfast commitment to lifelong cultivation of the whole person. Through its distinctive emphasis on the reciprocity of knowledge, experience, and service, Drew prepares its students to flourish both personally and professionally as they add to the world’s good by responding to the urgent challenges of our time with rigorous, independent, and imaginative thought.

The AI-driven 2 Hour Learning model is in direct conflict with Drew’s values and mission and in opposition to the experience that the University sells prospective families. This experiment flies in the face of Drew’s longstanding commitment to environmental sustainability and stewardship. The pivot to an untested, often unaccredited primary “school” indicates a complete disregard for the critical thinking and liberal arts education that Drew has provided for 159 years, diminishes the value of a Drew degree,  and reveals contempt for the hard work by students and faculty.

Drew has prided itself on relationships, care, reciprocity and independent thought. The Drew School presents a dystopian, software-driven version of K-12 education, reliant on metrics, surveillance, and compliance. The 2 Hour Learning model rejects the needs of the individual student and whole child education, relying on algorithms rather than human connection. This ignores the social-emotional and developmental needs of young children and devalues the work of education. The use of University resources for this experiment does a disservice to tuition-paying students.  

Drew must act now. Serious allegations about the safety of students at 2 Hour Learning/Alpha Schools locations have arisen, including hospitalizations. If Drew does not take immediate, decisive action, the University risks further reputational damage, fewer applications, lower enrollment, and retention challenges far beyond the realities of the enrollment cliff.  

We, the undersigned, implore the Drew President, Board of Trustees and Administration to suspend the launch and operations of the Drew School pending transparent communications with the community about the Drew School decisionmaking, the University’s financial situation and the relationship between the two.

Our Demands: Pause. Listen. Disclose. Decide Together.

1. Confirm, Pause, Protect: Stop the launch of the Drew School 

• On her September 15, 2026 webinar (which was recorded, but not made publicly available), President Hilary Link noted that neither 2HR Learning nor Drew exchanged funds for this program. What is the reason, then, to take valuable resources away from tuition-paying college students, such as facilities, programs and time with faculty?

2. Open Eyes and Ears: Conduct listening sessions with the Drew community

• Conduct listening and feedback sessions with the Drew community, facilitated by an unbiased third party.
• Commit in writing that alumni, students, faculty, or staff who speak out will not be retaliated against.
• Hold facilitated sessions in person and online across time zones, so all alumni can take part. Publish recordings and allow written feedback.

3. Who, What, When, Where and Why: Provide transparency into decisionmaking 

• Release full minutes of every Trustee meeting where the partnership was discussed or voted on, with vote counts and recusals.
• Publish a report on process, due diligence, contract, costs, the rationale, environmental impact, developmental appropriateness of an unproven model for young children, effect on the value of a Drew degree, and the potential reputational harms.
• Disclose any ties between Trustees, the President and cabinet, or faculty and staff and the founders, funders and executive leadership of 2 Hour Learning and its affiliates, including Alpha School, Trilogy Enterprises, ESW Capital, Crossover, and YYYYY, LLC. This list is not exhaustive.

4. Explain the timing

• When did leadership and trustees learn the financial terms of the agreement?
• When and how did the Board vote?
• When was the contract signed?
• Is there a termination clause and how quickly can the University invoke it?
• Why did the Drew School announcement precede the financial disclosure?

5. Show [Us] the Money: Full financial disclosure

• Disclose the partnership's role in Drew's finances: expected revenue, payments to affiliates, up-front costs, lender and auditor notice, and exit liabilities.
• Provide insight into Drew’s current financial situation, including unaudited FY2026 results, the last three audits and findings, and current budget projections.
• Provide full disclosure of the University’s debt, details of the US Department of Education Heightened Cash Monitoring status, and the status of the Drew Forest sale and use of proceeds.
• Provide details of communications, if any, with the accreditors about both the Drew School and the University’s finances and whether the current financial status endangers the University’s MSCHE accreditation.

6. Reconsider and ReVote: Consider feedback

• Following the feedback process, the University should conduct a live, recorded presentation of the published results and methodology for review by the community, facilitated by a neutral third party and including a Q&A.
• The Board of Trustees should vote again, with Trustees recusing if necessary. Every trustee will publish the reasoning behind their original vote, and the Board must explain any departure from the community's feedback.

7. Rangers Reunite: Recommit to ongoing, good faith engagement with alumni

• Alumni feel disconnected, unseen, and unvalued. We want more frequent, more proactive engagement with the university.
• We no longer have a magazine, online community, or easy way to contact one another. Class secretaries are not listed online. 
• Events are primarily on-site. We need more opportunities to engage with alumni and current students remotely.
  Young alumni are particularly vulnerable. They have no easy means to connect with those who went before, who can provide them guidance and resources.
• University communications have slowed and annual appeals no longer occur; donations have been met with minimal recognition, such as one line emails.
  When alumni have reached out to say that they will no longer donate, we are met with a shrug, when such interactions should set off alarm bells.
• Drew boasts of the diversity of the student body and a commitment to innovation. It has the potential to lead and find ways to develop and engage the alumni community on an international level.

MORE INFORMATION

If you read nothing else, read these:

• Feathers, Todd. “Parents Fell in Love With Alpha School’s Promise. Then They Wanted Out.” WIRED, Oct. 27, 2025. https://www.wired.com/story/ai-teacher-inside-alpha-school/
• National Education Policy Center. “The Price Kids Pay: What Alpha School Really Costs.” https://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/fprice-kids-pay

For the full picture, read these too:

• Meyer, Dan. “The Truth About 2 Hour Learning, Unbound Academy, and Alpha School.” Jan. 2025. https://danmeyer.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-2-hour-learning-and

• Riley, Benjamin. Special report on Alpha’s Bootcamp. Cognitive Resonance, Sept. 2026. https://buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/special-report-my-so-called-alpha
  • Riley, Benjamin. Fifth Report: Children Harmed at Alpha Schools's Boot Camp. Cognitive Resonance, Sept. 2026. https://substack.com/@buildcognitiveresonance/p-217640932 
• Watters, Audrey. “Click Here to Comply.” https://2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/click-here-to-comply/
• 404 Media, Students Are Being Treated Like Guinea Pigs, February 2026 https://www.404media.co/students-are-being-treated-like-guinea-pigs-inside-an-ai-powered-private-school/; Alpha's response via Here & Now, March 23, 2026 https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2026/03/23/alpha-school-ai
• Toppo, Greg. “Inside Alpha School’s ‘Bootcamp’: Heart Monitors, Unpaid Labor & Many, Many Tweets.” The 74, Sept. 25, 2026 (updated Sept. 29). https://www.the74million.org/article/inside-alpha-schools-bootcamp-heart-monitors-unpaid-labor-many-many-tweets/

Drew’s Finances (ICYMI)

• Drew University. Message to the Drew community (Mailchimp). https://mailchi.mp/drew.edu/innovation-series-digital-consumerism-5899156
• ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Drew University Form 990 data (EIN 22-1487164). https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/221487164

The Drew School Announcement and Positioning

• Drew University. “Drew University Announces Launch of The Drew School.” Aug. 10, 2026. https://drew.edu/2026/08/10/drew-university-announces-launch-of-the-drew-school/
• Milken Institute. “Hilary Link, President, Drew University.” Global Conference 2026, speaker biography https://milkeninstitute.org/events/global-conference-2026/speakers/hilary-link and overview slide https://mikemilken.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/4-Drew-University-Overview.pdf

Environmental Considerations and Carbon Neutrality at Allegheny

• MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Generative AI’s environmental impact. https://dmse.mit.edu/?p=22606
• AI data centres’ electricity use. Physics World. https://physicsworld.com/a/ai-data-centres-electricity-use-nears-country-scale-levels-finds-report/

• Allegheny College. “Allegheny College becomes first college in Pennsylvania, eighth in nation to achieve carbon neutrality.” https://allegheny.edu/about/news/allegheny-college-becomes-first-college-in-pennsylvania-eighth-in-nation-to-achieve-carbon-neutrality/
• Allegheny College. “Allegheny College President Hilary L. Link appointed to Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments Steering Committee.” https://allegheny.edu/about/news/allegheny-college-president-hilary-l-link-appointed-to-presidents-climate-leadership-commitments-steering-committee/
• “Allegheny receives award for being first PA college and 8th in US to reach carbon neutrality.” The Allegheny Campus. https://alleghenycampus.com/18532/news/allegheny-receives-award-for-being-first-pa-college-and-8th-in-us-to-reach-carbon-neutrality/