No it is not. For one thing you don't have to get off your ass.
So what?
In my experience online classes are more difficult than brick-and-mortar classes from a strictly academic perspective.
There are certain elements of classroom learning that is very difficult to replicate online.
And there are a whole hell of a lot more that aren't.
Foreign language for instance can't really be matched except for study/travel abroad.
Huh?
This doesn't even make any sense.
It doesn't matter whether you get your degree from Arizona State or Arizona State online.
In neither case will you be required to live overseas and immerse yourself in a foreign culture in order to earn an undergrad degree.
Various group projects and presentations, physical lab work, networking, actual interaction with professors, test taking - some of that doesn't exist at all...
Most of it exists to a much greater degree than you seem to think.
...and the rest isn't widely respected by industry or grad schools when done online only.
As has already been said, "industry and grad schools" have no idea whether you did your undergrad work in a classroom or on a computer.
It's certainly never came up when I was applying to grad schools and it's never been mentioned in any interview I've ever been on.
This isn't necessarily as altruistic as it appears on the surface:
You don't know an awful lot about Howard Schultz or Starbuck's business philosophy, do you?
This decision was made because it was altruistic.
There may be, will certainly be, second and third order effects that come of it, but the impetus behind the policy was putting people first.
Don't like it?
The CEO will tell you to go ahead and sell your shares to someone who does.
"employees who drop out or leave the company will be responsible for paying tuition for that semester."
If you think that is unreasonable, then you're just an unreasonable person who will never be happy.
Tying in ongoing employment with tuition reimbursement is likely a way to keep them on the leash too.
There is no tie-in there.
The company I work for will pay 90% of tuition and fees but if you take that deal you need to earn a "C" or better or you don't get reimbursed and you need to stay with the company for four years after graduation or you pay back all the money they laid out for your education.
That's a tie in.
Asking people to pay back one semester's worth of tuition if you fail, drop out, or quit is literally nothing.
Pretty much everything you've said on this topic is essentially ignorant and consequently worthless.
It's like you're being contradictory simply for the sake of being contradictory.
