After more than 50 years in business, ITT Educational Services announced Tuesday that it is closing down all its campuses nationwide. This comes after the U.S. Department of Education banned it from enrolling new students who use federal financial aid, stating that ITT failed to meet its accreditor’s standards. The closure could be a boon for local community colleges.
The for-profit college had campuses in Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo, along with two in Massachusetts. On its website, ITT had noted 45,000 students from over 130 locations around the U.S. successfully completed its programs. That website now features contact information for graduates and former students. As for students who did not graduate, ITT claims to have agreements with other schools that will enable students to complete their programs and obtain a degree or certificate.
SUNY Schenectady County Community College has announced that it will work with ITT students to transfer eligible credits into related programs. Penny Haynes is SCCC's Vice President of Academic Affairs. "We are willing to look at all the student's credits individually and look at their coursework along with some of their prior learning experience and evaluate the credits based on that. They aren't regionally accredited but they're nationally accredited so it's a little bit more of a process but we certainly have staff on hand and we're willing to take a look at their credits and also some of their prior experience and see if they can transfer some of the credits into some of our more technical programs."
In a letter emailed to more than 35,000 students, Indiana-based ITT gave notice that campuses won't open for the fall term that was scheduled to begin September 12th. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman followed up with a statement, saying it would work with all students affected by the closure.
Initially, students weren’t even sure ITT was actually shutting down. Paul Kennedy, who attended classes at the Albany-area campus, tells NewsChannel 13: "I thought at first that it was a hoax, somebody was sending out a spam email to try and get my information. I thought I'd come here and ask an administrator if it is true, and lo and behold, it is."
Penny Haynes anticipates an uptick in enrollment at community colleges across the country. "I think we're really, I mean, really community college in general and particularly Schenectady County Community College, is really all about access so it's really a priority for us to make sure that we are available for those students and really right now, nationwide, community colleges have actually seen a downtrend in enrollment, so we're certainly, you know, and we have the access and we're certainly willing to work with the students and try to help them out."
Students unable or unwilling to transfer to another school may be eligible for a “Closed School Discharge,” full forgiveness of their federal student loans. (To obtain a “Borrower Defense to Repayment” discharge, students must submit a claim to the Department of Education that describes the school’s misconduct. Claims may be submitted via e-mail to FSAOperations@ed.gov.) For detailed instructions on how to apply for a “Closed School Discharge,” students please click here.
- ITT Educational Services CEO Kevin Modany told reporters on a Tuesday conference call that ITT was the victim of a "regulatory assault" and never had the chance to defend itself.
- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Securities and Exchange Commission have each filed a lawsuit against ITT Tech. To see the CFPB's lawsuit,click here. To see the SEC's lawsuit, click here.
- To read the U.S. Department of Education's page in reference to ITT educational services, click here.
- To view ITT Tech's full statement, click here.
