When Allyson Barton finished last quarter’s classes at ITT Technical Institute’s nursing school in Portland, everything seemed set for her to return this month.
“As far as we know, everything is business as usual,” the Vancouver 27-year-old recalled her teachers telling her, despite last month’s announcement of tough financial restrictions from the U.S. Department of Education against the for-profit chain.
Then came the email at 4 a.m. Tuesday. That day, Barton and thousands of other students enrolled at ITT Technical Institute campuses across the country learned the colleges were closing in response to sanctions, which banned the schools from enrolling new students who used federal financial aid.
“Therefore, after evaluating the impact of these new requirements on our institutions, we have made the very difficult decision to discontinue our operations effective immediately at the end of the June 2016 quarter and to cancel the upcoming September quarter that was scheduled to begin Monday,” the university announced in the email.
For More Information
Clark College spokesman Chato Hazelbaker said the college has identified two people whom students seeking enrollment or information can contact. They are:
• John Maduta, associate director of advising, jmaduta@clark.edu, 360-992-2327
• Kelly Jones, Veterans Resource Center manager, kjones@clark.edu, 360-992-2579
Now Barton, a mother of two, has no idea what’s next for her in the pursuit of her nursing degree.
“It’s all up in the air,” she said.
Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission reported that there were 483 students enrolled at ITT’s Portland campus, which included the Breckinridge School of Nursing and Health Sciences. There were nine programs at the college.
What happens to those students is unclear. Students may be eligible for federal loan refunds, or could transfer to other schools. Whether the credits from ITT properly transfer to other institutions, however, is up to each individual school.
“It’s just this big waiting game hoping someone will accept our transfer credits,” Barton said.
Clark College spokesman Chato Hazelbaker said the college is working with interested students to evaluate next steps. The college has designated point people to connect with students, but whether or not credits will transfer is not an easy question to answer, Hazelbaker said.
“What I can say without question is that we have a clear contact for these students, we are reaching out to them, and we will help them evaluate the best way to come to Clark,” he said.
Steve Bews, 40, was set to complete his ninth and final quarter of school this month after moving from Yakima to Vancouver to attend the Breckinridge campus. He’d have stayed in Central Washington, he said, but the waitlist for the nursing school at Yakima Valley Community College was hundreds of students long. Other local colleges have similarly long wait lists, he said.
Now, the father of four worries he’ll have to start his degree over.
“The last two years of blood, sweat and tears is gone,” Bews said.
