SALEM (WSLS 10) - ITT Technical Institutes is closing. There are five branches in Virginia including one in Salem, Chantilly, Springfield, Norfolk and Richmond. There are 130 campuses across the country. The upcoming fall 2016 quarter was scheduled to begin Monday.
This comes after the U.S. Department of Education banned the for-profit college chain ITT Educational Services from enrolling new students who use federal financial aid. Department officials announced the ban Thursday among a series of measures meant to increase financial oversight of the company, which has been the subject of state and federal investigations focusing on its recruiting and accounting practices.
ITT said in an email to staff:
"On August 25, the U.S. Department of Education imposed a series of new requirements and conditions on the ITT Technical Institutes, including imposing conditions on our institutions' continued participation in the federal student financial aid programs that the Department of Education administers. We proposed alternatives to the Department of Education, but they were rejected. 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 fall 2016 quarter that was scheduled to begin Monday, September 12. At this time, we expect all students to be able to complete their current June 2016 quarter, including those students attending the Baton Rouge campus."
The website says "We are currently not enrolling new students".
Meanwhile, American National University (ANU) with a campus in Salem has extended a special $50 per credit hour grant to transferring ITT Tech students and says they will work with them to ensure the maximum number of credits transfer from their ITT programs to a similar program at ANU. The next term begins November 7, with an enrollment deadline of October 28.
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The following is a statement from ITT Educational Services, Inc released Tuesday:
"It is with profound regret that we must report that ITT Educational Services, Inc. will discontinue academic operations at all of its ITT Technical Institutes permanently after approximately 50 years of continuous service. With what we believe is a complete disregard by the U.S. Department of Education for due process to the company, hundreds of thousands of current students and alumni and more than 8,000 employees will be negatively affected.
The actions of and sanctions from the U.S. Department of Education have forced us to cease operations of the ITT Technical Institutes, and we will not be offering our September quarter. We reached this decision only after having exhausted the exploration of alternatives, including transfer of the schools to a non-profit or public institution.
Effective today, the company has eliminated the positions of the overwhelming majority of our more than 8,000 employees. Our focus and priority with our remaining staff is on helping the tens of thousands of unexpectedly displaced students with their records and future educational options.
This action of our federal regulator to increase our surety requirement to 40 percent of our Title IV federal funding and place our schools under "Heightened Cash Monitoring Level 2," forced us to conclude that we can no longer continue to operate our ITT Tech campuses and provide our students with the quality education they expect and deserve.
For more than half a century, ITT Tech has helped hundreds of thousands of non-traditional and underserved students improve their lives through career-focused technical education. Thousands of employers have relied on our institutions for skilled workers in high-demand fields. We have been a mainstay in more than 130 communities that we served nationwide, as well as an engine of economic activity and a positive innovator in the higher-education sector.
This federal action will also disrupt the lives of thousands of hardworking ITT Tech employees and their families. More than 8,000 ITT Tech employees are now without a job – employees who exhibited the utmost dedication in serving our students.
We have always carefully managed expenses to align with our enrollments. We had no intention prior to the receipt of the most recent sanctions of closing down despite the challenging regulatory environment that now threatens all proprietary higher education. We have also always worked tirelessly to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, and to uphold our ethic of continuous improvement. When we have received inquiries from regulators, we have always been responsive and cooperative. Despite our ongoing service to this nation's employers, local communities and underserved students, these federal actions will result in the closure of the ITT Technical Institutes without any opportunity to pursue our right to due process.
These unwarranted actions, taken without proving a single allegation, are a "lawless execution," as noted by a recent editorial in The Wall Street Journal. We were not provided with a hearing or an appeal. Alternatives that we strongly believe would have better served students, employees, and taxpayers were rejected. The damage done to our students and employees, as well as to our shareholders and the American taxpayers, is irrevocable.
We believe the government's action was inappropriate and unconstitutional, however, with the ITT Technical Institutes ceasing operations, it will now likely rest on other parties to understand these reprehensible actions and to take action to attempt to prevent this from happening again."
(The Associated Press contributed to this report).