On Sept. 6, ITT Technical Institute closed its 138 campuses in 39 states after the U.S. Department of Education found that ITT wasn’t in compliance with accreditation standards, leaving its many students with unfinished degrees.
UNM is one of the higher education institutions in the state that will be accepting transfer credits from ITT Tech students as an option for them to continue their education in Albuquerque.
"The process for ITT students will work similar to any student applying to UNM,” said University Registrar Alex Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said those prospective students from ITT Tech should submit an admissions application, which will be evaluated by the Registrar’s Office to determine what credits UNM can accept.
“We are currently working with a couple students who have indicated that they are interested in transferring to UNM," he said.
ITT Tech transfers will pay the same tuition as any other UNM student, Gonzalez said.
Director of Consumer and Environmental Protections Cholla Khoury said the Office of Attorney General stood to put a stop to ITT Tech practices in 2014.
Their lawsuit alleges ITT Tech was misrepresenting the status of the accreditation of their nursing program to students, essentially providing inaccurate information.
“There were a number of misrepresentations surrounding serious accreditation,” she said. “They represented that they had national accreditation and that they were in the process of accreditation, when they may not have been.”
Khoury said accreditation is important because it affects whether or not students’ credits will transfer from one school to another.
The Office of the Attorney General’s lawsuit against ITT tech reads, “As of December 31, 2013, ITT was offering master, bachelor and associate degree programs to approximately 58,000 students nationwide. In 2013, ITT’s revenue exceeded $1 billion, and its CEO received compensation in excess of $8.7 million.”
The lawsuit explains that nursing programs in New Mexico must be licensed by the New Mexico Board of Nursing, prior to enrolling students and beginning operation to grant degrees, and for graduates to receive Registered Nurse licenses from the state.
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Because the ITT Tech nursing program was never accredited, students of that program are unlikely to be able to get their credits to transfer to another institution.
The lawsuit states that ITT Tech representatives distributed documents at information sessions and program orientation that the nursing program was in the process of accreditation, and that Michael Roane, director of the Albuquerque ITT Tech Campus, used false claims of programmatic accreditation of the nursing program as a recruiting tool.
The lawsuit also states ITT Tech bound students to additional loan amounts “without full disclosure of the loan terms or informing students that the loans were not federal student loans,” but instead private loans.
Students were notified that their accounts were “temporarily credited,” without being told that private loans were used. The lawsuit states that some of the private student loans carried interest rates in excess of 14.5 percent APR.
The lawsuit alleges that ITT Tech placed students into loans without fully-informed consent or authorization.
One class away
Vicki Copas said she was halfway done with a bachelor’s degree in cyber security when ITT Tech shut down. She said UNM does not offer the degree plan she wants to pursue.
“Nowhere other than the University of Phoenix offers a similar degree plan that my credits will transfer to. They are another for-profit university also being sued,” she said.
Copas said her husband, who was stuying electronic engineering at ITT Tech, had one remaining class to graduate.
Now his only option is to start all over.
“CNM doesn’t take all his existing credits. They will take less than half,” she said.
Copas said many of the students at the ITT Tech Albuquerque campus did not know about the Attorney General’s lawsuit against the institution, adding that if her loans get discharged she will find a lawyer.
“ITT tech did more than commit fraud,” Copas said. “They misused federal money and forced students into signing documents. I was told federal money wasn’t available and signed up for private loans that won’t be forgiven.”
Khoury suggested ITT Tech students find personal representation.
“We don’t represent individual students, we represent the state of New Mexico and public interests. Students seeking any kind of personal recovery may want to seek their own counsel,” Khoury said.
Sara MacNeil is a news reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @sara_macneil.
