Carmel, Ind.-based ITT Educational Services Inc. (NYSE: ESI) today announced the closure of all of its campuses following a ruling last month by the federal government.
Citing allegations of putting students and millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded federal student aid at risk, the
U.S. Department of Education on Aug. 25 issued an order prohibiting the for-profit university from accepting new students with federal aid.
Days later, ITT stopped enrolling new students.
In this morning’s announcement, ITT Tech officials cited the government’s ruling for its move to cease all operations at ITT Technical Institute campuses. Some 40,000 students attend the institute.
“Effective today, the company has eliminated the positions of the overwhelming majority of our more than 8,000 employees,” officials said in a news release. “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.”
The government’s ruling came after years of closely monitoring the school. The department found ITT allegedly failed to reconcile its federal aid accounts in a timely manner and did not have a proper written policy to guide that process, as well as conflicting information about Pell Grant awards over several years. ITT executives also have faced fraud allegations, according to a
government blog post.
In the release, ITT officials said the school has worked to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, as well as respond to and cooperate with authorities.
“Despite our ongoing service to this nation's employers, local communities and underserved students, these federal actions will result in the closure of ITT Technical Institute without any opportunity to pursue our right to due process,” officials said in the release. “We believe the government's action was inappropriate and unconstitutional. However, with ITT Technical Institute 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 seven-year-old ITT Tech Springfield campus already had stopped accepting new students as the university conducted an assessment of local market viability. A call to the school at Kelly Plaza on South National Avenue went unanswered this morning, and a spokeswoman with the Indiana company could not be reached for comment by deadline.
