1 of 9 11/3/2016 12:53 PM http://www.roanoke.com/news/education/former-itt-tech-nursing-students-struggle-in-effort-to-find /article_211d56b2-0ae2-5a92-8e56-0a26f4c951f5.html By Sara Gregory sara.gregory@roanoke.com 981-3227 Updated 18 hrs ago Photos by ERICA YOON The Roanoke Times Amber Janney, 37, helps her daughter Haleigh Ratcliffe, 9, with her math homework at their home on Oct. 26. Janney says she missed time with her daughter while she attended nursing school at ITT Technical Institute. +13 Keosha Smith cried after she received the email from ITT Technical Institute saying her college was shutting down.
2 of 9 11/3/2016 12:53 PM Her 8-year-old daughter cried, too. Journey boasted to friends: My mom s going to be a nurse! Daily, she would ask, Are you done yet? Are you a nurse yet? ITT Tech's last graduation Sep 28, 2016 Inspired by her daughter, Smith labored through long days of class and late nights studying. Until the for-profit school announced the closure of its Salem campus and 136 other colleges nationwide. Explaining it to her daughter was just awful, Smith said. You look forward to being a nurse, but you also look forward to having a better life financially, to having certain things that you didn t have, Smith said. I have a piece of crap car. We have the not-so-great duplex apartment. And you re looking forward to thi time where you can give your child things that you didn t have, and a better life. If anything got me out of bed every day and opening my books every day, it was knowing that my child would have a better life. Now, you just don t know when that s going to happen. It s been nearly two months since Smith and 81 nursing school classmates learned of the decision by ITT Tech s parent compan after the college chain was deemed out of compliance by its accreditor and told by the U.S. Education Department it couldn t enroll new students relying on federal financial aid. It s one of th largest school closures in history. Local colleges have made some accommodations, but none can offer credit for the nursing coursework students completed. Higher education officials across the state say the right choices for students vary. The best-case scenario for many will mean seeking loan forgiveness and starting college over again,
3 of 9 11/3/2016 12:53 PM repeating classes taken at ITT Tech. For Smith, the cost in time, energy and finances is daunting With just two classes left, she and her classmates were counting down the days to graduation. People say you should take things as a sign, Smith said. Is th a sign that I shouldn t be a nurse? I don t know what to do. In disbelief Students followed ITT Tech s setbacks, which mounted for months, but were reassured by local faculty and staff. Earlier this year, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools raised concerns over the company s administrative capacity, organizational integrity, financial viability and ability to serve students, according disclosures by the college to its shareholders. In August, the U.S. Education Department restricted the college ability to recruit and enroll new students who use federal aid for college. The agency also required ITT Tech to put up an additional $153 million within 30 days as a guarantee. Less than two weeks later, ITT Tech closed. Samantha Smith was working at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital when she received the email with the news. She had ju finished the first year of the nursing program. I was in disbelief, Samantha Smith said. I handed it to a coworker and said, What do you make of this? She read it and she said to me, It sounds like your school just closed. It s kind o like a knife being stabbed in your back. I completely lost it and broke down.
4 of 9 11/3/2016 12:53 PM Five ITT Tech campuses were affected in Virginia, covering abou 4,500 students. Salem s campus was the only one that offered nursing, by far the most popular program locally, said Cathy Ferguson, the college s former director of career services. Salem s nursing program, the Breckinridge School of Nursing and Health Sciences, started in 2012. At the time, Virginia Western Community College was the only other local school offering an associate degree in nursing. Last year, ECPI University s Roanoke campus launched an 18-month program. The nursing exam pass rate for ITT Tech students was among th lowest in Virginia, but the numbers were improving. Ferguson said the Salem campus had one of the highest post-graduation employment rates of any ITT Tech campus. Nursing program enrollment was flourishing, she said. The problems that plagued ITT Tech campuses elsewhere accusations of fraud and poor student outcomes weren t issues at the Salem campus, Ferguson said. Local administrator prided themselves on enrolling students who would do well. It was our integrity on the line, Ferguson said. We wanted the to be successful not only for themselves, but if they weren t, that s a reflection back on us. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia had no indication of problems specific to Virginia campuses, said Sylvia Rosa-Casanova, an agency administrator who oversees private colleges. Student complaints generally are a good indicator of larger problems, Rosa-Casanova said, but at the Virginia campuses, we had nothing. The first inkling local ITT Tech staff had of the closure came Saturday before Labor Day. Most employees received their paychecks a week early and were told to take that Tuesday off.
5 of 9 11/3/2016 12:53 PM For the first time, Ferguson thought there might be a closure, bu she assumed the nursing program would be protected with lowe enrolling programs cut first. At 7:36 a.m. Sept. 6, Ferguson received the email announcemen and learned she d lost her job. The state council heard of the closure when students and facult did, Rosa-Casanova said. The agency serves as the recordkeeper when a college closes, requesting a laundry list of item aimed at ensuring a smooth transition for students. In the 10 years she s been in Virginia, Rosa-Casanova said, there s not been a similar closure. The company s decision to file for bankruptcy in mid-september threw in an extra monkey wrench, she said. State council staff, who planned to rent a van and drive to Salem to pick up student records, were blocked from accessing the documents because o bankruptcy proceedings. There was not enough time to get all the things that we needed Rosa-Casanova said. Few options In a Virginia Western classroom last month, community college officials discussed options with about a dozen former ITT Tech nursing students. Halfway through, two walked out. The options they told administrators, wouldn t work for them. Rosa-Casanova and officials from the state nursing board and Virginia Western said they sympathize with students. It s possibl for students to continue pursuing nursing careers locally. But expected graduation dates will be set back, largely because there s no local school able to transfer all ITT Tech credits.
6 of 9 11/3/2016 12:53 PM I know some of the students are frustrated with us because the don t necessarily think we re helping them, said Elizabeth Wilmer, Virginia Western s vice president of academic and student affairs. We really are truly trying to help them. It s just not what they define as the help they want. ITT Tech s nursing program and others are just simply different, Wilmer said. ITT Tech s program ran on a quarter system rather than semesters. A credit on the quarter system is worth 0.66 credits o the semester system. Record-keeping is a challenge: Virginia Western can t verify whether ITT Tech students were taught by a credentialed faculty member or how much time students spent in clinical rotations, two pieces of information the college needs to evaluate whether to give credit. Virginia Western is offering challenge exams in courses students took as prerequisites to their nursing classes. Where Virginia Western offers a comparable class, the faculty have created exams to test students mastery of the subject. Those who score at least a C will receive credit, Wilmer said. The situation is similar at ECPI, except the college can t accept
7 of 9 11/3/2016 12:53 PM transfer students because its nursing program is only a few months old. The college can accept ITT Tech students as new students, said Barbara Larar, an ECPI senior vice president. At least one former ITT Tech nursing student has enrolled in Jefferson College of Health Sciences four-year baccalaureate program, spokesman Mark Lambert said. At Virginia Western, each nursing cohort begins in the fall, meaning next fall is the earliest students could resume nursing classes. They can enroll in spring and summer courses if there are prerequisites they need to complete first. State nursing board Executive Director Jay Douglas said differen policies and requirements at each nursing school make it impossible for any to offer a one-size-fits-all solution. All 82 ITT Tech students were at different points in their nursing coursework. Each individual case can be very different depending on where student lives, what their financial situation is, what their family situation is and what they personally want to do now that they find themselves in this situation, she said. So it s difficult to hav a cookie-cutter approach to this when we re talking about students. Students who recently started at ITT Tech likely will be best served by seeking loan forgiveness and starting elsewhere, Rosa-Casanova said. Eliminating debt is a good option for students further along in their programs, but it doesn t solve oth issues, she said. These students have spent a lot of time and effort, especially those students who were very close to completing the program. If [loan forgiveness] is the only solution for these students, it doesn t make anybody happy, she said.
8 of 9 11/3/2016 12:53 PM The state council is working with local colleges and the nursing board on alternatives, Rosa-Casanova said. I don t know how we re going to be able to really come up with something that works for them, she said. Samantha Smith said she plans to enroll at Virginia Western in the spring. She s considering the college s licensed practical nursing program instead of registered nursing so she can get started sooner. She expected to graduate in August 2017 but no is looking at spring 2019. I m excited to get back on track and get it done, Samantha Smith said. Keosha Smith isn t sure what she ll do. Waiting a year to start a new program isn t an option, she said. The schedule at ECPI isn as flexible as ITT Tech s, and she worries about childcare if she enrolled there. Amber Janney, a former student who had six months left at ITT Tech, said she s not sure she could handle two or four more years financially without a full-time income while taking classes. I built my life around being able to do those two years, she said Janney s frustrated by time lost with her 9-year-old daughter while studying and in class. She said she s not sure if she wants to go through that again. I missed her learning to ride a bike without training wheels, her school functions, orientations, aware ceremonies, her Brownie field trips I missed everything, Janney said. And now I m goin to have to do it all over again.