AIU Status Upgraded While Brooks Decision Nears
American InterContinental University has been cleared of sanctions placed on it by its accrediting agency, but the private college must postpone plans to open new fashion schools in Dallas and San Antonio.
AIU, which has a campus in Los Angeles, last year was issued a warning for compliance issues relating to “institutional effectiveness,” reported the Commission on Colleges for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In order to maintain its accredited status, the college must provide goals and assessments and conduct research and planning aimed at improving programs and services, among other requirements.
The commission on Dec. 17 removed the warning status but requested that the college provide a follow-up report on its operations by September 2007. It also deferred approval of new campuses in Texas until further review later this year.
AIU has campuses in Los Angeles; Dunwoody, Ga.; Atlanta; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Houston; London; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Fashion degrees are offered at AIU’s Los Angeles, Atlanta and London campuses. AIU will have to wait until a special committee reviews its operations to see if it can proceed with the new fashion programs in San Antonio and Dallas.
Those campuses are expected to offer associate of arts and bachelor of fine arts degrees in fashion design.
Another fashion college, Brooks College in Long Beach, Calif., owned by the same company that operates AIU, is awaiting results from a review that could lift the probation status placed on the school last year by its accrediting agency.
Brooks is under review because of alleged misrepresentations regarding the cost of attending the school as well as the reporting accuracy of its job placement rates. The school was also cited for below-par student housing. A spokeswoman said results of the review will be taken into consideration next month.
Brooks’ sister school, the Brooks Institute of Photography, based in Santa Barbara, Calif., is also under scrutiny for similar charges and is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
A class-action lawsuit filed last year on behalf of shareholders of Brooks’ parent company, Hoffman Estates, Ill.–based Career Education Corp., charged that the company and its top two executives had falsified student records to attract federal financial aid and inflate attendance. Furthermore, the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education has threatened to close the school unless it complies with authorities regarding the allegations.
—Robert McAllister
