The deal also promises to resolve all applications that are not automatically granted for those involving schools not on the settlement list within six to 30 months. And if there is a way to join the lawsuit or at least get on the list to testify please post. She never got a job with this. But heres the rub: very few of those in debt to Navient ended up qualifying for relief. He stated that I was the worst instructor ever, that I should have held 2 live chats (we are only required to hold one)and that I did not go over the material. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has sued CollegeAmerica in Colorado federal court over the severance agreement because of this provision. The Indiana attorney general wants the Indiana Supreme Court to weigh in on a lawsuit that seeks punitive damages for COVID-related college campus closures. Borrowers with federal student loans arent eligible for cancellation. Tutors will refuse to help you and then say that you have notes. The reasons for student loan forgiveness include borrower defense to repayment claims, closed schools, and other lawsuits. Independence University was established in 1978, as a school for distance learning and operated under the name California College of Health Sciences, before changing its name in 2005. Oct 20 2017. If they were suing the school then they should have waved the money for everyone who went there for just a few classes. Before commenting, please review our comment policy. Thanks for this information, going to check it out to see what I can do. Independence University and their parent company Center for Excellence in Higher Education received backlash over the last few days regarding decisions made by the school. Apply for a closed school loan discharge. I even applied to the college thinking if they want the money I need a job they will help. Please contact me if we find good lawyer. Our deepest appreciation goes out to our externships sites, our business partners, and the education community that supported us over the years. Now Im 5 years sober and trying to get my life back after a 17 year long nightmare. Katie Brooks and Nannette Wride vs. Steven-Henager College, Inc., et al., Case No. That sure didnt help me in getting a job making only $10-12 an hour. A class action is a procedural device that permits one or more plaintiffs to file and prosecute a lawsuit on behalf of a larger group, or "class". Calling students every week is borderline harrassment. I feel like they took advantage of me! My Associate Dean was the worlds biggest flake. ACCSC found that CEHEs advertising and recruitment tactics coupled with a poorly documented admissions process has fostered the creation of a student population that the schools are ill-prepared to educate., The chains CEO, Eric Juhlin, charged ominously at the time that ACCSCs decision may have been issued in reaction to external or other inappropriate influences.. But the mass denials under Ms. DeVos remained, as well as a queue of tens of thousands of pending relief applications, many of them years old. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. If thats the case, why am I going to school??? They took out a loan of $43k in my name and they are illegally charging me $100s more a month with out consent. In late 2017, the Colorado took CEHE to trial on claims that CollegeAmerica engaged in the systematic fleecing of students and taxpayers that CollegeAmerica staff consistently misled and lied to students about the selectivity of the school, the transferability of credits, the jobs they could obtain, the salaries they could earn, and more. At least one of your federal loans was eligible for an income-driven repayment plan. 801-536-6958. I owe over 20,000 in loans! According to the case, the termination of more than 300 workers at the defendants Salt Lake City, Utah and Phoenix, Arizona facilities on August 2, or within 90 days of that date, meets the definition of a mass layoff or plant closing under the WARN Act given the event resulted in employment losses for at least 50 employees and 33 percent of the full-time workforce at each location. 11-CV-6690-JMF United States District Court Southern District of New York ATTENTION: All people with disabilities who are within the City of New York and the jurisdiction served by the City's emergency preparedness programs and services. I never received a refund, I was told by Jacob Mayer that it disappeared and never received a direct answer as to why and how that happened. I have legit student loans but owing them another 10k is very fishy. The legal challenge claims Ball State has . I only took a few classes and they never told me that I had to pay two different loans. If the court sides with Brooks and Wride, it can order the school to pay triple the amount of damages and . I was placed on a medical leave of three months and theyre stealing from me. The instructors were absolutely no help. All lies. Potts says she resigned after supervisors asked her to participate in and conceal various frauds and other violations of law. Stevens-Henager and its affiliated colleges have established records of leaving their students deep in debt. In a move that is not entirely surprising to some, the United States federal government has sued a for-profit career institute from Utah, Stevens-Henager College, after two whistleblowers first came forward to reveal fraudulent recruiting practices that involved paying illegal commissions to student recruiters. I am being nickeled and dined to death trying to repay the amounts owed. Court: Eleventh Circuit Florida US District Court for the Northern District of Florida. All I kept getting was rejections. All of us were in the same classroom together, with ONE professor teaching ALL of the classes. The parties reached a proposed settlement of the WARN class action subject to preliminary and final approval by the Bankruptcy Court. The plaintiff, who worked in the defendants financial planning department until his August 2 termination, says he and other aggrieved employees are owed 60 days worth of wages, salary, commissions, bonuses and accrued holiday and vacation pay, as well as 60 days of pension and 401(k) contributions and COBRA benefits that would have been covered under the workers applicable employee benefit plans. Now the government is trying to collect when I never finished the schooling because I felt like something was wrong. more willingto exercise its regulatory oversight, Feds cancel accreditor after USA TODAY finds college apparently withoutstudents or faculty, Colorado government in 2020 in connection, USA TODAY report flagged massage school accused of ties to prostitution, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. The False Claims Act under which the lawsuit was initially filed, allows private citizens to file suit over false claims (fraud) on behalf of the government. The Department of Education (ED) reached a settlement agreement with Harvard's Project on Predatory Student Lending in late June, presumably ending a three . I had to travel 1300 miles away for my NICU rotation in which I had to find my own clinical sites and pay for all expenses including airfare, rental car, ect. All documents I had were deleted out of the system but thank God for my emails to show that these schools will be put down on circumstances for taking advantage of me and new students. Chelsea, F*** that place. Around 200,000 who sought relief after attending schools that the Education Department said showed signs of substantial misconduct will have their federal student loans wiped out. After the board met behind closed doors with lawyers, one board member, Christoper Reister, made a motion to issue a Notice of Noncompliance to CollegeAmerica based upon a reasonable belief that Colorado law may have been violated. The board then amended its motion to provide that College America may be placed on probation with the Division if the issue is not resolved. At this meeting and subsequent ones, representatives of CollegeAmerica addressed the board. degree, and graduated with honors 8 or 9 years ago. They are all still in school themselves. Related:How to Consolidate Student Loans for PSLF. Erin works primarily on ClassAction.orgs newswire, reporting on cases as they happen. Did anyone keep all of their paperwork? Center for Excellence in Higher Education violated a federal law when it terminated over 300 employees without providing 60 days advance notice, a lawsuit alleges. Navient valued the $1.7 billion it agreed to forgive at just $50 million the total it expected it would ever be able to recoup. I got an email from them, mind oyu 4 years later saying I own 8,896 on top of the 12 grand I have been paying off. They promised me that, by joining their graphic design program, I would be able to use my knowledge and skills gained to secure that illustration job that Ive always dreamed of. Although Stevens-Henager is described in the Justice Departments news release as a chain of for-profit colleges, the colleges website describes it as a nonprofit institution, which was apparently a strategic business attempt the college made last year in order to avoid the seemingly ever-growing for-profit education controversies. i went there for probably 5 months and when i decided that it wasnt worth it anymore i quit, the school continued to take money from the government i am hoping i can join this lawsuit and get some of that money back from them to the government so i dont have to pay for them. It also includes Art Institute, Argosy University, DeVry University, Le Cordon Bleu, and Kaplan University. Aside from the class-action lawsuit against National American University, a former administrator filed a federal lawsuit in South Dakota. I don't know anything about that school. Theresa Sweet, one of the named plaintiffs in the class action. Update 5/14/2014: Updated to clarify that SHCs (historical) relationship with the LDS church is NOT official, and is in fact, unclear at best. She then made an agreement with CollegeAmerica under which the school would pay her $7,000, and she agreed not to make false statements about CollegeAmerica with malicious intent. Now, CollegeAmerica wants its $7000 back, it says, because Potts made disparaging statements about the school to another former CollegeAmerica employee. I would love to find out more info on joining the lawsuit. I learn bare min. I cant recall ever speaking about a loan. Stranger still, as of Monday afternoon, there was nothingon Independence University'swebsite to indicate the private college had closedSunday, nor on the website of its owner, The Center for Excellence in Higher Education. To qualify for the Navient settlement, your mailing address on file with Navient as of June 30, 2021, must have been in one of these states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. I need help! The school is horrible. I admit that I had some responsibility in my decision to attend the school, but to this day I still feel that my choice was affected by promises made by the school that would have never been held up on their end. I also had to take my boards several times just to be able to pass them at $200 a piece out of my pocket.. Not to mention all of the humiliation and the 2 hour each way to be able to take the boards. The suit was filed by former online students due to claims that the institution misled students concerning educational and job-placement outcomes related to their programs. I asked Colorados Division of Private Occupational Schools what the board action meant, and initially it declined to comment, saying it was an ongoing legal matter. Just before Christmas, the Center for Excellence in Higher Education, which operates CollegeAmerica, Stevens-Henager College, and Independence University, dismissed its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, which had, in the final year of the Obama administration, refused to recognize the companys schools as non-profit for purposes of federal regulations; the Department under Obama had concluded that the schools, although technically converted from for-profit to non-profit, were being run primarily for the benefit of the prior for-profit owner, Carl Barney, rather than students. ClassAction.org is a group of online professionals (designers, developers and writers) with years of experience in the legal industry. I am still paying of the loan that increased to $39K because I deferred too many times and went to a state university. If so I need lawyers contact information If anyone has it Please. After being sued by the state of Colorado, the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges stripped the university of its accreditation. Sippel, who lives in Illinois, wanted to improve her career prospects, and Independence seemed like a good place to do that. Something similar happened to me at this school recently & I am now over 10k in debt & I was not even enrolled for a year and only received a used laptop & a broken tablet. We still enroll them Our director said, Get 40 people and I dont care what you say or do to get them.'. Forget about getting someone to ever respond to an email or phone call. Omg Im currently attending this University and Im supposed to graduate in June of this year.. The next section will go over the Independence University loan forgiveness options available in response to the recent events and closure of the school. When I asked to take the forms home and read them so I could think about it, I was told they couldnt allow that and I had to sign them then or I wouldnt be able to attend. Do you even qualify for any debt relief? Use this link: https://studentaid.gov/borrower-defense/. They explicitly told me my Assossiats dagree would transfer to other universities.I went to this school because of that statement! The school messed up in my schedule and did not schedule me for the 2nd xray class. This student did not do his work and went to the dean, Marilee Hall, to ask for permission to make up late work because he was busy with his job. Oh and their tutors and some of their instructors are a joke. Raisner Roupinian LLP filed a class action suit on August 2, 2021, againstCenter for Excellence in Higher Education, Independence University(CEHE), seeking to recover 60 days wages and benefits for former employees under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification(WARN)Act. Mandatory arbitration agreements are a common way for companies that want to avoid either class action lawsuits and/or liability for their illegal actions to circumvent the normal legal protections provided to students. They need to be shut down. In a letter to Paul Gardner, the CEO of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education, the department noted it generally doesn't reviewtransfer plans for schools that close. I got a lawyer and they went silent after 4 years of harrassment by their bill collecting department. Dont worry about actually learning?? I turn in my work and 1/4 of the time I get notice they didnt recieve it,. The seven-page lawsuit, filed on the same day of the reported mass layoff, claims the non-profit higher education institution, which operates Independence University, Stevens-Henager College, CollegeAmerica and California College San Diego, owes former employees 60 days of wages and benefits for its alleged violation of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Class Action: An Overview. We contend CEHE ordered mass layoffs at its facilities on or about August 2, 2021, without providing its employees with 60 days advance written noticeas required by the WARN Act. Visit Website. The college's closure, which was announcedto students via email on Wednesday,is the latest development in the Center for Excellence in Higher Education's troubled history. Im already struggling, as it is, being a single mother and sole supporter of four kids. Stevens-Henager currently maintains several campuses in Utah and Idaho. What can we do to get back at them? College America is a diploma mill which,of course, receives no reciprocity from a truly accredited college or university. This page is intended to publish information that students affected by these events can use to continue in their program and/or apply for loan discharges or restitution. They promised they had an eight year accreditation and the advertising said I could be an RN within 22-28 months. In all honesty, I learned more from searching google or youtube for tutorials than I did from any instructor. As expected, the lawsuit has been dismissed by the U.S. District Court in Atlanta. So in summary having my schooling 90% paid for, and getting $900/mo to live off of, and being Nationally Accredited, all sounded amazing, why wouldnt I signup and go to their college? Those who applied for relief some as long as seven years ago will have their loans wiped out if they attended one of more than 150 schools named in the class-action settlement, nearly all of which are for-profit colleges and vocational programs. If youve already settled loans with Navient or Sallie Mae, you wont get a refund. You also learned about the recent school closure announcement and how it is being handled by the school and the Department of Education. Now Im have all this student loan debt when I didnt go to school. I have 63k in debt just from the federal student loans. I got a couple Cs and alot of my professors seemed to be hard asses. 970-690-6779. Now i owe $20,000 for 5 months of waisting my time! When brought to their attention, they did not fix it, instead had me meet between classes with a teachers aide to learn. If you were one of the lucky ones, you would have received an official notification, almost the same as this sample, last year. call Marshall 208-251-1967. The department expects to finish its review of borrowers payment histories and implement the debt cancellation by then. Stevens-Henager operates a chain of for-profit colleges in Idaho and Utah. Related: How to Get Sallie Mae Loans Forgiven. Concealed, cynical, and inept efforts by DeVoss lieutenants to make deals with owners of troubled college chains have led to debacles like the Dream Center collapse. The goal of this section is to provide consumers with a comprehensive resource on class action and mass tort lawsuits. Delgado said she was given two options, get a refund or transfer. New Federal Repayment Terms for Student Debt: What You Should Know, Student Loan ForgivenessUpdate: Revisions, Delays, and Legal Challenges, 4 Ways To Minimize Your Student Loan Debt While Youre In School. The colleges troubled history came as news to many of the students trying to finish their studies and improve their chances in the workforce. The University of Oregon issued a statement saying "the lawsuit is wrong on the law and on the facts." The school said the lawsuit's claims that the school's costs have decreased are false. I was a student at the Boise campus in 2006-2007 as part of the newly added Graphic Design program. Type: Torts - Injury Personal Inj. I been dealing with this crap since 2001 now and I even made the mistake of going back in 2010 thinking maybe they got their act together. You can sort the listing three waysactions or settlements that are (1) open to claims, (2) pending or (3) closedor use the calendar to search for upcoming claims deadlines. They include large chains like the Art Institutes and other campuses run by the Dream Center, whose operations abruptly collapsed in 2019, and those owned by Career Education. The order comes three years after the lawsuit was filed by Katie Brooks and Nannette Wride, former recruiters at Stevens-Henager's Orem campus. If you are a current or past student of Independence University, you may now be eligible to receive Independence University loan forgiveness. They need their pants sued off until they have to close their doors. I dont feel like I received anything for what I paid for. Theresa Sweet, one of the named plaintiffs in the class action, said she was stunned to achieve what she considered justice after years of stress and, as settlement talks advanced, the roller-coaster ride of feeling certain the process would fall apart.. The Department of Law filed a lawsuit against CEHE in 2014 and the court found that CEHE violated the Colorado Consumer Protection Act, including by making many deceptive statements to prospective students. Onlyafter learning about the closure did shedo more research about the collegeand learned about its ongoing oversight issues. They are garnishing her tax refund. Please download the PDF to view it: Download PDF. I also want to join the lawsuit. Saddled with debt from a program that promised students lucrative careers but offered them little actual training or support, she struggled after graduation to earn a living wage. Please reply for my contact information. The suit also claims that Stevens-Henager employed faculty members who lacked the . Despite the WARN Acts requirements, however, CEHE allegedly failed to provide statutory notice before executing the August 2021 terminations. I was also involved in domestic violence situtation and missed some classes for coding. I was only there 2 days. STAY AWAY from this school. . Many of the schools included in the settlement are out of business. Apple Watch Screen Defect Class Action Lawsuit. They gave me no information as far as financial aid etc, asked about my pell grant and they couldnt give me any information. Camp Lejeune residents now have the opportunity to claim compensation for harm suffered from contaminated water. 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