Sawyer students left in limbo

OFF COURSE: Jhon Pino holding his 18-month-old daughter, Serenity. Pino, 21, enrolled at Sawyer six months ago and was shocked by the abrupt closing. / PBN PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE
OFF COURSE: Jhon Pino holding his 18-month-old daughter, Serenity. Pino, 21, enrolled at Sawyer six months ago and was shocked by the abrupt closing. / PBN PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE

The sudden closure of the Sawyer School has left 302 Rhode Island students in academic and financial limbo. With education officials last week still unsure even of who was in charge of the shuttered school, the shutdown has also raised questions regarding oversight of for-profit education in the Ocean State.
“In light of what’s transpired with Sawyer, it seems there’s not enough oversight,” said Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Little Compton, who has served on Senate committees on education, finance and government oversight. “I feel horrible for those people in the program, not just about the amount of time and money they put into it, but they were working to raise themselves to the next level of education so they could support themselves and their families.
“If it makes sense that legislation needs to introduced, I’d be happy to introduce it,” DiPalma said. “But I’m an engineer – first I want facts and data.”
Such information, however, has been hard to come by for state education officials since the Sawyer School abruptly closed campuses in Rhode Island and Connecticut late last month. Sawyer first opened in Providence in 1964.
The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools accredited five campuses owned by Academic Enterprises Inc., including the Sawyer School in Pawtucket and Providence, and in Hartford and Hamden, Conn., as well as Butler Business School in Bridgeport, Conn., according to the ACICS website
“All five campuses closed suddenly and without prior notice on Dec. 30, 2012,” according to the website. Sawyer School’s accreditation was revoked Jan. 3. The Connecticut closures left 1,200 students in limbo, according to a Jan. 2 report in the Hartford Courant.
Sawyer students were charged about $20,000 a year in tuition and a majority received financial aid, according to state education officials.
The Sawyer School in Rhode Island and Connecticut received $2.3 million in federal student aid for the 2012-2013 school year, well below the $7.4 million received for the 2011-2012 year, said Sara Gast, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education.
State education officials and investigators last week were still sifting through student records seized after the shutdown as part of a broader effort to determine whether financial issues led to the closure. In September, state officials reviewed the Sawyer School’s annual financial audit done by a New York firm and there were no red flags, according to Mike Trainor, spokesman for the R.I. Office of Higher Education. Trainor said the state has since received federal documents showing the Sawyer School owes $800,000 in federal taxes.
Rhode Island corporate records show Academic Enterprises Inc. was incorporated in the state in 1975. Paul T. Kelly Sr. is listed as president; Michael J. Kelly of Plainfield, N.J., is listed as CEO. State officials have spoken with both but Trainor could not say if the two are related, or identify who was in charge.
Rhode Island currently has 15 for-profit, nondegree-granting schools, according to Office of Higher Education. They award certificates in technical and trade disciplines, including cosmetology, tractor-trailer driving, medical assistant and yacht restoration.
In Rhode Island, for-profit colleges are required to gain an exemption from the state’s general ban on them prior to going before the Board of Governors for Higher Education for approval. Rhode Island is the only state in the nation with a special law for for-profit colleges.
Sen. Hanna Gallo, D-Cranston, co-sponsored legislation to allow Utah-based Neumont University to open in Rhode Island last year, but that effort failed when state lawmakers didn’t meet a deadline imposed by the school. Gallo, a speech and language pathologist in Cranston public schools, said each for-profit school should be considered on its merits.
“Neumont was all about technology, when they originally proposed it. There would have been jobs for the building trades, there would have been faculty jobs, and they said people would come from out-of-state to go to the school. That’s economic development and we need it,” Gallo said.
The Sawyer School’s abrupt closing points to the need for oversight, Gallo said. She thinks the state structure can handle that oversight, but says funding to support it is the issue.
“I think the Board of Governors and the Office of Higher Education need to address it. They’re the experts. I think the department is underfunded.” Johnson & Wales University has long been a private, nonprofit and is one of eight members of the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Rhode Island, said association President Dan Egan.
JWU, Bryant University, New England Institute of Technology and Roger Williams University all began as for-profits and became nonprofits many decades ago, Egan said.
Most training offered by for-profit colleges is available at the state’s nonprofit independent and public colleges, Egan said.
“By opening up to a for-profit, you’re opening yourself to a sector that is clearly under fire and had practices of doing what we just saw with Sawyer,” Egan said.
A 2010 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, “For-Profit Colleges: Undercover Testing Finds Colleges Encouraged Fraud and Engaged in Deceptive and Questionable Marketing Practices,” gained national attention.
While the report found some applicants received helpful information, it also found, among other things, pressure to sign enrollment contracts in order to review financial aid, aggressive marketing tactics and substantially higher costs than comparable certificates and degrees at public colleges.
But Sawyer’s long presence in Rhode Island also showed there was a market for for-profit education locally.
Jhon Pino is one of many stunned and angry Sawyer students left searching for answers.
“I took introduction to computers, Microsoft Word, business math and other courses,” said the 21-year-old Pino, of Providence. He enrolled at the Sawyer School about six months ago based on the recommendation of a friend who was a student there.
“After I finished with Sawyer, I wanted to go to a four-year school and then go on to get my master’s in business. Now this happened, and I don’t know how everything is going to work out.”
He has an 18-month-old daughter, Serenity, and is selling knives to earn money while living with his parents. He saw nothing amiss at the school before its doors were closed.
“The teachers were really nice, and they really knew how to teach,” he said. “That’s why I found it really weird that they closed when everything seemed to be going so well.” •

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