CHICAGO—Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit Wednesday against a for-profit college with four Chicago area campuses, alleging “deceptive practices” that left numerous students with massive debt for degrees that failed to qualify them for criminal justice jobs.
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleged violations of the state’s Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
According to the lawsuit, college officials used online, radio, mailed and television advertising to market the school’s criminal justice program and convinced students they could get work at agencies or police departments that didn’t accept a Westwood degree because of its lack of regional accreditation.
The lawsuit followed a yearlong investigation and more than 100 complaints from students who attended Westwood campuses.
“These are people who believed in the promise of education only to be defrauded by Westwood’s relentless pursuit of profits,” Madigan said. “Far too many students in Illinois have received a mainly useless degree.”
The for-profit college industry has been under scrutiny nationwide recently, with similar lawsuits filed in several states and questions about the schools collecting financial aid that’s financed by taxpayers.
Westwood, which is owned by Alta College of Denver and has campuses nationwide, is nationally accredited. But many police departments, including Illinois State Police, only accept degrees from schools accredited by one of six regional accrediting associations.
Westwood officials, who said they had not fully read the lawsuit, said they do disclose their accreditation. They said they required incoming students to initial a box that reads that its accreditation status “could have an impact on economic employment with some Chicago and surrounding area employers.”
“We continue to cooperate with the Illinois attorney general to resolve any outstanding issues,” said Westwood spokeswoman Kristina Yarrington in a statement. “We are proud of the legacy of helping students obtain their educational goals. We have hundreds of successful graduates working in the private and public criminal justice field throughout the state of Illinois.”
Westwood officials said criminal justice jobs include parole officers, social workers, law enforcement officers and prison guards. The school offers associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in programs including technology, business and design.
Madigan said she intends to have the criminal justice program shut down and that the lawsuit seeks tuition refunds for the students.
The lawsuit also claims Westwood has high tuition rates when compared with similar degree programs, offers poor job-placement help, has low graduation rates and uses high-pressure sales tactics.
“They were worse than car salesmen,” said Jessica Pierce, 29, who graduated in 2007.
She said she always dreamed of being a Chicago police officer and was told by Westwood officials that the school was fully accredited. It turned out that the department would not accept her Westwood credentials at the time and now she’s $54,000 in debt.
“I kind of lost hope and drive … after all that. It’s been so hard,” she said. “I wanted to go to school, possibly get my master’s and possibly maybe even be an attorney. But after spending all that time and all that money and effort, I have a hard time wanting to even go back to school.”
According to the lawsuit, the college purchased online search terms such as “Become Police Officer in Chicago” and “Join the Illinois State Police” to bring Westwood ads to the top of Internet searches. The lawsuit claims that once students were admitted, college officials allegedly made false promises about when accreditation would happen and dispatched administrators to quell rumors about accreditation status.
One college official at a suburban Chicago campus in 2008 told students that those who “continued to discuss accreditation risk suspension or expulsion,” according to the lawsuit.
Todd Brown, 24, graduated from Westwood in 2009 with the hopes of joining the Illinois State Police. But it wasn’t until he passed the written and physical tests that he found out his degree wouldn’t qualify him to work there. He said he owes $55,000 in debt and now works for an armored truck company.
“You go in there thinking it’s a good college and then find out,” Brown said.
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Sophia Tareen can be reached at .
