Everest's closing left many in limbo

Rochester resident Karen Taylor was within three months of earning her associate degree in computer information science at the local Everest Institute when she received a "Dear Student" email telling her that the school "will cease operations." It did so the next day.

The email — dated April 26, 2015 — encouraged students to continue their education to achieve their goals.

But that has not been an easy task for Taylor and many other former Everest students in the year since Corinthian closed Everest and 29 other affiliates.

Taylor, 47, of Rochester, now works as a bank teller, with the hope of entering a program to become a licensed practical nurse.

"I am not going to let what happened at Everest stop me," said Taylor.

When Everest was shut down, 462 full- and part-time students who had been attending the school on Portland Avenue in Irondequoit were left in limbo — having invested in their future and often going deep in debt.

Students who don’t transfer their credits and continue their course of study in a "comparable program" at another school can apply for a closed-school discharge of their federal loans, as Taylor did.

This provision applies to students who were attending Everest or the other Corinthian schools when they closed on April 27 or had withdrawn from these schools after June 20, 2014.

But students who transfer to another school risk not getting many of their credits accepted by that school and having to attend classes much longer — putting them deeper into debt.

Part of the problem is that the Department of Education has not provided a clear definition of what comparable means. As a result, Catrina Osterman, 44, of Webster doesn't know how many of her courses from Everest will be accepted by SUNY Empire State College and whether she will get discharged about $28,000 in federal loans that she took out to attend Everest.

She was well along in earning an associate degree in administrative office technology at Everest when the school was closed. Her subsequent application for a loan discharge was denied, and she was told if she wants to reapply for a discharge, she should show that credits from Everest were not transferred to another school.

Osterman plans to reapply for a discharge, with the help of Maggie Robb, a staff lawyer at the Rochester office of the public interest Empire Justice Center, which has represented some of the former Everest students free of charge.

In the meantime, Osterman has enrolled at SUNY Empire State College's site in Irondequoit in another area of study — business management and economics — without knowing whether she will eventually get a loan discharge for her time at Everest and without knowing how many credits Empire State will accept.

Tom McElroy, director of academic review for the local Empire State center, said that the school accepts any credits of C- or better that apply to a transfer student's degree program.

But that still doesn't answer all the questions about Osterman's transfer and whether she will get a discharge of her federal loans while she attended Everest.

"It's like a guessing game. What the Department of Education considers a comparable program has not been defined," said Robb.

Misleading claims

Everest, which was known as Rochester Business Institute for most of its 152-year history, became part of the Corinthian Colleges chain in 2006, at a time for-profit colleges were booming as a big business.

But with a student loan default rate higher than its graduation rate, Everest was among those schools that came under federal scrutiny as part of President Barack Obama’s crackdown on for-profit colleges.

And now, a year after Corinthian's closings, some former students at Everest and other Corinthian schools might be relieved of their federal student loan debt under a borrower defense form of relief on the grounds that these colleges misrepresented job placement claims.

A month ago, the Department of Education announced it had found between 2010 and 2014 that 91 former Corinthian Colleges' campuses — including Everest in Irondequoit — made misleading job placement claims for many programs during specified periods of time. Former students in these programs during the times specified have a path for loan forgiveness.

Everest Institute in Irondequoit suddenly closes

At Everest, the six programs linked to fraud were accounting, administrative office technology, business, criminal justice and two types of medical assistant courses of study.

Such loan relief could come none too soon for Denise Terrell, 36, of Rochester, who plans to apply for a discharge of $44,546 in federal loans she owes.

“I absolutely can’t afford to pay,” said Terrell.

The criminal justice degree that she earned was one of the six programs at the local Everest school flagged by the department. And she attended during the time frame  — July 2010 through September 2011 — when the department said these misleading claims were made.

Terrell enrolled in Everest with high hopes.

With three children to raise, Terrell was struggling to pay the bills, working at various cashier and home health care jobs when in 2009 she was enticed to enroll in Everest by TV ads.

"It made me feel I'd get a career and be happy," Terrell said.

Terrell initially majored in medical billing and coding but switched to criminal justice, with the goal of becoming a juvenile probation officer.

Not until the months before she graduated in 2012, during her exit interview with an Everest official, did Terrell learn that her associate degree in criminal justice would not be enough to land a juvenile probation job, which requires a bachelor's degree.

Mixed memories

While some who graduated from Everest tell of advancing in their careers, others remain embittered by the sudden closing and wish they would have known more about the pitfalls of for-profit colleges before they had enrolled at Everest.

“I wasted two years. I don’t have a degree. I have nothing to show,” said Omayra Rodriguez, 44, of Rochester.

Rodriguez said that she was within six months of graduating from Everest with a degree in billing and coding when the school closed. She looked into transferring to one of the local Bryant & Stratton campuses but said she was told by that for-profit college that only 24 of her credits would be accepted.

She has no plans to go back to school and was able to get about $22,000 in federal loans discharged because she did not continue her education.

"I don’t want to get stuck in school,” said Rodriguez.

For the past six years, Rodriguez has gotten jobs through a temporary job agency, with most of her work being as an assembly line worker at the Harris Corp.

For some, Everest has been a kind of second home.

Throughout it all, a strong sense of camaraderie has been built up among former Everest faculty and some students, who maintain two Facebook pages where they share information and give each other support as they move ahead with their lives.

And they mourned the closing of the school.

“It was like a death for some of them because we were like a family for some of them,” said Susan Bulling, who taught at Everest.

Last June, Bulling helped organize an unofficial graduation — complete with cap and gown — for former students who earned their Everest degree but were deprived of an official graduation ceremony with the sudden closing of the school.

Corinthian’s problems

The Corinthian chain had been under federal investigation for more than two years before Everest and 29 other schools in this chain were closed by the parent company.

Concerns about Corinthian Colleges' job placement claims were raised in January 2014 and prompted the Department of Education to increase its oversight and take enforcement action that resulted in Corinthian selling most of its schools.

UR grad takes on for-profit colleges

Everest was one of Corinthian schools in the process of being sold to the nonprofit Zenith Education Group when Corinthian pulled the plug. That happened shortly after the department notified the company that it would be fined $30 million for misstated job placement rates at its Heald College campuses in California.

With the closing of the 30 Corinthian schools, about 15,000 students were suddenly left in limbo.

Corinthian filed for bankruptcy in May.

After Everest closed, Robb tells how Empire Justice was inundated with calls from former students wanting to know what they could do.

Some of the former students, with the help of Action for a Better Community and Empire Justice, held a series of meetings at St. Michael's Church to learn about their options.

"The Department of Education could be more helpful. They have made this process complicated, technical and place the burden on the students to prove that their loans should be discharged," said Robb.

And she doesn't expect all the problems facing the former Everest students to be resolved in the near future.

"Student loan debt is an enormous problem in this country, but it is especially difficult in a situation such as this where many are low-income, many living in poverty and now they are saddled with enormous loan debt after making significant efforts to better their lives," Robb said.

JGOODMAN@Gannett.com

To learn more

Empire Justice Center in Rochester has helped — free of charge — former Everest students seek relief from their federal loans incurred while attending that school.

Former students who were in the following programs of study during these time periods have a path for loan forgiveness on the grounds that the Department of Education has found that job placement claims were misrepresented:

• Accounting (associate degree): July 1, 2010-Sept. 30, 2012; July 1, 2013 - September 30, 2014.
• Administrative office technology (associate degree): July 1, 2011-Sept.30, 2013.
• Business (associate degree): July 1, 2011-Sept. 30, 2012; July 1, 2013-Sept. 30, 2014.
• Criminal Justice:(associate degree): July 1, 2010-Sept. 30, 2011; July 1, 2013-Sept. 30. 2014.
• Medical assistant (AAS): July 1, 2010-Sept. 30, 2011.
• Medical assistant (associate degree): July 1, 2010-September 30, 2011.

For more information, contact Maggie Robb,  staff attorney, Empire Justice, (585) 454-4060.