Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 3, 1994 TAG: 9406030121
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A department spokesman would not say what is being investigated and said policy prohibited him from even confirming the existence of an investigation.
But three former Virginia College employees, who asked not to be identified, said a three-person team from the department's Inspector General's Office was in Roanoke several weeks ago to talk with current and former students and school employees.
One of the former employees said she was asked about claims that the school was "counting students present when they weren't there at all."
Ken Horne, chief executive officer of the school's parent company, Career Futures Inc. in Birmingham, Ala., said he met with the team of investigators several weeks ago. But he said it is his understanding that they are conducting a review of the school's attendance records.
"That's all I was told," Horne said. "To the best of my knowledge, that's all it is. I hope that there's not more to it.
"If we're showing people in attendance who were not actual students, then we've got a problem."
Horne, a Birmingham lawyer who bought the school in 1989, said the review stems from a complaint made to the department by a former faculty member two years ago. The faculty member charged, among other things, that students were recorded as attending classes when they had not.
Horne said the school is cooperating with the department and has turned over thousands of pages of attendance records going back to 1992. He acknowledged that some faculty members may have made "an error in judgment."
"We became aware of it and took remedial action," Horne said. "We counseled with faculty to see how widespread this practice was and put a stop to it."
The Department of Education has investigated other schools for keeping students who receive government student loans on their rolls long after they stopped taking classes. The schools continued getting federal money for the students, in some cases years after the students dropped out.
Virginia College has campuses in Salem and in Birmingham, Ala. The two comprise Career Futures Inc., Horne said.
The school's Salem campus - which has 120 students and relocated from Melrose Avenue in Northwest Roanoke to a new building on Apperson Drive a year ago - has a broad mix of students, from recent high school graduates to people looking for career changes, he said.
The school is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools in Washington.
Virginia College is the second trade school in the Roanoke area to come under federal or state scrutiny in the past six months.
In January, the Career Training Center closed amid financial troubles linked to its high student-loan default rate and punitive action by the state and federal education departments. The college had campuses in Roanoke, Lynchburg and Richmond.
by CNB