Wisconsin Technical Colleges Say They’re Prepared to Help ITT Tech Students

Jihad Weary was at work Tuesday when his brother called to let him know ITT Technical Institute announced it was immediately closing its door at campuses across the United States.

Weary spent the last year in a business management program at the school’s Greenfield campus. He was one of about 500 Wisconsin residents enrolled in ITT programs in Greenfield, Madison or online.

Now, he’s worried about whether his credits will transfer.

“That’s basically my main focus … I just don’t want for it to go to waste,” Weary said.

Technical colleges in Milwaukee and Madison say they’re ready to help students such as Weary transfer. But there’s no clear answer on how much financial aid former ITT students will be eligible for and how many of their credit will transfer.

Milwaukee Area Technical College is trying to help ITT students left in the lurch with such questions by setting up a dedicated phone number and email address. Madison Area Technical College created a similar rapid response team to work with ITT students.

“We can talk with each student on an individual basis regarding financial aid and program choices,” said Camille Nicolai, the Milwaukee campus’ director of admissions and financial aid.

The technical college has more than 140 associate degree and technical training programs.

“We have something that would align with what ITT offered the student,” Nicolai said.

Weary and other students can’t transfer every credit earned at ITT, but Nicolai said there is opportunity for prior learning credit at the Milwaukee college.

“Perhaps you have a life experience you’d want to transfer, or perhaps you have credit in a course that might not transfer here, but you could perhaps test out of a class,” Nicolai said.

Classes have started in Milwaukee, but Nicolai said there’s still a chance for the former ITT students to get enrolled in some fall semester courses.

ITT’s decision to shut down came two weeks after the U.S. Department of Education barred the school and its 130 campuses from enrolling new students who used federal aid to pay tuition bills. The sanction was the result of ITT’s accreditor saying the school was not in compliance, and was unlikely to become compliant, with requirements in areas like financial stability, management, admission standards and job placement.

The school was under investigation for years, but Weary said he thought the federal government should have done more to help the school stay afloat.

“If I’ve been in school for a whole year doing all this work, spent all this money, and it’s closing down without even giving any warning?” he said.

U.S. Secretary of Education John King wrote in a letter Tuesday to affected students saying the decision to put an enrollment ban in place was not taken lightly.

“Ultimately, we made a difficult choice to pursue additional oversight in order to protect you, other students, and taxpayers from potentially worse educational and financial damage in the future if ITT was allowed to continue operating without increased oversight and assurances to better serve students,” King wrote.

Most students like Weary, who were enrolled at the school when it shut down, are eligible to get federal student loans discharged. In a webinar for affected students Wednesday, federal officials said those who had withdrawn from the school more than 120 days before its closure are not eligible for a discharge, neither are those who earned a degree from ITT or who went on to finish a similar degree elsewhere.