THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411030411
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 214 lines
Commonwealth College has agreed to pay the state $375,000 to settle a suit filed last year alleging that the private business school engaged in consumer fraud.
Under the settlement, filed in Circuit Court on Tuesday, the money may be used to reimburse the state for legal costsor give refunds to former students who have filed complaints with the state attorney general's office.
State Attorney General James Gilmore said Wednesday that he expected the state to allot more than $350,000 to about 120 former students, at nearly $3,000 per person.
In the agreement, Commonwealth also promised, in a series of provisos, not to ``use deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise or misrepresentation in connection with their advertisement or sale of services to consumers.''
In particular, the school vowed not to tell students that their credits would count toward bachelor's degrees at four-year colleges and not to guarantee ``employment of a certain kind or at a certain salary level.''
Gilmore said the settlement sends a warning to other trade schools: ``They had better be giving truthful and maximum information to students, or else consumer advocates, including the state attorney general's office, will be looking over their shoulder.''
More than 60 students have filed complaints against Commonwealth with the State Council of Higher Education, which oversees the school, since the mid-'80s. That's at least triple the number who have complained about any other school.
Most of the students accused the school of misleading them to believe their credits would be accepted by four-year schools such as Old Dominion or Norfolk State universities after they graduated from Commonwealth. As a result, many said, they spent more than $10,000 and a year and a half without getting closer to their career goals.
Commonwealth officials have stoutly denied the allegations. The settlement said that Commonwealth officials ``expressly deny any violation of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act.''
Nevertheless, the school decided to pay the state nearly $400,000 to close the case. The reason was purely financial, President Maritza Samoorian said Wednesday. ``It's in our best economic interest to put this in our past,'' she said. ``It would cost us more to go to trial than it would to settle the case. We're happy that this is the end of it.''
Sherry Clayton of Chesapeake, a former student who helped spearhead the complaints, said Wednesday: ``Basically, I'm pleased. . . . It shows that if a few voices come out of the wilderness, the appropriate ear is going to hear them.''
After an 18-month investigation, the state attorney general's office sued Commonwealth in May 1993. The case was to have been tried in mid-November.
Gilmore said he was pleased with the settlement because it ensured that ``students in the future will be properly protected so they can get maximum information. . . . All we want is to make sure potential students understand what they're paying for.''
Clayton said she thought that the protection given to future students was more important than any money she would get: ``Our goal was to see that no other students would have to endure the misrepresentation and deceit.''
Commonwealth has about 1,200 students at four branches - Hampton, Norfolk, Richmond and Virginia Beach.
It offers 18-month programs in such fields as tourism and hospitality and medical-office administration.
State figures show that enrollment has dropped almost 50 percent since 1990, when the students' complaints began surfacing. The school closed its Portsmouth campus last year and will close its Norfolk branch next spring. But Commonwealth is opening a new 28,000-square-foot campus in Virginia Beach in January.
The state council gave Commonwealth a clean bill of health in an investigation last year. Gilmore said he, too, thinks the school will be free of problems.
``We believe that this litigation and the constant monitoring we have done has led to a great deal of remedying of the situation,'' he said.
Clayton wasn't so sure, but she said: ``If they continue, there will be other students to continue the fight.''
NORFOLK - Commonwealth College has agreed to pay the state $375,000 to settle a suit filed last year alleging that the private business school engaged in consumer fraud.
Under the settlement, filed in Circuit Court on Tuesday, the money may be used to reimburse the state for legal costsor give refunds to former students who have filed complaints with the state attorney general's office.
State Attorney General James Gilmore said Wednesday that he expected the state to allot more than $350,000 to about 120 former students, at nearly $3,000 per person.
In the agreement, Commonwealth also promised, in a series of provisos, not to ``use deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise or misrepresentation in connection with their advertisement or sale of services to consumers.''
In particular, the school vowed not to tell students that their credits would count toward bachelor's degrees at four-year colleges and not to guarantee ``employment of a certain kind or at a certain salary level.''
Gilmore said the settlement sends a warning to other trade schools: ``They had better be giving truthful and maximum information to students, or else consumer advocates, including the state attorney general's office, will be looking over their shoulder.''
More than 60 students have filed complaints against Commonwealth
with the State Council of Higher Education, which oversees the school, since the mid-'80s. That's at least triple the number who have complained about any other school.
Most of the students accused the school of misleading them to believe their credits would be accepted by four-year schools such as Old Dominion or Norfolk State universities after they graduated from Commonwealth. As a result, many said, they spent more than $10,000 and a year and a half without getting closer to their career goals.
Commonwealth officials have stoutly denied the allegations. The settlement said that Commonwealth officials ``expressly deny any violation of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act.''
Nevertheless, the school decided to pay the state nearly $400,000 to close the case. The reason was purely financial, President Maritza Samoorian said Wednesday. ``It's in our best economic interest to put this in our past,'' she said. ``It would cost us more to go to trial than it would to settle the case. We're happy that this is the end of it.''
Sherry Clayton of Chesapeake, a former student who helped spearhead the complaints, said Wednesday: ``Basically, I'm pleased. . . . It shows that if a few voices come out of the wilderness, the appropriate ear is going to hear them.''
After an 18-month investigation, the state attorney general's office sued Commonwealth in May 1993. The case was to have been tried in mid-November.
Gilmore said he was pleased with the settlement because it ensured that ``students in the future will be properly protected so they can get maximum information. . . . All we want is to make sure potential students understand what they're paying for.''
Clayton said she thought that the protection given to future students was more important than any money she would get: ``Our goal was to see that no other students would have to endure the misrepresentation and deceit.''
Commonwealth has about 1,200 students at four branches - Hampton, Norfolk, Richmond and Virginia Beach.
It offers 18-month programs in such fields as tourism and hospitality and medical-office administration.
State figures show that enrollment has dropped almost 50 percent since 1990, when the students' complaints began surfacing. The school closed its Portsmouth campus last year and will close its Norfolk branch next spring. But Commonwealth is opening a new 28,000-square-foot campus in Virginia Beach in January.
The state council gave Commonwealth a clean bill of health in an investigation last year. Gilmore said he, too, thinks the school will be free of problems.
``We believe that this litigation and the constant monitoring we have done has led to a great deal of remedying of the situation,'' he said.
Clayton wasn't so sure, but she said: ``If they continue, there will be other students to continue the fight.''
NORFOLK - Commonwealth College has agreed to pay the state $375,000 to settle a suit filed last year alleging that the private business school engaged in consumer fraud.
Under the settlement, filed in Circuit Court on Tuesday, the money may be used to reimburse the state for legal costsor give refunds to former students who have filed complaints with the state attorney general's office.
State Attorney General James Gilmore said Wednesday that he expected the state to allot more than $350,000 to about 120 former students, at nearly $3,000 per person.
In the agreement, Commonwealth also promised, in a series of provisos, not to ``use deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise or misrepresentation in connection with their advertisement or sale of services to consumers.''
In particular, the school vowed not to tell students that their credits would count toward bachelor's degrees at four-year colleges and not to guarantee ``employment of a certain kind or at a certain salary level.''
Gilmore said the settlement sends a warning to other trade schools: ``They had better be giving truthful and maximum information to students, or else consumer advocates, including the state attorney general's office, will be looking over their shoulder.''
More than 60 students have filed complaints against Commonwealth with the State Council of Higher Education, which oversees the school, since the mid-'80s. That's at least triple the number who have complained about any other school.
Most of the students accused the school of misleading them to believe their credits would be accepted by four-year schools such as Old Dominion or Norfolk State universities after they graduated from Commonwealth. As a result, many said, they spent more than $10,000 and a year and a half without getting closer to their career goals.
Commonwealth officials have stoutly denied the allegations. The settlement said that Commonwealth officials ``expressly deny any violation of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act.''
Nevertheless, the school decided to pay the state nearly $400,000 to close the case. The reason was purely financial, President Maritza Samoorian said Wednesday. ``It's in our best economic interest to put this in our past,'' she said. ``It would cost us more to go to trial than it would to settle the case. We're happy that this is the end of it.''
Sherry Clayton of Chesapeake, a former student who helped spearhead the complaints, said Wednesday: ``Basically, I'm pleased. . . . It shows that if a few voices come out of the wilderness, the appropriate ear is going to hear them.''
After an 18-month investigation, the state attorney general's office sued Commonwealth in May 1993. The case was to have been tried in mid-November.
Gilmore said he was pleased with the settlement because it ensured that ``students in the future will be properly protected so they can get maximum information. . . . All we want is to make sure potential students understand what they're paying for.''
Clayton said she thought that the protection given to future students was more important than any money she would get: ``Our goal was to see that no other students would have to endure the misrepresentation and deceit.''
Commonwealth has about 1,200 students at four branches - Hampton, Norfolk, Richmond and Virginia Beach.
It offers 18-month programs in such fields as tourism and hospitality and medical-office administration.
State figures show that enrollment has dropped almost 50 percent since 1990, when the students' complaints began surfacing. The school closed its Portsmouth campus last year and will close its Norfolk branch next spring. But Commonwealth is opening a new 28,000-square-foot campus in Virginia Beach in January.
The state council gave Commonwealth a clean bill of health in an investigation last year. Gilmore said he, too, thinks the school will be free of problems.
``We believe that this litigation and the constant monitoring we have done has led to a great deal of remedying of the situation,'' he said.
Clayton wasn't so sure, but she said: ``If they continue, there will be other students to continue the fight.''
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT COMMONWEALTH COLLEGE FRAUD by CNB