State sues Westwood; suburban students saddled with thousands in debt and no jobs

Annette Arkema, a single mother in Carol Stream, wanted to have a better life for her and her four children.

Since she touted education as the best investment, she decided to enroll in Westwood College’s DuPage County campus to pursue a career as a victim’s advocate or an investigator.

But when she graduated in 2008, she was saddled with roughly $64,000 in debt and no job. Now she works at Sam’s Club in Addison to make ends meet, because her applications at law enforcement agencies have been rejected.

“I was going there for about two years when I found out they weren’t really accredited,” she said. “I wanted to quit, but decided to continue because they kept assuring me they would help me find a job. But they just gave me ads for telemarketers or for cashiers.”

Colorado-based Westwood was sued on Wednesday by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who charged the for-profit, private college with deceptive practices that left numerous Chicago and suburban students saddled with as much as $70,000 in debt each, no job and little chance to transfer credits to another school.

The lawsuit, filed in Cook County circuit court, alleged violations of the state Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. Madigan said Westwood marketed its criminal justice program with false claims, saying it was accredited when it was not. Students also were told they could pursue careers with the Chicago Police Department, any number of suburban police departments, and the Illinois State Police, when those agencies refuse candidates from Westwood, Madigan said during a news conference Wednesday in Chicago.

The lawsuit seeks to close down the program and obtain refunds for the students.

“All of these students believed in the promise of education only to be defrauded,” Madigan said.

Westwood has two campuses in Chicago and one each in Woodridge and South Suburban Calumet City. Besides law enforcement, the college offers degrees in business, construction management and graphics arts, among others. The attorney general’s lawsuit focused on the law enforcement degree and is looking at its other programs.

“We continue to cooperate with the Illinois attorney general to resolve any outstanding issues,” the college said in a statement. “We are proud of our 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.”

The college’s statement also said that a disclosure form is given to all criminal justice students, dating back to 2005. The form, in part, said: “ILLINOIS RESIDENTS ONLY: Westwood College is nationally accredited, not regionally accredited, which could have an impact on employment opportunities with some Chicago and surrounding area employers, including the city of Chicago.”

A Westwood spokesman said its law enforcement degree was not accepted by the Chicago Police at the time these students attended, but has been accepted as of 2010.

Madigan said her office and the Chicago Better Business Bureau have received about 100 complaints about Westwood from students in Cook, DuPage, Kane and Ogle counties.

Another student, Todd Brown of Bolingbrook, graduated from Westwood in 2009. With about $55,000 in debt, he still cannot get a job in law enforcement. In fact, he was close to securing a job with the Illinois State Police, passing both its written and physical tests, only to be told later that they couldn’t hire him because his degree came from an unaccredited college. He now works for an armored truck company.

“I have a good job, but this isn’t how I envisioned my future,” Brown said.

In recent years, the agencies have received about 400 complaints regarding for-profit colleges and universities.

In 2007, the attorney general’s office reached a settlement with Downers Grove-based DeVry University and Hoffman Estates-based Career Education Corp. concerning student loan practices involving the schools’ and lenders. The settlements required the schools to adopt a College Code of Conduct and to return the money paid by lenders to schools.

Madigan said Wednesday that for-profit education is a big business, drawing more than $1.8 million in federal loans, a process that is also being investigated, Madigan said.