For years, Westwood College fought off allegations of deceptive marketing and recruitment practices.
The for-profit institution, based in Colorado under the privately held Alta Colleges company, announced last month that it would stop enrolling new students. That decision came after the college agreed to a settlement with the Illinois attorney general's office for $15 million.
It wasn't the first settlement the college, which has a chain of 14 campus locations, has made. In 2012, Westwood settled with the attorney general of Colorado for $4.5 million, also for deceptive marketing. In 2009, the college agreed to a $7 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice related to a complaint about filing false claims for federal student aid.
But perhaps more responsible for Westwood's downfall than any of the settlements was the fact that the college had become a prime target of U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois -- one of the for-profit sector's most vehement critics. It was the stories from former students and employees, as well as the college's advertisements, that brought the ire of Durbin.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/08/profit-westwood-college-wont-accept-new-students