When officials from the Nevada Commission on Postsecondary Education arrived for their short-notice records inspection of the Art Institute of Las Vegas this past week, they didn’t receive the greeting they’d anticipated.

The doors of the troubled for-profit college at 2350 Corporate Circle in Henderson were locked. Now those doors figure to stay closed.

Commission Administrator Kelly Wuest said Thursday the lack of cooperation left no choice but to block the college from accessing Veterans Administration education funds. There is no appeal, but school officials can reapply for official status at a future date.

“It required a specific response time, and they failed to meet that response time,” Wuest said. “Once a withdrawal is submitted, it cannot be overturned.”

The commission is the state approving agency for postsecondary education, training and licensing for anyone seeking to use their VA education benefits. As part of that important mission, state officials inspect and supervise schools such as the Art Institute before releasing funding.

Although there’s no set time frame for Art Institute to reapply, Wuest said, “We would look at the condition ... that caused the withdrawal.” And that inspection, if it ever comes, figures to be extremely thorough.

With a growing number of complaints surfacing from instructors who say they’re owed up to six months in back pay, that possibility appears increasingly remote.

It’s the latest body blow to the college, once part of a sprawling chain of more than 100 for-profit schools owned by the scandalized Education Management Corporation (EMC). The company in 2015 agreed to pay $95.5 million to settle a whistleblower complaint alleging recruiters used unethical tactics to boost enrollment and targeted military veterans eligible for VA education benefits.

The local college temporarily rose from the EMC ash heap after being sold to instructors in March, but since then it has fought for months to stave off losing its accreditation and has tottered on the brink of closure. Its many financial woes forced the state to suspend it from enrolling new students, and that left several hundred active students hustling to finish their classes and degrees.

It received a previous extension from the state postsecondary education commission after an illuminating Sept. 18 meeting that put a human face on the story. Graphic design student Roland Kailihiwa talked about mounting debts to the VA, financial aid challenges, and cuts in faculty that greatly decreased the quality of education and instruction. Other students weighed in and described an increasingly grim atmosphere, one in which some felt ripped off.

At that same meeting, United States District Court receiver Mark Dottore, still in the process of transferring the school to the buyer, implored officials to let the school remain open so that students could finish their term. He also assured members of the commission, “As to payroll, these people will be paid, one way or another I will find a way to pay those professors.”

Just last month as instructors toiled for zero compensation, Art Institute school manager William Turbay expressed guarded optimism that the college would make good on its debts with the best interests of the students in mind. 

In addition to being a withering shot to students who have placed their trust, money, and VA benefits into the Art Institute, the closure of the school clobbers the handful of instructors who stuck it out and have heard for months about brighter days ahead.

Wuest said it’s just the second time commission officials have had to withdraw VA education benefits approval. The first came in December 2018 when the Las Vegas branch of for-profit Brightwood College suddenly shut its doors as part of the greater collapse of parent company, Birmingham, Alabama-based Education Corporation of America, which once boasted of 70 campuses.

Scandal has become the norm at many for-profit colleges. In case after case, companies have been caught saddling unwitting students in withering loan debt and deceiving members of the military to exploit their VA education benefits. And those failures hit close to home.

In June, Attorney General Aaron Ford announced 335 former ITT Tech students in Nevada would receive $3.4 million in loan debt relief as part of a 44-state, $168 million settlement involving the failed for-profit college and the limited liability company that hustled student loans. “These students thought they were furthering their career, only to be subjected to abusive lending practices to pay for an education at a failed institution,” Ford said in a statement.

Although the Art Institute’s locked doors made the job of poring over the financial records of a school mired in debt and receivership a lot easier, students are still owed answers and help in moving forward from this mess. Instructors are owed a pile of back paychecks.

Neither is likely to enter 2020 with much to show for all their effort and loyalty.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others. He also offers weekly commentary on Nevada Public Radio station KNPR. His newest book—a biography of iconic Nevada civil rights and political leader, Joe Neal—”Westside Slugger: Joe Neal’s Lifelong Fight for Social Justice” is published by University of Nevada Press and is available at Amazon.com. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith