Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | October 10, 2022 17 COHORT STUDENT LOAN DEFAULT RATES* FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018 National Average 10.1% 9.7% 7.3% Arizona College of Nursing 23.2% 21.3% 14% Southern CT State University 6.7% 7.5% 5.3% University of Connecticut 2.3% 2.6% 2% University of St. Joseph 2.2% 2.4% 2.6% Sacred Heart University 3.3% 3.9% 2.1% * The most recent cohort student loan default rates released in September 2021, are for borrowers who entered repayment in federal fiscal year 2018 (FY18) and defaulted in FY18, FY19, or FY20. The student loan repayment pause went into effect at the end of FY 20, hence declining default rates across the board. Soure: CT Conference of Independent Colleges/College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics faculty, and a decline in degree completion rates. The probationary period for the voluntary consent agreement is 36 months. At their Sept. 21 meeting, the Connecticut nursing examiners board voted 7-2 to revoke its previous approvals. "The more I read, the more I see they were not transparent," BOEN member Geraldine Marrocco said at the Sept. 21 meeting. "Probation is a sanction; they are not in good standing. There are undertones of mistrust I have with this institution. I'd expect them to be above board and they were not above board." Arizona College said it first notified a Connecticut Office of Higher Education official about the consent agreement during a July 13 site visit. Some of the agreement's complaints included that the school's Tempe campus laid off 32 clinical faculty members without qualified replacements in August 2021, two weeks before the new semester, and that from Aug. 30 to Oct. 15, 2021, 19% of student clinical experiences were canceled primarily due to inadequate staffing. Another complaint said that for the fall 2021 term, nearly half of the 86 Tempe campus adjunct/clinical faculty members had no prior teaching experience. Arizona College of Nursing said it takes the consent agreement findings "seriously" and is working to address them. "Internal reviews and evaluations of each of the other campuses have shown that these issues were limited to the Tempe campus and do not exist at any of the other locations," said Matthew Egan, Arizona College's vice president of regulatory affairs. "There have been many lessons learned from this situation about closely moni- toring faculty and faculty hiring as well as maintaining the integrity of the dean's ability to administer the nursing program." Chris Boyle, a spokesperson for the state Department of Public Health (DPH), said the Sept. 21 BOEN vote does allow for the nursing school to resubmit its application for approval. Arizona College said it still hopes to move forward with the regulatory process and open a Connecticut campus. Default rates Several competing Connecticut colleges with nursing programs — as well as the public Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system and Connecticut Confer- ence of Independent Colleges — have expressed opposition to Arizona College coming into the state, citing concerns about competitive pressures or the consent agreement. "A new program that will pull from the key resources we are working with to supplement the clinical placements, faculty and preceptors we need to assure we can meet the workforce demands of the state should not be supported or approved by the state," Sacred Heart Univer- sity President John Petillo wrote in a letter to the Office of Higher Education. Several BOEN members do work for universities that have voiced opposition to Arizona College. In another letter to the Office of Higher Education, the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges noted that Arizona College's student loan default rates for the most recent years available are "much higher than the national average and more than triple the rates of most Connecticut public and private, nonprofit institutions." It provided data from the U.S. Department of Education, which showed Arizona College's student loan default rates for fiscal years 2016 through 2018 were 23.2%, 21.3%, and 14%, respectively, compared to the national averages of 10.1%, 9.7% and 7.3%, for those same years. The Arizona College noted that its student passage rates for licensing exams currently exceed the national and Connecticut averages and that its program will require no subsidy from state taxpayers. Goodwin University sues former enrollment director poached by competing college By Robert Storace rstorace@hartfordbusiness.com Goodwin University has filed a civil lawsuit against one of its former enrollment directors, alleging that he improperly downloaded sensitive student enrollment data before taking a similar job at a potential new, competing university. Goodwin filed the federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut on Aug. 18 against Daniel Williamson, who worked at the university up until July 22, when he took a new job with the Arizona College of Nursing, according to court records. Arizona College has plans to open a nursing school in East Hartford located about three miles away from Goodwin's campus. Those efforts recently hit a regulatory road bump that could threaten the expansion. Meantime, the Arizona College of Nursing confirmed to the Hartford Business Journal that Williamson was initially placed on leave pending an investigation, and now no longer works for the school. No further details were provided. According to the lawsuit, after Williamson announced he would be leaving to join Arizona College as its enrollment services exec- utive director, Goodwin hired an independent data systems consultant, West Mountain Data Consulting LLC, to conduct a search of his activities with respect to accessing and downloading files and data from Goodwin's student information system. The consulting firm found that, since June 2022, Williamson had accessed and downloaded onto his desktop computer recruitment data containing leads to approximately 12,000 local prospective nursing and health sciences students, court records said. Additionally, Goodwin learned that Williamson had downloaded onto his desktop computer a number of files and reports on July 21, his last day in the office, the lawsuit said. According to court records, Williamson — in an exit interview with Goodwin — admitted he down- loaded certain files onto an external USB drive, but claimed they were only personal information, such as his resume. Williamson eventually returned the USB drive. The school, court records said, hired an outside forensic computer consultant who found that the drive contained Goodwin University data and reports "that provide a detailed road map for setting up and operating an admissions office." If the Arizona School of Nursing obtained the materials, the lawsuit states, it could potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, and get an "enormous head start in setting up and operating an admissions office and filling the ranks of its first class at the expense of and to the detriment of Goodwin." Goodwin said it views the mate- rials as "trade secrets" and it's asking for relief under the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, court records show. It's asking for any Goodwin College records obtained by Williamson and shared with Arizona College of Nursing to be returned and/or destroyed. It's also asking for attorney's fees, interest, costs and any other relief deemed appropriate by the court. Williamson is represented by Gerald Pia Jr. and Brian Roche, both with Shelton-based Roche Pia LLC. Neither attorney responded to a request for comment. Updike, Kelly & Spellacy attorney Richard Order is representing Goodwin University and didn't provide comment on the lawsuit. Goodwin University's East Hartford campus. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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