What’s New
A small Connecticut college has postponed the start of its fall semester amid a state investigation into whether it currently employs faculty members to teach its classes.
Paier College, a for-profit institution that offers arts degrees and is in the process of being sold, sent a letter to students on Friday announcing the delay. The Connecticut Office of Higher Education, which is conducting the investigation into Paier’s operations, must approve the transfer of ownership before the college can begin the term. Paier had 221 students enrolled in the fall of 2022, according to federal data.
The college is also under scrutiny by its accreditor, the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, which first placed Paier on warning last fall and has flagged concerns about student achievement rates and faculty qualifications. The commission, known as ACCSC, plans to release an update on Paier’s status this month.
In a response to those findings, a Paier spokesperson has said that the college uses recommendation letters and academic credentials to ensure that its faculty members and administrators “possess the necessary qualifications to teach our students.”
The Details
According to local news reports, Paier’s faculty members were notified in May that their contracts had expired and would be re-evaluated after the college completed its ownership transfer, which has been submitted to the state’s higher-education office for approval.
Faculty members contacted by The Chronicle did not respond on Tuesday to requests for comment on their employment status at the college.
Joseph Bierbaum, Paier’s owner, is hoping to sell it to Dyllan Hancott, a Canadian businessman. Bierbaum reportedly stepped down as Paier’s president in June.
Bierbaum has previously drawn scrutiny for his involvement with Stone Academy, a now-shuttered for-profit nursing school. Stone Academy’s three campuses closed abruptly in February 2023, prompting a lawsuit from former students and the State of Connecticut.
The lawsuit, which lists Paier College as a defendant, alleges that Stone’s tuition revenue was used to subsidize Paier’s expenses. In March a judge granted a $5-million prejudgment remedy to Stone’s former students.
Meanwhile, ACCSC expressed concern that three of the college’s programs had 33-percent graduation rates in 2023, with a fourth at 25 percent, according to a 20-page letter sent to the institution in June. The accreditor also said it could verify that only three out of Paier’s 37 faculty members had previous work experience.
Former Paier students have started to come forward with complaints about the college’s treatment of students and faculty members.
“The way this administration has failed myself, my colleagues, and my professors is absolutely unacceptable, and I will no longer be silent,” Molly Becker, a recent graduate, wrote in a Substack post.
Becker described claims of black mold in Paier’s buildings and said the campus allegedly lacked nurses and security.
Becker also said the college notified students in January that Paier would stop participating in the U.S. Department of Education’s Title IV program, meaning students would no longer have access to federal financial aid. Becker said the decision had left many students unable to afford Paier’s tuition, which comes to about $24,500 annually, according to federal data.
The Education Department had previously given Paier a “Heightened Cash Monitoring 2” designation, restricting its access to federal aid.
The Backdrop
College closures are nothing new, but increasing precarity across higher education is drawing more attention to the issue. A handful of for-profit colleges have closed this year, including the 122-year-old Northwestern College, in a Chicago suburb.
Postponing the semester is a bad sign for Paier, said Robert Kelchen, a professor of higher education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and head of its department of education leadership and policy studies. “Delaying the start of a term is more often than not a death sentence for a college,” he said.
That’s what happened at Union Institute and University, a private institution in Ohio that delayed and later called off its two planned fall terms. The university had been in hot water for months, amid allegations that employees hadn’t been paid consistently all year and that administrators had used students’ tuition refunds to pay operating expenses. In June, Union announced it would close permanently, citing financial woes.
What to Watch For
Such circumstances, Kelchen said, leave students and faculty members in a bind, not sure what to do next. He said students may wonder whether they should wait out the delays or transfer, and faculty members may question whether they should look for new jobs.
Students also can’t get their federal student loans discharged until the college officially closes, he added.
While Paier cannot be dishonest with students and faculty members, Kelchen said, colleges are allowed to wait until announcements from accreditors or state agencies to release information about severe financial struggles.
“Generally saying nothing is a fairly sound strategy,” he said.
ACCSC reviewed Paier again last week, but the results of that examination have not yet been released, Michale S. McComis, the accreditor’s executive director, wrote in an email to The Chronicle.
Dan Bauman, a senior reporter, contributed reporting to this article.