Federal Probe Targets ITT Tech
3/2/2004 -- Classes are back to normal at ITT Technical Institute campuses across the country after federal agents raided the company's headquarters and 10 of its campuses last week in response to grand jury subpoenas and search warrants seeking various enrollment data.
Last Wednesday, agents searched ITT's Indianapolis, Indiana headquarters and 10 schools, including campuses in California, Nevada, Texas, Florida, Oregon and Louisiana. The grand jury subpoenas that triggered the searches were issued by a U.S. District Court in Houston, and sought data on student placement, retention, attendance and grades, along with recruitment and admissions materials, graduate salaries, and transfers of credits to other schools.
Classes were cancelled for the day at the targeted campuses, and students, faculty and staff were questioned. In a statement, a U.S. attorney in Houston did not give a reason for the raids. No charges have been brought against the company.
ITT spokeswoman Nancy Brown said today that the probe won't affect current ITT students, and will have no effect on anyone holding a degree from any ITT Tech school. "All the colleges are open and functioning perfectly normally," she added.
At an investor conference call this morning, ITT's chairman and CEO, Rene R. Champagne said he believes the company has had strong internal controls and that the investigation "will show that we're in compliance." Analysts who focus on the education market said the probe might be related to Title IV, a federal regulation that requires education companies to report certain student data related to federal low-income grants to states. According to company regulatory filings, about 68 percent of ITT's 2003 revenue came from federal education aid programs.
The federal raids immediately affected the company's stock, which fell from last week's high in the mid-50s to a low of $34.50 last Thursday. ITT Educational Services Inc. trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "ESI." News of the probe also affected the entire for-profit education sector, whose shares tend to fluctuate as a group. ITT was trading around $35 a share by mid-week this week, and the remaining stocks in the sector had largely returned to their pre-probe numbers. "In light of the pending federal grand jury investigation of the company and resulting shareholder class action lawsuits," Champagne said during Wednesday's conference call with shareholders, "the company is not able to confirm the internal goals and other projections for the Company's 2004 fiscal year that were previously disclosed by the company."
The dramatic drop in stock prices triggered several class action lawsuits by investors late last week - a common practice when a stock price drops substantially. The lawsuits claim the company artificially maintained or inflated its stock price by issuing false facts or omitting other pertinent ones.
ITT, with some 75 locations in 30 states, is the largest operator in the U.S. of post-secondary school technical education. It offers technology-based associate, bachelor and masters degrees in a variety of subjects, including computer programming, Web development, and engineering, to over 37,000 students. It also offers online education. According to the U.S. Department of Education, ITT granted nearly 15 percent of the total number of associate and bachelor degrees awarded in the U.S. in electronics and electronics-related programs in the 2000-2001 school year, the largest percentage of any single institution.  -Linda Briggs
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There are 166  user Comments for “Federal Probe Targets ITT Tech”
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Page 5 of 17
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| 3/11/04: IT Expert says: |
Wah! Wah! Wah! You guys are pathetic. Of all the schools available for IT training you should have done your home work. If you are going to shell out 20 to 30 grand on a low rate so called college like ITT you should of checked around and compared prices with other colleges. ITT is just like any other school that promises the jobs after graduation. Don't be fooled. An employer in todays market is looking for the person with the best overall package. This includes job experience, education, and even certifications. I have seen students from some colleges that are book smart and can pass the tests but can't sit in front of a PC and make it work if their life depended on it. What a joke. If you are going to learn the trade at least know how to turn the PC on. For you losers that think the world owes you something I have a phone number for you... 1-800-cry-baby. Life is tough enough and you need to get off your duffs and compete like the rest of the crowd. You guys out of high school that want a good job and have to leave your home town to get one, then you find yourself missing your mommy and quit the job to run back home are something. Is your mommy going to take care of you all your life? You deserve the measely $8.00 an hour jobs in the local town because you aren't willing to try. Instead you cry about how hard it is to cope on your own. You need to grow up. For all the others - You get what you pay for. If you're to dumb to compare prices then you deserve what you get. If a car salesman asks you if you want to buy a car you better look at it before signing the papers. |
| 3/11/04: Darby Weaver from Orlando says: |
It's raining and there's no shelter from the Hurricane... The Federal Government gives student loans in good faith. Yet, these "Institutions" have found a manner to defraud the uneducated and the hopeful and in more cases than naught, have simply extinguished their dreams of a good education leading to a good job. ITT is not the only Tech School who does this, mostly all of them. If there are any that do not, please come forward. Yep, I've heard some call them dumb or cry babies, but you know what they were taken advantage of by "skilled con-artists"... Yep, common criminals, these criminals have advanced degrees, but lack morals or ethics. Yet you blame the victim... Hope these criminals don't get "raped in the slammer", the way they slammed these "rape victims" Yes, my friend they are criminals, if you are reading this and doing this to other students and crushing their dreams, wrecking their credit and otherwise helping to ruin their lives, then I only hope you see the error of your ways and find another way to make a living. This is not one person cheating these people. This is an entire institution. It is more common to hear these stories and yet few if any have come forward to defend this "school" or any other. I wonder why? |
| 3/11/04: Darby Weaver from Orlando says: |
Advice: Here's a bit to help most of you who are thinking about an education in I.T., Buy the books and get a couple of PC's to start with. For under $1000.00 at todays prices you get two PC's, a Crossover Cable (to connect the computers), and 2 Monitors. Go to the Free Microsoft Seminars and get trial media - good for 90-120-180-380 days or so. Go to a community college or non-profit institution to get an intro to PC's. Don't be afraid to take it as many times as you need to. Buy a $20.00 book called: "What your computer consultant doesn't want you to know" It's got a lot of tips and tricks. ------------------------------------ ---------- Now you know how to connect those PC's, you've made contacts, and have some great resources. Buy the books from the local bookstore or online (a $50.00 book is about the equivalent of a $2000.00 class as far as reading material and examples go and in some cases better). I think you are still out only less than $2000.00 and have all of your books for MCSE or MCSA, have a couple of nice "servers" or "workstations" and have met a lot of helpful people and have hopefully learned to spell "google", as well as have a great trial library of software including Microsoft Office and others. Yep! Did't cost much but now you can study in your own leisure, earn your certs for about $125.00 each and for another $1000.00 or so have taken all of the required 7 exams and even take one of them twice if needed.---------- ------------------------------------------- Not bad huh!, Same goes for A Plus and all of the comptia offerings and Cisco has a nice program called the Cisco Academy, but don't expect lectures and instruction (rare); self-paced is the norm of the day. The instructiors are ususally facilitators but can be helpful and the equipment is there. Usually very cost-effective. ------------------------------------------------- From the guy who's been there and done that. I can be reached at [email protected] for more info. |
| 3/12/04: Bethanny from Tampa, FL 33634 says: |
I had worked for ITT for almost two years. ITT would not promote me because I am a woman, not married and not ex-military. They then told my short term disability insurance I had quit in Nov. instead of Dec. (when they finally excepted my resignation) so I wouldn't get paid for the last month I was on short term disability. The final straw was when I found out they jipped me out of THOUSANDS of dollars they owed me when I went to close out my 401K account. |
| 3/14/04: Anonymous says: |
after reading this, i determined that i'm lucky as far as the school i chose. i started off with a mission to choose a school that would allow me to get certified at my own pace. i know everyone wants a degree but this is IT, and your competing with people with years of experience and certs and might have a degree. i chose the certification route figuring that HR people look at your certifications and experience more than requiring a degree in IT. maybe my formula applies to my area, but reading most want ads a degree is preferred - not required! but my game plan is to eventually convert my experience and certifications to a college degree. since most universities and community colleges are accepting certifications and coverting them to college credit. but as far as getting into a bull$%&% program - that i've done a few times. keep in mind that none of us are taught how to look for a bull%$%& school - we stumble into it. maybe we need a website that busts out these schools with present and past alum' posting kudos and warnings... hmmmm that would work nicely in tandem with a braindump site.. also the school i chose to go to was "techskills". doesnt work for everybody but i got what i wanted. |
| 3/16/04: Jason says: |
To all of those who seem to unsatisfied with ITT Tech. You would be unsatisfied with any other institute of further learning. Seeing how you reap what you sew. |
| 3/17/04: James H. Silverspoon, the 3rd says: |
I was studying in England at Oxford, then spent a few years in the USA studying at Yale, uncanny how one has never heard of ITT. |
| 3/17/04: Zakir Hossain from Colour Quest Ltd says: |
I am A+ Certified Professional and IT Member of CompTIA USA. I think without the electronic no one canot stay in this globalisation. Your outlook is also better. I appreciate you new out look.Like is battle. Everybody should learn more and more on IT. CompTIA shows me the lobalisation and now i am fighting anywhere, any time and any place to face any challenge on IT. Hope your co-operation will give the scope to advance as 'BEST OF BEST' IT Professional-Zakir Hossain-Bangladedsh. |
| 3/17/04: Anonymous says: |
I graduated from ITT in 1982. Honestly, I felt much the same as many of you at that time. The economy sucked, and it took me nine months to find a job. That sucked, too. (same thing today, huh?) Turns out that this company, formerly a major consumer electronics outfit, always hired ITT grads if they were good in the interview. I was in. :-) Scroll ahead a few years, and I met grads from other schools like DeVry and such. Those guys were morons, didn't even know Ohm's law. Today I still have no further formal education, and I'm making good money, despite working for a loser corporation for 12 years. My job has taken me to three continents and 45 states. Looking back, I felt gypped by the recruiters, but today I see that I learned a lot more about my major than even the college grads who wasted time taking history and English. I can't speak for the quality of an ITT degree these days, but I know that a few of their courses are very good. I hope they sort this out and chop off the heads of the bad apples. |
| 3/17/04: Anonymous says: |
I've never attended ITT, but I think the fact that it's a publicy-traded for-profit corporation should tell you something right off the bat about the quality of the education. Not that universities don't want your money, of course, but universities don't have to answer to stockholders. |
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