Community Colleges chancellor announces end to for-profit transfer agreement

California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley announced Monday during the statewide system’s Board of Governors meeting that he canceled a controversial transfer agreement with American Public University System, a for-profit institution.

In October, the 116-campus system announced it had signed an agreement for community college students to seamlessly transfer to the for-profit institution with the Associate Degree for Transfer.

However, the agreement was criticized by student advocates and organizations nationally.

“We believe that the information provided by (American Public University … did not provide the (community college system) a complete picture regarding the institution, its performance and risks of fraud and abuse,”  said Angela Perry, associate director of policy and advocacy at The Institute for College Access and Success, a California-based nonprofit organization.

The institution had settled fraud allegations in 2018 with the Massachusettes attorney general, Perry said. Those allegations included failure to disclose loan repayment and graduation rates to students.

“California never should have signed a contract with a predatory for-profit college that was sued by law enforcement for high-pressure enrollment tactics and failing to disclose job prospects to student veterans and military students,” said Carrie Wofford, president of Veterans Education Success. “We are pleased the chancellor was responsive to our letter of January 14th, and we wish that more public universities would examine their relationships with for-profit colleges that defraud student veterans. We applaud Chancellor Oakley for protecting students from fraud.”