AZ Summit Law School, Art Institute of Phoenix pushed to shut down
Aug 29, 2018, 4:11 AM | Updated: 5:52 am
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PHOENIX — The Arizona Summit Law School and the Art Institute of Phoenix are both being pushed to close their doors.
The law school, already on probation for failure to produce enough students who can pass the state bar exam, has been kicked out of its building in downtown Phoenix for allegedly not paying rent, according to legal news site Above the Law.
The school was put on probation in March and canceled fall classes while negotiating an agreement with Arizona State University that would allow students to finish their degrees if Summit’s accreditation were to be revoked.
According to Above the Law, Summit did not notify students about its alleged failure to pay rent and some students showed up to the building to find locked doors and a notice barring them from entering.
The legal site said Summit’s failure to officially announce its closure is complicating things for students who may not have enough time to get a closed-school discharge on their loans.
As of Aug. 28, the law school’s website is still live with a link to apply. There is a link at the top of the homepage to the notice of probation.
Law School Kicked Out Of Building Due To Alleged Failure To Pay Rent https://t.co/qzxzCmYD0a (by @stacizaretsky)
— Above the Law (@atlblog) August 21, 2018
The Art Institute of Phoenix is also closing, but under different circumstances.
According to ABC15, more than a dozen other Art Institute-branded schools along with the Phoenix location will likely be closing by the end of the year due to a lack of demand. The Phoenix location, one of 18 shuttering, has set a closing date of Dec. 28. It is not enrolling students for the fall.
“After a complete and thorough examination of the three education systems in the DCEH network to ensure they are meeting the needs of today’s learners, we did not see demand growth for courses at these campuses,” a representative for Dream Center Education Holdings, LLC, said in a statement given to ABC15.
“This decision was made for a number of reasons, including a shift in the demand for online programs in higher education and in student populations at the campuses, which have resulted in declining, unsustainable enrollment levels for campus-based programs in these markets.”
There are some Art Institute locations that will remain open, including those in San Diego, California, and Henderson, Nevada. The online program is also accepting applications.
Dream Center is still in some hot water, though, after four of its Art Institutes lost accreditation last year and the school reportedly failed to adequately notify students.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called for an investigation into DCEH earlier in the summer after news of the loss of credentials and failure to inform students, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
