Excel College is hiring an outside law firm to investigate a flood of student complaints and a certified public accountant to audit its finances, the school announced Monday.
The complaints include claims that Excel misrepresented its academic programs and accreditation status, failed to provide the education and work experience students were promised, housed students in overcrowded conditions, and subjected students to excessive monitoring.
When Asheville Watchdog first reported in October about 19 complaints filed with the University of North Carolina System, Philip Roth, a lawyer representing the unaccredited school near Black Mountain, wrote that the school did not know about them.
“Now that the college is aware of the allegations, it is turning them over for investigation by outside counsel,” said a news release sent Monday to Asheville Watchdog by Roth. “Because the complaints — and now the media — are suggesting the college is charging excessive fees, the college has contracted with a CPA to review the claim.”
The college did not immediately respond to an email Monday seeking more information about the planned inquiries, including the firms that would conduct them and the steps taken to ensure their independence.
The UNC System, which has since received an additional complaint about the school, asked the state Department of Justice in July to investigate the college for potential misconduct, fraud and misrepresentation.
Subsequent emails, obtained through a public records request, reveal contacts between state justice officials and federal and local prosecutors concerning the school. Many of the issues raised in the complaints to the UNC System were repeated by eight former students interviewed for a story.
The school has “categorically denied” surveillance of students, and affirmed the quality of student meals and housing criticized by students in complaints and interviews. College president V.
Lee Byberg said in an email last week that Excel intentionally remains unaccredited to allow instructors “the freedom to pursue [an] integrated, outcome-based approach.” In response to students who said they were misled about the value of the school’s “bachelor’s degree,” Byberg said “we’re candid to students about what this status means.”
One complaint included an allegation of sexual misconduct involving a staff member and a student. In an October response to the UNC System, Excel’s attorney, Philip Roth, wrote that “the college is utterly unaware of” the allegation.
“To this day, the college knows only what has been reported in the media and submitted to UNC,” Monday’s announcement said.
Students reported that, in some cases, more than 20 of them lived in houses owned by people affiliated with the college and paid as much as $800 monthly for rent, meals and utilities.
The school responded that its total cost — $61,650 for a two-year bachelor’s program — is far lower than that of most private colleges, and Byberg wrote “we are not charging exorbitant fees.”
Byberg is quoted in Monday’s news release repeating an earlier claim from the school that the complaints were “orchestrated” by a small number of former students “seeking to harm the school.”
“We want to lay to rest any doubt in the minds of our current and future students and families,” Byberg said in the release. “We feel very confident that the reviews will refute those allegations.”
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