Brightwood College is Closing
INDIANAPOLIS–Brightwood College is closing campuses nationwide, with some locations offering their last classes as early as this Friday.
The school has $46 million in debt.
There are two Brightwood College locations in Indiana–one is in Hammond and the other is in Indianapolis.
It is not known yet when the Indiana campuses will close.
In Indianapolis, Brightwood College operates at Southern Plaza Shopping Center on S. East St just north of I-465 on the south side.
“It was a surprise to everybody. Nobody knew anything I work here full time and my husband is a teacher here,” said Meghan Neely, a counselor at Brightwood College in Indianapolis to WISH-TV.
Haily Hutchens also spoke to WISH after she rushed to the school to pick up her transcripts.
“I was shocked because I’m still paying them. I gotta get my transcripts or else I won’t have proof I did anything,” Hutchens said.
A day after signing a contract, Professor Sarah Dotson got a call to tell her the school was closing. She posted about it on Facebook to let her students know. She spoke to WISH TV over the phone.
“I really didn’t even know what to say. I had so many questions about how and why. How can you just call me and say two weeks before Christmas that I don’t have a job two weeks before Christmas? I’m still trying to process this. I’m still really shocked about the whole thing,” Dotson said.
Education Corp. of America is Brightwood’s parent company and they recently learned they would be losing their accreditation, adding that additional Department of Education requirements had strained the company’s ability to attract investors.
Brightwood’s two Indiana campuses in Hammond and Indianapolis were obtained from Kaplan College in January 2016, according to the school’s website.
(PHOTO: WISH TV)
