Some Adelphi Business Colleges Shut

Several Southern California campuses of Adelphi Business College were among 13 branches nationwide that have been closed by one of the nation’s largest business school chains.

Adelphi campuses were abruptly closed Friday in Inglewood, Long Beach, Santa Ana and San Bernardino, as well others in Arizona, Michigan and New York. The 6-year-old school offered courses in accounting, electronics, bookkeeping, computer applications and word processing to about 2,500 students.

Students at the Inglewood school, housed in a high-rise office building near City Hall, were alerted by a typewritten notice taped to the front door that read: “This letter is to inform you that Adelphi Business College is closing the Inglewood campus. You will be informed about the continuation of your education very soon.”

“We didn’t quit the school--the school quit us,” student Jeffie Cherry said after reading the sign. Cherry, like many Adelphi students, receives public assistance and relies on federal school loans for her living expenses.

Albert Terranova, president of Adelphi Institute Inc., said the schools closed because a California bank refused to process vital student-loan applications.

“We are suspending classes temporarily, in order to work out what has been an interruption of funding of student loans,” Terranova said Friday.

Arizona officials, however, said the chain, which is based in Phoenix, Ariz., will have to file a new license application in order to reopen its local campuses and warned that the process could take time.

An official with First Independent Trust Co. of Sacramento, which was processing the applications for federally insured loans, said the bank had become concerned about the schools’ integrity.

‘Nothing Good’ Seen

“We stopped, we assessed, we made the decision that nothing good could come out of us making loans to students where the chances weren’t better than naught that the student would get an education,” said Glen Bigelow, an executive vice president.

In July, the chain filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code while reorganizing. Officials said then that the chain’s financial problems stemmed from rapid growth and weak administrative controls.

The company sought the bankruptcy court’s protection shortly after a multimillion-dollar lawsuit was filed in New York against it and some of its officials.

The class-action suit, filed on behalf of New York students, alleges that the schools are chronically understaffed, the teachers unqualified and the equipment lacking, Jeanne Luboja, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said Saturday in a telephone interview from New York.

Teacher Absentee Rate

Some students earned computer credits without ever using a computer and there were not enough typewriters in the typing classes, Luboja said. Some teachers did not speak English, and the teachers’ absentee rate was high.

“Rather than seeking to provide vocational training to the students they took in, Adelphi was really used as a vehicle to obtain federal and state grant monies and loan monies,” Luboja said. “To receive that money they didn’t really provide proper services to students they had promised nor did they provide placement services.”

Adelphi officials could not be reached Saturday for comment.

Several Adelphi staff members in Inglewood said that they had not been paid for a month and that students were waiting for loan checks to cover living expenses when the doors closed.

“One woman here is getting thrown out of her apartment,” Inglewood student Robin Allen said angrily. “What are we supposed to do?”