Brown Mackie College
Brown Mackie College was a private for-profit college system in the United States. The colleges offered bachelor's degrees, associate degrees, and certificates in programs including early childhood education, information technology, health sciences, and legal studies. Brown Mackie's schools were most recently owned by Education Management Corporation (EDMC). In 2016, 22 of 27 Brown Mackie campuses closed as Brown Mackie's parent company faced major legal and financial problems related to consumer fraud. The Akron campus was closed in September 2016 and the remaining campuses were sold to the Dream Center Foundation in 2017. Several  Brown Mackie colleges were nationally accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, which subsequently lost its accreditation power. History. Brown Mackie College was founded in 1892 in Salina, Kansas as the Kansas Wesleyan School of Business. In 1938, two of its former instructors, Perry E. Brown and A.B. Mackie, incorporated the school as The Brown Mackie School of Business. The school was licensed by the Kansas Board of Regents to grant associate degrees in 1986. Between the 1930s and 1990s the school in Salina, and other schools that would later carry the Brown Mackie name, were managed  by several different organizations before being purchased by American Education Centers (AEC) in 1993. In 2003, Education Management Corporation (EDMC) acquired eighteen schools from AEC, including the original Brown Mackie College, and rebranded them all under the Brown Mackie name the following year. Throughout the mid-to-late 2000s, the university system was expanded with the construction of new Brown Mackie colleges. EDMC reported that it owned 28 Brown Mackie College campuses and enrolled 17,000 students in May 2013. In June 2016, EDMC announced plans to close all but four Brown Mackie campuses due to severe drops in enrollment following  lawsuits that cost the college system millions, damaged its reputation, and puts its accreditation in jeopardy. Enrolled students were allowed to finish their degrees prior to closing. Legal issues. In 2007, two whistleblowers filed a lawsuit claiming that Brown Mackie recruiters received perks based on the number of students they were able to enroll, regardless of whether the student's success or completion of the program. Though the company denied these allegations, EDMC and the Obama administration reached a $95.5 million settlement with the Justice Department in 2015. In 2011, another lawsuit was filed once again alleging Brown Mackie  illegally incentivized meeting recruitment goals. This case reached a settlement in 2015 wherein EDMC agreed to reform recruiting practices, including disclosure of the transferability of Brown Mackie credits, more accurate representations of expected graduate outcomes, and more detailed information about taking out federal loans to help pay for a Brown Mackie education. Brown Mackie was also required to forgive $102.8 million in loans for students who enrolled briefly between 2006 and 2014 and were given misleading information about taking out federal loans. More than 80,000 students were impacted by this settlement. Each qualifying former student and each of the  credit reporting agencies were to be notified of the settlement, and the settlement will be paid through 2022. In 2016, eleven former Brown Mackie nursing students in Tucson, Arizona, sued the school for consumer fraud. The plaintiffs alleged that the poor training they received left them unable to be gainfully employed. The plaintiffs expected to graduate in 2015 until a state nursing board investigation found some of the school's faculty were unqualified and were using veterinary supplies to teach students how to care for human patients. The Arizona State Board of Nursing barred the Brown Mackie students from taking  the practical nurses licensing exam and ordered the school to retrain the students at the company's expense. Brown Mackie was barred from enrolling new nursing students for two years following the incident, though the college system was shut down before the program could resume. Academics. Brown Mackie colleges offered degrees at the bachelor's and associate level as well as academic certificates. Areas of study at the schools included nursing, early childhood education, business and technology, healthcare and wellness, legal studies and construction trades. Beginning in the spring of 2012, Brown Mackie began replacing traditional textbooks with digital textbooks  as part of their new Student Advantage Program, which outfits incoming students with iPads in an effort to save students about $200 each term. Within a year, 13,000 students had opted in. In 2014, Brown Mackie teamed up with the Smart Horizons and Cengage to help nontraditional, low-income students, such as high school dropouts, finish their high school degree. The program was offered on eight Brown Mackie campuses, including Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Miami, Phoenix, St. Louis, North Canton, and Louisville. Some campuses offered options for distance education. Athletics. The official name for the Brown Mackie College – Salina  teams was the Lions. The Lions participated in three sports, baseball, basketball, and softball. They were part of the National Junior College Athletic Association and were an affiliate member of the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference. The Kansas City campus briefly fielded athletic programs under the nickname "Cougars."