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WNIJ's summary of news items around our state.

About 1,000 Illinois Students Displaced After ITT Technical Institute Closes

Flickr user Forsaken Fotos / "Itt Tech tv" (CC V 2.0)

Nearly 1,000 Illinois students may have to continue their studies elsewhere after ITT Technical Institute announced its closure last week.

There were four ITT Technical Institute locations in Illinois: Arlington Heights, Oakbrook, Orland Park and Springfield. Illinois Community College Board officials say the state’s 48 community colleges are trying to point potential transfer students in the right direction; that includes Elgin Community College.

ECC Dean Gregory Robinson says the school already fielded calls from potential ITT Tech transfers, but ECC will have a better idea of how many displaced students are interested in transferring after the school’s ITT student-specific open house.

“Our goal at this point is to make sure that we’re continuously focused on outreach efforts to those ITT students because we want to make sure that they have the opportunity to complete their educational goals, despite those recent barriers that they may have encountered,” Robinson said.

Robinson says former ITT students will have two options: They can pursue their degree emphasis as planned – like business management or information technology – or they can start over with a new degree, like nursing.

“What’s we’re going to try to do for these particular students, if they’re interested in starting on a 12-week session – which starts next week – we’ll try to expedite that transcript evaluation process,” Robinson said.

Robinson says more inquiries came from former ITT students at the Arlington Heights location than the Oakbrook location. He says the new influx of students would help the school financially, given the state’s current fiscal situation.

State veterans’ affairs officials say about 78 Illinois veterans were enrolled at ITT Technical Institute.

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