Private Colleges Learn How to Make a Mark : Some have prospered by carving out specialized career programs. But one school had its license revoked by the state.

As the third-oldest independent college in Southern California, Woodbury University in Burbank--a small private institution with a solid reputation for turning out architects and fashion designers--has a nagging problem.

Although the school was founded in 1884, Woodbury’s administrators decided this year that their biggest problem was that the campus remains virtually unknown to the general public. So the university recently hired a public relations firm to help it develop a community image--110 years after opening for business.

Such anonymity is one of many issues faced by the private colleges, universities and trade schools that operate in the San Fernando Valley, adjoining valleys and Ventura County. This region has at least 26 degree-granting institutions, plus an estimated 140 state-licensed career schools.

While the local private schools have been largely overshadowed by an array of public and higher-profile schools in Southern California, some private schools have prospered through the recession by carving out specialized academic or career programs in the education marketplace.

Some local nonprofit schools such as Woodbury and Learning Tree University, which operates in Chatsworth and Thousand Oaks, have increased their enrollments in recent years despite the recession. During the same period, Cal State University and community college enrollments have dropped as their fees have risen.

Woodbury President Paul Sago said because his school has focused on just a few career-specific programs it has kept enrollment strong even though Woodbury’s tuition also has increased, 8% to 12% annually in recent years. “I think we are distinctive. . .in that the students we graduate from Woodbury University are employable,” Sago said.

The private school sector has its problems, however, especially among for-profit schools. Lax state regulation through the 1980s led California to gain a national reputation as a haven for diploma mills that sold degrees. And financial-aid fraud and questionable programs still abound, officials said.

In one case, the state in June revoked the license of 18-year-old Kensington University in Glendale--a for-profit, study-at-home school that offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in many fields--after finding it failed to meet state standards. The school’s owner has denied the allegations and he plans to challenge the ruling in court.

Illustrating the vast differences among private schools, Woodbury University, except for its narrow course offerings, operates much like a traditional university. Woodbury has an attractive campus, more than 1,000 students, and its classes have lecturers, laboratories and a library. By comparison, the Learning Tree, headquartered in industrial buildings, resembles UCLA’s extension program with night courses on a wide variety of trendy topics. And Kensington’s study-at-home approach holds no actual classes.

That diversity is echoed through the region’s private schools. Among the ones that grant academic degrees, for instance, arts are the specialty at the respected California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, while Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula takes a “read great books” approach to learning. Among career schools, Castaic has the Paradise Ranch Racing School for horse racing jockeys, hopeful Philip Marlowes can learn at the Nick Harris Detective Academy in Van Nuys, and state records show an American Academy of Body Sculpting in Westlake Village for aspiring fitness trainers.

*

The regulation process of these schools is Byzantine. Most private post-secondary schools are regulated by the state Council for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, a little-known agency which oversees more than 2,100 private career schools. The council also regulates 200-plus private colleges and universities that are not accredited by another prominent group, the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Woodbury, though, is accredited by WASC, so it does not need state approval. Learning Tree’s founder said he has received an exemption from the state. But Kensington is regulated, and it was the council in June that voted to revoke its state approval.

“California has always been geared toward its public education system. But most people know very little about the private segment of education,” said Kenneth Miller, executive director of the council, created by the Legislature in 1991 to overhaul the state’s regulatory system.

Proponents of private colleges and career schools argue they are less bureaucratic and more responsive than public schools, both in catering to students’ needs and to the changing demands of the work force. Woodbury, for example, also offers night-only and weekend-only degree programs.

But there are downsides. Part-time faculty accounts for 80% of Woodbury’s 129 instructors. And part-time teachers are the only ones offered at Learning Tree and Kensington--far larger shares than at public schools. Library facilities are small, in Woodbury’s case, and virtually nonexistent for the other two universities.

Tuition can be steep: At Woodbury tuition runs more than $12,000 a year, several times the annual cost of a Cal State school. Kensington charges from $2,895 for bachelor’s degrees to nearly $4,500 for doctorates in engineering. Learning Tree’s fees are per course, averaging about $125.

*

As illustrated by the major differences among these three private schools, almost any institution in California can call itself a university, despite the ivy-walled traditions conjured by the term, because there are few enforced rules about what actually constitutes one.

At Woodbury, which has a $13-million annual budget, there are no intercollegiate sports teams, no debating club, no English, math or science majors, and no tenured faculty. The university offers only bachelor’s degrees in various fields of business, design and architecture, and a master’s degree in business.

The university, founded in downtown Los Angeles as Woodbury Business College, converted to nonprofit status in 1972 and moved to its 22-acre Burbank campus in 1987 hoping to halt dwindling enrollment. The move worked somewhat, with enrollment increasing from nearly 800 in 1987 to 1,089 last fall.

But that performance, while better than many public schools, is less than the 100-students-a-year-increase that Sago set as a goal when he arrived as Woodbury’s president in 1990. He blamed the recession, a shortage of on-campus housing, and the move of a Lockheed plant from Burbank to Palmdale, and other factors.

Still, Sago maintains that Woodbury’s practical, career-oriented approach is the trend of the future. To generate more enrollment, the university added architecture in the mid-1980s, the weekend program in 1987 and the night program in 1991, the latter two offering business degrees.

At Learning Tree University’s headquarters in Chatsworth, President Michael Gould boasted that enrollments in his array of quick-hit classes have been steadily increasing ever since he co-founded the school as a disgruntled Cal State Northridge business freshman in 1974.

The mostly night courses, emphasizing career training and personal improvement for adults, vary from painting and makeup artistry to international business and environmental management. Learning Tree does not award degrees, although some classes carry college credits.

Although enrollment growth flattened during the recent recession, Gould said, “We tend to be chameleons to the marketplace. We’ll figure out what sells even in slow economic times.” Thus Learning Tree has begun offering career-related certificate programs and now has several dozen.

Like Woodbury, Learning Tree started as a for-profit school but switched to nonprofit status. By law, nonprofit entities are required to have annual financial statements available for public inspection. But Gould did not produce his school’s statement for a week’s period despite repeated requests.

Gould, however, said Learning Tree generated about $6 million in gross revenue last year, up substantially from previous years. Enrollments, counted as one every time someone signs up for a class, grew from about 32,000 in 1990 to more than 41,000 last year, he said.

Learning Tree’s offerings, which typically run in two-month cycles, are laid out in a 50-plus-page catalogue. About 460,000 copies of the catalogue are printed each term, Gould said.

The school began in Chatsworth, expanded to Thousand Oaks in the early 1980s, and now is planning to open an Orange County campus.

At Kensington University, owner-attorney Alfred Calabro said he offers a range of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees to working adults through “accelerated programs, no fat, no bull.” Students read portions of books and articles at home, then send in written reports and tests.

Calabro maintains that the state council acted hastily in revoking his school’s approval and claims the council is on a campaign to close similar non-traditional schools. But the council’s final report last month concluded much of Kensington’s offerings failed to meet even minimum state standards.

The report cited one case of a doctoral student who received four units credit with an A grade for reading popular magazine articles and writing short reaction papers.

Kensington, which opened in 1976 and is housed on one floor of a Glendale office building, also awards students academic credit for past work experiences.

“We’ve been going for 18 years. These state (regulators) are not supposed to be executioners. They’re supposed to improve the quality of education and try to work something out,” Calabro said.

The university, which claims more than 600 students worldwide, tangled with the state before in the early 1980s, but settled by paying about $12,000 into a scholarship fund.

This time, the state has ordered Calabro to halt enrollments and stop offering degrees. Calabro says his next step will be to appeal the state’s ruling in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Degree-Granting Private Colleges, Universities

In the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County areas, there are more than two dozen private, higher education schools that offer degrees. One way schools are rated is by their accreditation, a voluntary process in which educators periodically assess a school’s compliance with certain standards. The most prominent affiliation in California is the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges. Some trade schools and others are accredited by various federally approved associations. And some schools have no accreditation, but they still have been approved by the state to offer academic degrees.

INSTITUTIONS ACCREDITED BY THE WESTERN ASSN. OF SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES (WASC):

Institution/location: California Family Study Center, North Hollywood Degrees offered: Master’s Enrollment: 280 Business type: nonprofit Subjects: family therapy

Institution/location: California Institute of the Arts, Valencia Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Master’s Enrollment: 1,061 Business type: nonprofit Subjects: visual and performing arts

Institution/location: The Master’s College and Seminary, Santa Clarita Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Master’s Enrollment: 797 Business type: nonprofit religious Subjects: liberal arts and theology

Institution/location: National University, Sherman Oaks center Degrees offered: Associate-Master’s Enrollment: 225 Business type: nonprofit Subjects: business, education,psychology

Institution/location: Pepperdine University, Encino center Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Master’s Enrollment: 650 Business type: nonprofit Churches of Christ Subjects: business, education, psychology

Institution/location: University of La Verne, Burbank center* Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Master’s Enrollment: 500 Business type: nonprofit Subjects: business, health care

Institution/location: University of La Verne College of Law, Encino campus Degrees offered: Juris Doctor Enrollment: 280 Business type: nonprofit Subjects: legal

Institution/location: Woodbury University, Burbank Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Master’s Enrollment: 1,089 Business type: nonprofit Subjects: business, design and architecture

Institution/location: California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks** Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Master’s Enrollment: 2,963 Business type: nonprofit Lutheran Subjects: liberal arts

Institution/location: St. John’s Seminary College, Camarillo Degrees offered: Bachelor’s Enrollment: 90 Business type: nonprofit Catholic Subjects: priest training

Institution/location: St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo Degrees offered: Master’s Enrollment: 130 Business type: nonprofit Catholic Subjects: priest training

Institution/location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula Degrees offered: Bachelor’s Enrollment: 215 Business type: nonprofit Catholic Subjects: liberal arts

Institution/location: West Coast University, Camarillo center Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Master’s Enrollment: 60 Business type: nonprofit Subjects: business, engineering

INSTITUTIONS ACCREDITED BY OTHER FEDERALLY APPROVED AGENCIES:

Institution/location: Phillips Junior College, Northridge campus Degrees offered: Associate Enrollment: 600 Business type: for-profit Subjects: business, computer, paralegal

Institution/location: ITT Technical Institute, Van Nuys campus Degrees offered: Associate Enrollment: 416 Business type: for-profit Subjects: drafting and electronics

Institution/location: Glendale University College of Law, Glendale Degrees offered: Juris Doctor Enrollment: 160 Business type: for-profit Subjects: legal

Institution/location: University of Phoenix, Van Nuys center Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Master’s Enrollment: 950 Business type: for-profit Subjects: business, management, nursing

Institution/location: ITT Technical Institute, Oxnard campus Degrees offered: Associate Enrollment: 112 Business type: for-profit Subjects: drafting and electronics

Institution/location: Ventura College of Law, Ventura Degrees offered: Juris Doctor Enrollment: 185 Business type: nonprofit Subjects: legal

STATE-APPROVED, NON-ACCREDITED INSTITUTIONS:

Institution/location: California National University for Advanced Studies, North Hills Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Master’s Enrollment: 55 Business type: for-profit Subjects: business administration and engineering

Institution/location: Kensington University, Glendale (approval revoked June, ‘94) Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Doctorate Enrollment: 647 Business type: for-profit Subjects: various independent study

Institution/location: Soka University of America, Calabasas Degrees offered: Master’s Enrollment: 15 Business type: nonprofit Subjects: ESL teacher training

Institution/location: Southern California Conservatory of Music, Sun Valley Degrees offered: Bachelor’s Enrollment: 44 Business type: nonprofit Subjects: music

Institution/location: Western American University, Woodland Hills Center Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Doctorate Enrollment: 30 Business type: for-profit Subjects: psychology

Institution/location: Southern California Institute of Law, Ventura Center Degrees offered: Juris Doctor Enrollment: 33 Business type: for-profit Subjects: legal

Institution/location: World University of America, Ojai Degrees offered: Bachelor’s-Master’s Enrollment: 30 Business type: nonprofit religious Subjects: philosophy, psychology, religious studies

* Also classes in Woodland Hills, Palmdale, Valencia and Thousand Oaks

** Plus graduate centers in Oxnard, North Hollywood and Woodland Hills

Sources: State of California, the individual schools and WASC