Vocational School Shuts Down Without Notice : Education: Merit College never recovered from post-quake enrollment drop. Students, teachers are left shocked and angry.

Friday was supposed to be a good day at Merit College in Van Nuys.

The day before, the state of California had given the vocational school permission to award associate of arts degrees to graduating paralegals. Friday night was the graduating party for court reporters. Best of all, there was less than a month left in the semester.

Instead, the owner of the school closed it without notice, leaving about 900 students and their instructors angry, upset and in the lurch.

“They could have done something in a more responsible way than this,” said Caryn Conlin, who had hoped to take her court-reporting qualifying exam in November after taking classes for five years. “It seems they weren’t going to tell us at all.”

The school, which has operated out of a five-story building on Sepulveda Boulevard near Sherman Way since 1967, was jolted by a steep drop in enrollment after the Northridge earthquake, said Larry Fieselman, attorney for owner J. Robert Evans of San Diego.

“We lost about 35% of our student body and never recovered,” Fieselman said. “There was no way (we) could continue to operate.”

Fieselman said Evans will file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in the next 10 days. Chapter 7 is a legal means of warding off creditors while a company tries to reorganize. It is sometimes a precursor to full bankruptcy.

Through his attorney, Evans declined to answer questions. Merit College was a private, accredited vocational college that offered paralegal and court-reporting courses. An advanced degree is not necessary to land a job in either field, although court reporters are required to pass a state exam. It’s not clear how many of the credits earned at the school will be accepted by other institutions. At greatest risk are the graduating students, who may or may not get their diplomas, school officials said.

The first hint of what was going to happen came Thursday night when students showed up for classes.

“When we came, we asked why the library and everything else was closed. They told us that everybody was sick,” said Maria Osorio, a court-reporting student.

On Friday morning, the scene turned angry. Students--some of whom had spent more than $20,000 to prepare for credentials in court reporting and paralegal jobs--milled outside the school waiting for answers. Several attempted to get inside the building to crash a meeting between the school’s administration and some of its 70 instructors, but were kept out. Police were called, but no one was arrested.

By about 11:30 a.m., an administrator emerged from the school building accompanied by a police escort to tell the dozens of anxious students what they already knew: They were on their own.

Fieselman acknowledged that the decision to close the college was sudden, but said that was partially by design--a way to keep things running smoothly as long as possible.

“There’s really no easy way to do it,” he said. “You have to cut it off at some point in time. If you announce you are closing in 30 days, then you have other problems, like your teachers leave or some of your students leave.

“I feel really bad for them,” Fieselman added. “Being a student is a time when you are supposed to be having fun.”

A group of some of the college’s instructors and staff members--who also lost their jobs when the school closed--said they are talking to attorneys to see if there is any legal way they can continue to teach the students. Some said they would even volunteer their time.

At minimum, Merit students should be eligible to have part or all of their educational loans forgiven by the federal government, said Deborah Godfrey, a state education analyst.

But many students still worried that they had accumulated massive debts with little likelihood of finding employment any time soon.

“I have $20,000 in debt,” said Conlin. “I have no choice but to try to find another school.”