SAN ANTONIO – In a line that wrapped around the corner of the Spencer Lane Career Point building Friday, dozens of students waited to get their transcripts from the now-shuttered school.
Career Point College announced it was shutting down on Oct. 16, blaming the closure on funding restrictions that had been imposed by the Department of Education after the school self-reported violations involving student aid. The sudden closure took students and staff by surprise, and left students worrying about their unfinished education.
Just shy of two weeks later, the students queued up in the heat and were let into the building a few at a time. They emerged from a side door with transcripts in hand.
"The lines are taking forever," said Erin Colombo, a student who was in the licensed vocational nurse program. “There's a lot of word that the transcripts aren't even complete."
While she waited to get her transcript, Colombo said, people from her class told her there was quite a bit missing from theirs. Some students KSAT spoke to weren't happy with what their transcripts said either.
"The class that we were in to finish, which was psychiatry and mother/baby, we got absolutely no credit for, even though we had one week left. Pretty disappointing," said Misty Hernandez, a nursing student in the LVN to registered nurse program.
For these students, getting their transcripts means they might be able to continue getting their education elsewhere. It might not be so easy, though.
Deseree Hubbert said only prerequisites transfer, not nursing core classes. Even though she was five credits short of graduation, she said she can't go to another school.
"Now we're kind of screwed. We don't know what to do," Hubbert said.
Hubbert and others are hoping to use a so-called "teach out" option that Career Point said it is trying to establish with another institution. According to a handout given to students Friday, that would include using the same facilities and 100 percent credit transferability.
"I don't want to start all over," said Brenda Augustine, who said she was 10 weeks shy of graduation when the school folded.
The students said they started school to better themselves and Career Point's closure doesn't change that goal.
"This is just a barrier, but I'm going to continue one way or the other," said Rita Villarreal as she waited in line.
When KSAT 12 looked for looking for comment at the Spencer Lane building, we were told no one there could talk.