An Ohio resident has filed a federal class action suit against Mountain State University.
The Bell Law Firm and The Googasian Firm filed the suit, which asserts the university's loss of accreditation has "made it impossible" for class members to obtain accredited credentials.
Lynnetta Martin filed the 23-page lawsuit against MSU, its former president Charles H. Polk, and trustees Jerry Ice, Max Beard, Mona K. Wiseman, Frank S. Harkins Jr., Harriet W. Cabell, Elmer Coppoolse and Lynn Blanchard.
Martin enrolled in the school's online computer science associate degree program in 2010. In the suit, Martin says she has incurred, "thousands of dollars in tuition expenses."
The suit defines the class as, "all individuals who reside outside of West Virginia and had enrolled in any program at MSU prior to July 10, 2012." The suit seeks damages for similarly situated members who enrolled in MSU's programs.
Officials with the University of Charleston recently announced they would open a Beckley Center near MSU to serve as a primary teach-out partner.
"I think it is a good move to see West Virginia institutions growing and expanding that places the students first," said Harry Bell, founder and attorney at The Bell Law Firm. "From that perspective, the people of Raleigh County and students of that institution need to have a quality of leadership that a respected institution can offer."
This came on the heels of the Higher Learning Commission's June 28 decision to withdraw MSU's accreditation. However, accreditation has been temporarily restored through the end of the year.
The lawsuit alleges the university breached its duty of care to plaintiffs by failing to maintain accreditation and taking steps to maintain accreditation.
Plaintiffs also allege negligent misrepresentation against MSU, asserting defendants made "one or more innocent, negligent or reckless omissions of the fact" including the representation that the university had accreditation and leading students to believe it would continue to possess accreditation.
The suit also asserted plaintiffs were not advised of the risk of losing accreditation.
This is not the first time this year a class action has been filed against MSU. Both firms filed another class action July 12 on behalf of Rebecca Mullis, a Florida resident enrolled in an online diagnostic medical sonography program.
This class is defined as "all individuals who enrolled in an online medical diagnostic sonography program at Mountain State University at any time from the program's inception in 2007 to the present, for whom Mountain State provided no clinical externship site within three hours of the students' home or another practicable location in the student's area."
Mullis, who enrolled in the program in 2008, alleges MSU did not have and did not attempt to locate a clinical externship location in her area. Mullis says she incurred approximately $60,000 in student loan debt.
"One of the things that is interesting is most of the time, student loan debt is non-dischargeable in bankruptcy," Bell said. "A typical example of someone who is over their head—you lose your job, medical bills are crushing you. You go through bankruptcy. …Therefore it can just be crushing more people for a longer period of time."
The suit states completion of a clinical externship was necessary to become licensed to practice diagnostic medical sonography.
"As a result of Mountain State's breaches of its obligations, the time and money invested by plaintiff and other class members has been wasted because the students cannot complete their programs and obtain the credentials toward which they have been working and paying tuition," the suit asserts.
Both suits mentioned MSU's expansion to different states as well as online classes. It also mentioned the former president's salary.
The suit additionally asserts MSU took on $10.2 million in debt to refinance its $7 million purchase loan to fund improvements to the Martinsburg Mall and for the opening of an integrated learning center. The suit maintains the learning center never "fully opened."
"The expansion undertaken by Mountain State, Polk and the Trustee Defendants failed to preserve the academic and financial standing of the school," the Martin suit alleged.
The Webb Law Firm PLC and DiTrapano, Barrett & DiPiero PLLC also filed a class action suit, which seeks class certification on behalf of all current and former students affected by the loss of accreditation.
The suit, filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court defined this class as "all West Virginia residents who were enrolled as students of Mountain State University at any time since July 10 2008, who have not yet received a degree as of the time of the filing of this complaint."
Excluded from this class are those who have filed individual lawsuits regarding the 2010 revocation of accreditation for MSU's undergraduate nursing program.
"We are delighted UC is going to take over the facilities. It's good for Beckley and good for students, but we still have substantial damages because all of the students who transferred will inevitably lose a lot of credits associated with that transfer," said Rusty Webb, an attorney with The Webb Law Firm. "Even though UC is taking over the facilities and programs, there will still be a lot of credits that will not transfer because of the quality of education received at Mountain State. We are still going forward."
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