Brooks Appoints New President
Scandal-Plagued School Praises New Leader's Candor
Brooks Institute has appointed Roger Anderson to serve as its president, the photography school announced on January 29. Anderson has been serving as interim president of the photography school since June, 2007, after joining the organization as Vice President of Operations a year earlier. A statement quoting Anthony Stanziani, managing director of Brook’s parent company, the Career Education Corporation praised Anderson’s “candor” and his fostering of “integrity and direct, open, and honest communication.”
In 2005, Brooks was tainted by scandal when the now-defunct California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education accused the school of willfully misleading prospective students in order to get them to enroll, by indicating that high-salaried careers awaited them. The bureau said that the school, which has campuses in Santa Barbara and Ventura, both falsified and omitted pertinent facts. Brooks successfully appealed the bureau’s order that Brooks and its parent company provide restitution to students. However, by late 2007, enrollment had dropped from 2,300 to 1,900 at Brooks’ two campuses, in Santa Barbara and Ventura, and the school laid off 17 members of its faculty and staff. Anderson has served as college president at several institutions of higher education.