Thread regarding Art Institutes layoffs

On the record with BN, Studio Enterprise

From BN, Studio Enterprise:

(*) Who owns Studio Enterprise? The NY Times indicated that Colbeck had a stake in Studio. Is that still the case? Studio is owned by a group of institutional investors along with management.

(*) Who are Studio's major clients? Studio is subject to standard confidentiality agreements and therefore not able to disclose the entirety of that information. However, it is public knowledge that Studio provides non-core services to South University and Art Institutes.

(*) Studio's annual Revenues & Profits? Studio is a private company and does not disclose or report financial performance. However, it is very important to note that Studio has not made any profit on the services it has provided to South or Ai since the beginning of the relationship. In both cases, Studio has delivered services AT COST and forgiven all unpaid Service Margin owed by both institutions. Without that accommodation and Studio’s support, neither institution would have been able to separate from DCEH nor survive the Pandemic.

(*) What kind of work does Studio do in marketing? Studio is a full-service marketing agency.

(*) What kind of work does Studio do in compliance? Studio offers 3rd party monitoring services that help institutions adhere to Regulations.

(*) Have you or Studio been involved in attempting to sell South University or the Art Institutes? Any strategic initiatives of the institutions are not for Studio to comment on given our role as a service provider.

(*) Studio Enterprise is mentioned 121 times in the OIG report. Can you comment on the facts of this investigation? Studio is repeatedly cited as part of the solution to the Dream Center Education Foundation (DCEH) debacle. Studio was the only company that had the capability to save these schools from closing by offering critical non-core support services. Studio supplied the OIG most of the data relied upon to create the report and is not found to have done anything other than help the remaining schools survive. If you read the OIG report, and my answers to your questions, you must conclude that there was no “scandal.” Hanging in the balance were +12K active students, +2K employees, hundreds of vendors and 10s of thousands of alumni that would never have been able to obtain their student records if it were not for the intervention of Studio.

Comments to other questions that you have posed:

The schools each operate completely independently of EPF, and each other, each with their own, separate, and entirely independent self-perpetuating boards of trustees. Studio does not and cannot have any control over the institutions.
As you noted, neither Studio nor Colbeck were included in the lawsuit that you keep surfacing. Studio obviously can’t comment on a lawsuit it was not a part of and that appears to have been dismissed anyway.

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Looks like the previous owners Dream Center DCEH were partners with STUDIO Enterprises also https://www.dcedh.org/partner-institutions. Coincidence much? Mind you Dream Center DCEH started out by enrolling homeless people in Los Angeles. This was the only way so save the Art Institutes - due to Gainful employment. It had to be non profit.

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Post ID: @1suw+1kwcdU5A

And the follow up with BN:

HEI: As a private company, why would Studio Enterprise provide services to very large independent companies without profits for years? Why would your owners allow you to provide services at cost? Does Studio Enterprise have a philanthropic mission? What is the strategy of forgiving unpaid service margin? Does Studio have such a policy for all clients?

BN: "We don’t believe that any sound business relationship should be one sided. Studio and its investors feel as though making profits while the institutions struggle, isn’t a sound business model nor fundamentally what we are about.

From the outset, Studio knew it had a critical role to play in supporting these institutions as they separated themselves from DCEH – we committed ourselves to that support and delivered for the schools.

As the Pandemic hit, we committed our support to these schools once again, and have delivered. We are not a charity, or a foundation and ultimately believe that we should be able to profit from the Services that we provide (as any service provider does), but not to the detriment of the strength and stability of the institutions we serve. We will win together or not at all."

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