Let's get real here, guys. AIFL was a good school to many students. And it was a horrible place for many students - this is no fault of anyone who worked at AFIl though. AIFL was part of a company that had a culture of accepting students who had no business being in any school...even a mediocre art school like AIFL.
Many of AIFL's faculty were extremely dedicated teachers and professionals. The names of many of them come to mind. Several were also sleazebags and halfwits. This is also not necessarily the fault of any one person at AIFL. In order to stay afloat (especially near the end) it was necessary to employ sub par faculty who didn't possess the "worldliness" an patience required to be a college professor or instructor at this sort of school with these sorts of students.
The same goes for staff. Some were great, others left much to be desired.
But before you attack the school and its legacy, or any one person at AIFL, consider this: outliers aside, for the most part, the faculty and staff at AIFl meant well. They were educators and artists with the shared goal of educating students in the applied arts to ensure they could find meaningful careers in the area that they loved enough to study for 2-3 years.
It is unfair to suggest anyone was "drinking the kool aid." Everyone at AIFL - staff, faculty, and students - knew what this place was. It wasn't Harvard. It wasn't UM. It wasn't even FIU or Broward College. It was a school meant to serve a unique population of students who would never thrive in those schools.
If you came here by choice, you were one of those students. And no one at AIFL tried to mislead or injure your future. AIFL's parent companies (EDMC, DCEH, etc) were certainly awful places with misleading and ill-willed practices. But your AIFL family had your back the whole time. Remember that the next time you insult the place or it's community.
And seriously DCEH and EDMC are horrible places!!!
Perfectly said, @WBdnO4C-6qhd. Thank you for this.