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What Edison State is doing about the nursing school scandal?

Edison president calls nursing scandal "regrettable"

CREATED Aug. 23, 2011

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  • Letters going out today to the 83 students who've graduated from Edison's bachelor's in nursing program, telling them the school is not accredited. Video by fox4now.com

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FORT MYERS - Letters going out today to the 83 students who've graduated from Edison's bachelor's in nursing program, telling them the school is not accredited and that it will do all it can to help students who might affected.

"Unfortunate situation" and "serious problem" are just a few of the words used by the board of trustees to describe the issues with the school's Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program. 

"The students allege they were told we had accreditation," said Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Steve Atkins at a briefing to the board and college president Dr. Kenneth Walker at Tuesday night's meeting.

"Obviously we regret any misinformation provided to students, and we're talking the necessary actions to correct that," says Dr. Walker. "We're contacting the students individually and offering our assistance in any way we can," he adds.

All accrediting counsels and other Florida colleges and universities are getting letters too. And the school is appointing an advocate for students to help them transfer to other schools and help graduates apply to master's programs.

"It certainly regrettable when students are disadvantaged in anyway, and we'll do anything we can to help them work through those situations," says Walker.

And what about Ashley Blakely who came to us after she says she was rejected from multiple grad schools because the program is not accredited?

"If a student says he or she sought acceptance into a master's program then we would like to see a copy of the rejection letter if in fact they've been rejected," Walker tells Fox 4. "To my knowledge we have not received anything like that."

To be clear, the nursing program is not required to be accredited to give out degrees, but that accreditation is what many grad schools require. And in fact, the associate's program is accredited.