Edmonds Cc To Pull Out Of Japan -- March Closing Of Kobe Campus To End Era Plagued By Scandal

LYNNWOOD - After seven years, the last of Edmonds Community College's Japanese campuses is closing, ending an era that began with high hopes and - as it later was learned - bribes and kickbacks.

Jack Oharah, EdCC's new president, announced yesterday the college's campus in Kobe, Japan, will close March 15, after the end of the semester. The letter blamed the closure on financial difficulties caused by a dearth of students - from 600 at the start to 47, seven of them American, this quarter.

"Recruitment of students to go to that campus just wasn't working out," said EdCC spokeswoman Carol Berg-Christiansen. "It was an educational outreach that maybe the timing wasn't right."

A contract the college has for one remaining foreign program, in Shenzen, China, will not be renewed after one more quarter, she said.

The Kobe campus was opened in 1990 amid great fanfare. It was an effort to give EdCC students and faculty an opportunity to study and teach in Japan, and at the same time, provide Japanese students with a two-year college experience.

It also was a much-lauded public-private partnership, with Japanese backers, that was supposed to bring revenue to EdCC.

Tom Nielsen, then EdCC president, was considered a state leader in education because of that project and an EdCC campus in Tokyo.

But the Tokyo campus closed only months after opening in 1993 amid allegations that its Japanese operator disappeared with students' tuition money.

At the time, EdCC administrators conceded their background check on the man had not been "exhaustive," but hastened to point out that the Kobe campus was doing well.

But two years later, in 1995, allegations of financial improprieties began surfacing against Nielsen.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Nielsen accepted nine payments totaling $54,592 between December 1988 and January 1993 from the developer of the Kobe campus.

He also took $19,805 between 1994 and 1995 from a Malaysian group seeking to be the agent for EdCC's proposed twin campus at Shenzen University. Nielsen was to be paid $50 for each student.

In December, Nielsen was sentenced to two years in federal prison for the bribes and kickbacks.

The Japanese developer went bankrupt, and EdCC is still seeking $800,000 officials say is owed the college in Japanese Bankruptcy Court.

Yesterday, Berg-Christiansen said that she supposed the Nielsen affair did not help enrollment.

"I'm sure the Japanese press covered those stories. They certainly would not have been positive stories," she said. "That may have had an impact on student enrollment."

Additionally, Berg-Christiansen said, the two-year college concept is new in Japan, and four-year universities there will not accept credits from them, "which was a big frustration for us."

"When you think about the Japanese culture, which is a lot older than ours, introducing a new concept in education would take more than the six years we tried," she said. "Let's talk in 20 years."

Finally, she said, a downturn in the Japanese economy undoubtedly affected enrollment until Jun Maeda, the Japanese partner who replaced the original partner, told EdCC officials he was no longer willing to subsidize operations of the Kobe campus.

Oharah's letter to the Kobe faculty about their campus closure said: "I know this comes as a shock to most of you. . . . I wish there had been more time for you to prepare for this transition, but we were optimistic the marketing would be successful in finding qualified students for the April start."

For the eight Edmonds faculty and staff members affected, "We will do whatever we can to assist them in finding new employment, either here or in Japan," Oharah's letter to local staffers said.

Kobe students not graduating in March will be assisted in transferring to the Lynnwood campus, although the type of assistance has not yet been decided, Berg-Christiansen said.

Most faculty and staff members at the Lynnwood campus thought closing the Kobe campus was a "realistic" decision, she said.

"A lot of people from the beginning have tried hard to make it work," she said. "But it didn't come together, and it was time to take this step."

EdCC continues to operate English as a Second Language and other programs on its Lynnwood campus for about 800 international students from 50 countries.

The college enrolls a total of 8,500 students.