Hollywood, Florida’s City College has suddenly announced it is closing. According to WPLG-10 television, the school, which has offered degrees in health care careers, sent an email to students Monday saying the school will “cease enrollment and teach-out its existing programs.” The email said the school “anticipates” continuing to teach students through the fall and winter terms to allow students who are close to graduating to finish their studies.

When a TV reporter, Layron Livingston, visited campus today, he found no classes in session, and “a man appeared and demanded” that Livingston leave, and then called law enforcement, according to the TV report.

The school also informed faculty that they will be terminated.

City College was previously a for-profit school, acquired in 1987 by C.M. Fike. Before purchasing City College, Fike had been involved with running a for-profit beauty school, based in Casselberry, Florida, with Arthur Keiser, who now presides over a college empire that has faced multiple problems with law enforcement and accreditors.

Fike eventually converted City College to a non-profit, one of the first such conversions.

After Fike’s 2007 death, at age 58, his widow, Esther Fike Curry, took over City College. For many years, Ms. Curry received about $350,000 in annual compensation from the school. But in 2017, according to the school’s IRS filing, she received $1.84 million, and the school’s chief operating officer, James Howard, received $1.25 million. The school that year reported a $1.7 million loss on revenues of $24.2 million. 

The most recent IRS filing, from August 2023, reports that Ms. Curry, the school’s president, received $153,000, and chief financial officer Robert Curry received $167,000.