Nursing students sue Salem University

Former Salem International University nursing students are suing the West Virginia college, absorbed by Japan’s Teikyo University in 1990 for $20 million, over accreditation issues.

The students were enrolled in and paid tuition to Salem’s School of Nursing Associate Degree program. They found out in July 2013 that Salem lacked the accreditation for the program and that they would not receive tuition refunds.

In a June 2013 meeting, the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses noted that Salem failed to cease and desist all admissions to all nursing programs representing progression toward earning a nursing degree.

The board said Salem’s nursing program suffers from a lack of decision-making authority for the nursing program and failed to maintain at least an 80 percent passing rate on the licensure examination by first-time candidates.

The lawsuit was filed by  D. Adrian Hoosier II and the Hoosier Law Firm.

Established in 1888 as Salem College, in 1990 the Japanese purchased Salem and renamed it Salem Teikyo University. The idea was to half a student body mixture of about half American and half Japanese students.

Salem had only 400 students before the Japanese took over what Salem Teikyo’s first president, Dr. Ronald Ohl, called "traditionally the poorest private college in West Virginia and all of Appalachia."

The Japanese pumped $20 million into Salem Teikyo with a goal of a 1995 student body of 1,000 -- about half American, half Japanese. 

It was a common strategy for Teikyo, a Tokyo-based university that began in 1966. 

Iowa-based Westmar College became Teikyo Westmar University. One of Regis College's seven campuses in Denver became Teikyo Loretto Heights as a cost of $7 million.

The Salem Teikyo board of trustees had three Japanese and two Americans.

The architect of this plan was Teikyo University President Shoichi Okinaga, who contacted 30 U.S. colleges and universities to gauge interest.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, who studied in Japan and speaks some Japanese, promoted Salem's advantages to the Teikyo representatives credited Okinaga with "furthering international understanding through educational opportunity." 

Rockefeller, West Virginia Gov. Gaston Caperton and Okinaga received honorary degrees from Salem Teikyo at its first commencement.