Judge Rejects Plea to Stop State From Closing School

GLENDALE — A Superior Court judge has denied a request by a Glendale-based correspondence school to forbid a state regulatory agency to close down the school.

But Judge Robert O’Brien also refused to allow the state to move forward with plans to put Kensington University out of business, saying he will issue further orders next week.

“We are disappointed, but we haven’t given up,” Alfred Calabro, who owns the non-accredited school, said Thursday.

The state Council for Private Post-Secondary and Vocational Education has been trying to close Kensington for two years, saying that its academic programs were insufficiently rigorous and that the university awarded one student a doctoral degree after only four months’ work.

Clive Grafton, the university’s president, said the institution will appeal the judge’s ruling if it means that the university will have to shut down. He said that Kensington has been trying to work with the state and has shut down programs that the education council said were substandard.

O’Brien, who gave the state until late Tuesday to submit a proposal for a judgment against the school, is expected to make his final ruling next week, Calabro said.