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Six former students and five teachers tell Adweek that Chicago Portfolio College (CPS), formerly an institution that regularly provided fresh skills to top enterprises, has suspended operations during periods of disarray and communication lulls. Directors discontinue communication before the winter quarter, which was supposed to begin in January.
Varsity’s website
The varsity’s website went down in February, CPS stopped using Slack, which prevents users from reading older communications, and hasn’t been active on social media since June 2022, according to sources. Teachers and college students claim that Jeff Epstein, the varsity’s government director, has eschewed calls for tax returns and refunds. The $19,260 cost of the year-long curriculum was derived via a GoFundMe website that facilitated scholarships for black creatives.
The varsity’s founder and leader, Epstein, has not responded to Adweek’s request for comment since 2000. Adweek focused mostly on the summer 2022 quarter when it discussed CPS’s ongoing business issues. At the time, Epstein told Adweek, “I’m answerable for all the healthy issues, and I’m answerable for all the nice issues.”
Dogwhistle, Epstein’s business, runs CPS as a for-profit venture. In August 2016, the State of Illinois changed Dogwhistle’s status to dissolve. Sources in a 2018 Adweek story claim that Epstein has also dealt with a number of landlord issues.
Ignoring college students
After starting in July, Shauntee Colston Jr., a design scholar, began to have doubts about CPS’s procedures a few months later. Colston said he only had access to two classes out of the four that make up the varsity’s usual course load, despite being assured that there would be four. He said that when he received programs that weren’t in line with the design monitor, Epstein told him that “every lesson is valuable to everyone.”
Colston was most disappointed that he was unable to participate in CPS’s fifth quarter, during which the university had pledged to help students create portfolios and post their works on social media.
The facade started to fall apart. Former scholar Sarah Chaffin of CPS
Colston told Adweek, “It will be nice if the varsity existed to assist me with a community.”” It was a total waste of time. Even though the whole point of the task was to not do it alone, I ultimately completed it entirely by myself. While Colston’s tuition was paid for by the university via the Pipeline Fund Scholarship, he thought about the difficulties of having to “return to square one.”
He stated, “It is now up to us to complete our portfolios.” “We were promised things once we enrolled, but now it is up to us to reach out to recruiters and market ourselves.”
After reading about Epstein’s postponed schedule releases, Sarah Chaffin—who left the varsity technique program before the summer 2022 quarter—became irritated to learn that her placements had “nothing to do with my self-discipline.” Chaffin was a member of CPS’s first college technique class. Previously, the university only offered creative programs.
Along with former student Arianna Palafox and the rest of her group, Chaffin departed this system, claiming they had been “scammed” by an administration that had provided one more monitor without providing more funding. “The façade started to crumble,” Chaffin told Adweek. Although Adweek was able to receive course catalogs early each quarter for some college students, sources said Epstein ultimately denied students control over their timetables.
She said, “There was only one course on technique, and Jeff himself taught it despite having no background in technique.” “Another was instructed by an individual possessing my same level of proficiency.” In response to Chaffin’s email in July 2022 on her cohort’s departure from the system, Epstein said, “I feel like I made some terrible decisions and disregarded your money and time.” I feel ashamed of how still I am. I appreciate your patience and understanding, and I will do all in my power to make things right for you.
Palafox asked for reimbursement for the classes she was unable to attend while the current breast cancer treatment was underway. In an email to Epstein dated August 1, 2022, she sent comments from her surgeon. She claims he hasn’t answered.
Chaffin used the Leif training platform to pay her CPS tuition. Even when the varsity closed for the winter in January, Leif was still asking for money. Chaffin wrote Leif, “I don’t want to be associated with (CPS) any longer, and I owe no money toward this program.” Since then, the platform has severed its connection to CPS.
Starting a fight with the teachers
An anonymous former employee started to become suspicious when Epstein assigned many coworkers to the same classes without hiring more teachers.
Since 2021, the employee has further dealt with tax return issues. She requested that Epstein sign a document certifying that she was employed by the company after her residence state was unable to validate Dogwhistle as an organization. He said that Dogwhistle, operating as Chicago Portfolio College, had left tax collectors “simply confused.” She filed a W-2 in January 2022, but the income agent couldn’t verify the amount withheld this time around, so the return couldn’t be processed until June 2022—that is, after her resignation. She failed to get a W-2 in any way in January 2023. I disagreed with Jeff’s actions. I had to stay behind for the students. A former educator with CPS
An additional supplier, a CPS alum, was asked to mentor a scholar over the 2020 summer season and then demonstrate a category. Regarding her competence, the source said, “Getting Jeff to pay me was a battle.” During the winter of 2022, Epstein ceased using direct deposit and said that a test had been sent to her, which she never received. She was paid by Zelle a month later after “ignoring textual content messages for just a few weeks,” and Epstein never replied or acknowledged her.
“If it weren’t for portfolio faculty, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I needed to stay here for the scholars, even though I disagreed with what Jeff was doing because he was having trouble finding lecturers.” “It was so disrespectful to put their trust in this program and to be treated in such a rude manner.”
Examining the value of the faculty portfolio
Once regarded as essential résumé enhancers, portfolio colleges have now generated further discussion. While detractors point to the additional years of schooling and high price tags that may exclude experts from recruiting talks, some graduates praise portfolio schools for helping them create a body of work that reflects specific commercial outputs.
Before the university closed its doors in January, a former CPS scholar who wished to remain anonymous attended CPS. “I needed to do something that could provide me with the fundamental knowledge that I desired without also continuing to disrupt the financial institution,” said SC, a full-time employee of CPS. Everything just seemed to fall apart. Everything just seems to be for nothing.
Chicago Portfolio College’s apparent collapse
Adweek talked with former college students who said CPS was a decently priced option. They have also been inspired by speaking with alumni who now hold prominent positions in companies, as well as by the university’s claim in advertising materials that 94% of graduates find employment within six months of starting their most popular program.
Chicago Portfolio College’s apparent collapse follows Atlanta-based Inventive Circus, which stopped accepting new students in the spring of last year and may close at the end of this year. The Watford Course in the United Kingdom also closed its doors in 2021, and the College of Communication Arts in London has also been open about its financial difficulties.
Ad schools are dying because of free online resources, internal business incubators, and companies that prioritize modern pipelines and more diversity. For black college students who attended Chicago’s public high schools, Ogilvy is now offering an inside program that includes a free digital training library backed by professional consulting. According to James Kinney, worldwide chief people officer of Media.Monks, portfolio colleges may provide value by enabling students to develop their skills and produce real ads. “I’m going to get a job, and this will probably be well worth the money for me,” I told myself. Brittany Theo, a former student at CPS
“We would like to hire non-portfolio faculty members, as well as state faculty members and some Ivy League candidates,” Kinney said, noting that Media.Monks does not need candidates to have teaching positions. “You need that cognitive combination to create the most productive job. That is among the widest meanings of variety.
A whole new approach to learning
Former CPS teachers Sarah Latz and Francesca Piancone launched Book180 in the autumn as a more cost-effective alternative to the portfolio faculty market. It might be challenging for many organizations to use the faculty mannequin portfolio. Designed for black creatives, One College is a free 16-week portfolio faculty program. For those attempting to transition into promotion after quitting another industry, The Workshop is a complimentary mentoring program.
Friends told former scholar Brittany Theo that if she didn’t go to the portfolio faculty, “nobody would even take a look at her.” Brittany Theo attended CPS until it closed. “I told myself that I was going to get a job because I knew it would be well worth the money.”
A new generation of business leaders, led by Geoffrey Goldberg, co-founder and CCO of Movers+Shakers, is attempting to debunk that myth. “Inventive expertise, which is related at present, not those that have been skilled by masters of yesterday,” he said, seems to be the focus of his organization. According to Chaffin, the failure of the varsity highlights the need for mentoring in a field that is infamously hard to get into.
She advised company executives to respond to messages they get in their inboxes. “It’s of paramount significance for people who find themselves already within the business to tackle mentees and assist out the place they will,” she said. If you put on your blinders, our combination of skills will be quite pathetic.