Colorado Heights University to close its campus next year

The not-for-profit school vows to help its students.

Colorado Heights University, a not-for-profit, private university in southwest Denver, on Tuesday said it will close its doors next year.

Colorado Heights officials said they will work with the school’s 500 or so students to help them continue with their education.

“Our campus and programs will continue to operate normally and our current students will receive the career-focused, quality education they have always received from us,” CHU president Fred Van Liew said in a news release announcing the closing. “We will be focusing our efforts to help our students complete their programs here at CHU or at other institutions.”

A combination of factors led to the decision to close the campus, including the recent move by the U.S. Department of Education to deny recognition of the accrediting authority of the Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Schools. That group is the body that accredits CHU’s academic programs.

Also, a lagging enrollment played a role in the decision to close CHU, officials said.

About 400 of the students are English language-certified students and just more than 100 are bachelor and graduate students in various disciplines, Van Liew said. CHU specializes in international business and English courses.

In September 2015, Metropolitan State University of Denver announced a plan to partner with CHU in which Metro State would take over a part of the campus, which sits at Federal Boulevard and West Dartmouth Avenue. But that deal fell through in March because of financial concerns.

The 76-acre campus, which dates to the 1890s and started as a Catholic high school for girls, later evolved into a college for teachers and nurses and has a deep history. The main building made of redstone was designed by architect Frank Edbrooke, who also worked on the Brown Palace, state Capitol and numerous other now-historic buildings.

CHU spokesman Bronson Hilliard said the school will be open through at least October to help students. He said what will happen to the land and the buildings “will be down the road.”