Empire College

Private college in Santa Rosa, California, US

Empire College is a private for profit college in Santa Rosa, California. Founded in 1961, The college offers business and law degrees and was formerly accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). However, in 2016 the United States Secretary of Education denied ACICS's accrediting status for failing to meet 21 recognition criteria. It is accredited by the Committee of Bar Examiners of the State Bar of California. In February 2020, the school announced that it was closing its School of Business over the next 18 months, citing lower enrollment that was worsened by three years of wildfires.

The college was founded in 1961 by Henry Trione. It was first located in the Bank of America building on Old Courthouse Square. When the bank moved out in 1961, Trione bought the building and immediately gilded the top of the clock tower. The President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, launched in 2006, annually highlights the role colleges and universities play in solving community problems and placing more students on a lifelong path of civic engagement by recognizing institutions that achieve meaningful, measureable outcomes in the communities they serve. Empire's service based learning opportunities include a variety of free legal, tax, healthcare and wellness clinics. In 2011, the U. S. Education Department reported that students who graduated from Empire College's business school were defaulting on student loans more than twice the national average. In 2019, the U. S. Department of Education reported that Empire College's 3 year cohort default rate for FY 2016 had dropped to 4.1 percent, a rate lower than that of Santa Rosa Junior College (8.5 percent) and the national average (10.1 percent).