The Brooks Institute was a private for-profit art school in Ventura, California. It was formerly the Brooks Institute of Photography and was originally based in Montecito and Santa Barbara. Brooks Institute offered four majors and two graduate programs. The college was last owned by Gphomestay. The college had consolidated and moved operations from Santa Barbara to the Ventura Campus before autumn 2015. The college abruptly announced it was closing on August 12, 2016. The last term was the summer 2016 semester. Enrollment had declined by 90% to 250 students, completion rates ranged from 3% to 40% by program, and there was controversy surrounding advertising using inflated job placement rates, unusual loan policies, and surprise fees. History Brooks family Brooks Institute of Photography was founded in 1945 by Ernest H. Brooks Sr. over a bakery on State Street in Santa Barbara, California. The school's first photography students were primarily World War II veterans supported by the G.I. Bill. In 1952, the Brooks family purchased the former David Gray estate 'Graholm' after the owner at that time, Herschel McGraw, died. Ernest purchased the property for $61,000. The property was located on Alston Road in Montecito, a community adjacent to Santa Barbara. This served as the home of Brooks Institute of Photography, as well as for Ernest H. Brooks, Sr.'s growing family. Ernest H. Brooks Sr. stayed on as president of the school until 1971, when he became board chairperson. He died in 1990. His personal passion for underwater photography inspired the underwater still photography and video courses that started in the late 1960s, and continued until the school closed. At the time of his retirement as president, his son, Ernest H. Brooks, Jr. 'stepped into his father's shoes' and served as the school's president from 1971 until 1999. He continued to expand the Brooks Institute of Photography facilities. In 1976 Brooks purchased the former Jefferson School in the Riviera neighborhood of Santa Barbara, that had been slated for demolition, and opened the Brooks Jefferson Campus. Brooks Institute has been involved in many extraordinary projects in recent years, but this forward vision and involvement was happening even in the 1980s when the institute was permitted to photograph the Shroud of Turin. Professor Vernon Miller, then head of the Industrial/Scientific program, led a team of photographers as they photographed the cloth for documentation and study. Career Education Corporation ownership In 1999 the Brooks Institute