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shut down by the state of Virginia for lacking accreditation, amid suspicions the school's primary function was to allow those enrolled to obtain visas.
• The state found temporary shelter in South Dakota, which critics say lacks the kind of accreditation and rigorous regulatory hurdles used by other states to protect students and follow ethical and education standards.
• "They must have been looking around for a soft place to land in terms of regulation, and they thought they found one," said David North, a fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies.
• Roughly 1,300 miles from northern Virginia, the school's new South Dakota home is Suite 123, a vacant unmarked Sioux Falls office inside a building also housing a dentist, insurance companies and the state soybean association. An Oct. 25 letter to students from Chancellor Ali Dastmalchi said the "main campus, offices and classrooms are ready to accept and service new and returning students. Please check the winter term 2014 courses schedule."
• University of Northern Virginia's status is unclear, and it's not known if the school is offering any courses online or overseas. School officials could not be reached for comment at the Sioux Falls office. A woman who answered the phone at the school's listed number in Virginia said Dastmalchi was traveling out of the country. An email sent to Dastmalchi was not returned.
• The university's website offers a winter class 2014 schedule, a 2014-2016 university catalog and links to photos from the school's 2013 graduation at its Annandale, Va., and Prague, Czech Republic, campuses, but the school's Twitter and Facebook accounts have been inactive since 2012.
• South Dakota law allows an unaccredited school to do business as long as it has an affiliate agreement with an accredited institution, a clause North calls "a silly loophole."
• The state requires no site visit, no appearance in front of a board, no surety bond and no annual check-ins -- common requirements in other states, said Matt Gianneschi, with the Education Commission of the States, a Denver-based organization that tracks state policy trends.
• "If they have a one-time authorization and it's just, you get in, you get out, you're authorized and it's a lifetime authorization, that's pretty attractive," Gianneschi said. "Once you get through that hoop, you can operate independently without any other oversight from the state."
• Private universities used to not need a certificate to operate in South Dakota, but Gov. Dennis Daugaard's office in 2012 asked lawmakers to add the process to comply with new federal regulations related to student loans. Existing universities were

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