Lloyd E. Clayton Jr. is an American naturopath who established three

for profit Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." Having a business name does not separat ...

educational institutions in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

. The schools he founded are

Clayton College of Natural Health The Clayton College of Natural Health was a non-accredited American distance-learning college based in Birmingham, Alabama, offering classes in various forms of alternative medicine. The school was founded in 1980 by Lloyd Clayton Jr. as the Am ...

, the American Institute of Computer Science (now part of American Sentinel University), and Chadwick University. He also owns a business that sells

herbal A herbal is a book containing the names and descriptions of plants, usually with information on their medicinal, tonic, culinary, toxic, hallucinatory, aromatic, or magical powers, and the legends associated with them.Arber, p. 14. A herbal m ...

and

homeopathic Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dise ...

products. Clayton has stated that he received a Doctor of Naturopathy degree in 1978.Clayton College of Natural Health
, Holistic Learning Centers, Inc. website, accessed July 3, 2010.Who Is Dr. Clayton?
Clayton Naturals website, archived November 27, 2006 As a practitioner, his specialties were herbology and

massage Massage is the manipulation of the body's soft tissues. Massage techniques are commonly applied with hands, fingers, elbows, knees, forearms, feet or a device. The purpose of massage is generally for the treatment of body stress or pain. In E ...

Business history

In the late 1970s, Lloyd Clayton started an

eco-friendly Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that clai ...

business to sell natural products for health; the business operated as Clayton Naturals. He started Clayton College of Natural Health in 1980 as the American College of Holistic Nutrition in 1980. It changed its name to Clayton College of Natural Health in 1997.Rachel Shabi
Food fighters
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', January 8, 2005 In 1988, he established the American Institute of Computer Science. In 2000, that institution was incorporated into American Sentinel University. page 96

Chadwick University

In 1989, Clayton started Chadwick University, a

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

institution offering programs in many fields. Chadwick has been called a

diploma mill A diploma mill (also known as a degree mill) is a company or organization that claims to be a higher education institution but provides illegitimate academic degrees and diplomas for a fee. The degrees can be fabricated (made-up), falsified (fake ...

due to its practice of awarding academic credit for "life experience". Chadwick was not

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

, but at different times it claimed accreditation from the

International Association of Universities and Schools International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

and the World Association of Universities and Colleges, neither of which is a recognized educational accrediting organization. page 196“Accrediting” entities not recognized by the State of Oregon
,

Oregon State Office of Degree Authorization The Oregon Office of Degree Authorization (ODA) is a unit of the Office of Student Access and Completion, with responsibilities related to maintaining high standards in private higher education institutions in Oregon. ODA administers laws and prov ...

(accessed March 17, 2009) Initially Chadwick also had no state license, due to a ruling that it could operate in

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

without a license as long as it did not enroll state residents as students, but the institution obtained a state license in 1996. Chadwick's state license was renewed in 2005 and expired in January 2007. In February 2007 the ''

Tuscaloosa News The '' Tuscaloosa News '' is a daily newspaper serving Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, and the surrounding area in west central Alabama. In 2012, Halifax Media Group acquired the ''Tuscaloosa News''. Prior to that, the paper's owner was Th ...

'' reported that the school's address was in a Birmingham building "labeled ... as the location of Magnolia Corporate Services", and "a call to a phone number listed for Chadwick went to voicemail for Magnolia Corporate Services". Chadwick ceased operation some time thereafter. The state of Texas (among several other states) classifies this online college as an illegal supplier of educational credentials in the State of Texas and it is against state law to use Chadwick credentials. Thus degrees issued by Chadwick may not be acceptable to employers or institutions, and use of degree titles granted by Chadwick may be restricted or illegal in some jurisdictions.

Clayton College of Natural Health

Also affiliated with Chadwick University is the

, which was also founded by Clayton (in 1980) and has also been labeled as a diploma mill. The Clayton school for years has been a classic diploma mill operation, offering doctorates and other degrees to students of natural health care, without providing clinical training or educational standards of any kind. In July 2010, the college announced on its website that it was ceasing operations, blaming a number of factors but primarily the effects of the recent economic recession. In November 2010, a

class action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

was filed seeking recoveries on behalf of thousands of students who were enrolled in prepaid distance education programs at Clayton College. In November 2011 it was announced that as many as 14,000 former students of the defunct Clayton College of Natural Health will split up to $2.31 million in reimbursement for tuition, with part of the settlement to be paid for by Lloyd Clayton himself, with the remainder being paid for by RSUI Indemnity Co. Said funds will be placed in an

escrow account An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party (the stakeholder or escrow agent) receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transacti ...

for which former students can recover a portion of their lost tuition.Final order

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, Lloyd Jr. Living people Businesspeople from Birmingham, Alabama Naturopaths Year of birth missing (living people)

Business history

Chadwick University

Clayton College of Natural Health

See also

References