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Chicago Portfolio School (CPS), once an institution that steadily fed new talent to top agencies, has ceased operations after periods of disorganization and lulls in communication, six former students and five instructors tell Adweek.
Administrators cut off contact before the winter quarter, which was scheduled to begin in January.
The school’s website shut down in February, CPS has not been active on social media since June 2022, and, according to sources, ended its Slack subscription, which blocks users from viewing past messages. Instructors and students allege the school’s executive director, Jeff Epstein, has dodged refund inquiries and tax form requests.
The cost of the one-year program was $19,260, according to a GoFundMe page that supported scholarships for Black creatives.
Epstein, who founded and led the school since 2000, did not respond to Adweek’s request for comment.
Leading up to the summer 2022 quarter, Adweek covered the ongoing business challenges at CPS. “I’m responsible for all the good things, and I’m responsible for all the bad things,” Epstein told Adweek at the time.
Epstein’s corporation, Dogwhistle, operates CPS as a for-profit business. The State of Illinois changed Dogwhistle’s status to dissolved in August 2016. According to sources, and a 2018 Adweek article, Epstein has also faced a series of landlord disputes.
Deserting students
Shauntee Colston Jr., a design student who started last July, began questioning CPS’ practices just a few months later. After being promised the school’s standard course load of four classes per quarter, Colston said he received access to just two classes. When he was offered courses that did not align with the design track, he said Epstein told him “all classes are helpful to everyone.”
For Colston, the biggest disappointment was failing to experience CPS’ fifth quarter, when the school promised to help students build their portfolios and share their books on social channels.
