University Wins Appeal of Government Denying Nonprofit Status

The Department of Education wrongly denied Grand Canyon University’s request to be recognized as a nonprofit, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The department “invoked the wrong legal standards” in relying on IRS regulations that “impose requirements that go well beyond” the Higher Education Act’s rules, Judge Daniel P. Collins of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote in the opinion reversing the lower court’s ruling.

GCU was previously owned and operated as a for-profit institution by Grand Canyon Education Inc. The university sought to transition back to nonprofit status, and the board established a nonprofit entity ...