Good day, and welcome to the Career Education Corp. Fourth Quarter 2015 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sam Gibbons, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Laura. Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us. With me on the call today is Todd Nelson, President and Chief Executive Officer; Dave Rawden, Interim Chief Financial Officer; and Ashish Ghia, Vice President of Finance. This conference call is being webcast live within the Investor Relations section at careered.com. A webcast replay will also be available on our site. And you can always contact the Alpha IR Group for Investor Relations support at 312-445-2870. Let me remind you that this afternoon’s earnings release and remarks made today include forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act. These statements are based on assumptions made by, and information currently available to Career Education and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results, performance and business prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by these statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those factors identified in Career Education’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, which was filed this afternoon, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as expressly required by the securities laws, the company undertakes no obligation to update those factors, or any forward-looking statements to reflect future events, developments, or changed circumstances, or for any other reason. In addition, today’s remarks refer to non-GAAP financial measures which are intended to supplement but not substitute for the most directly comparable GAAP measures. The earnings release and slide presentation which accompanies today’s call are available within the Investor Relations section at careered.com. These materials contain financial and other information relevant to today's discussion, including key assumptions upon which certain forward-looking statements are based and a reconciliation of the GAAP to non-GAAP measures. So with that, I would like to turn the call over to Todd Nelson. Todd?

Thank you, Sam and thanks to everyone for joining us on the call today. Before I get into the highlights of our fourth quarter results, I'd like to take a few minutes to reflect back on the progress we made during 2015. To enable the company to focus on improving student retention and outcomes, and in the process create a framework to improve the long-term financial stability and success of the company amidst some difficult challenges across our industry. Many of the improvements we made were in response to changing dynamics within the industry. And in some cases, we are forced to make some difficult decisions in order to protect the long-term interests of our organization. During May 2015 we began the process of divesting, or teaching out, the entirety of our former career college segment, with several – consisting of several well-regarded career-focused programs that were not able to stay competitive amidst the challenges of a changing regulatory environment. We made significant staffing adjustments to right-size our corporate structure in line with these impacts. And we've also made considerable progress reducing the obligations of our real estate footprint to help us offset some of the inherent cash costs that are associated with those teach-outs. As the year progressed we began to re-focus our resources on our University Group of institutions, consisting of CTU and AIU. We believe the combination of these two institutions represents a strong platform within online education. And we've worked to improve the strength of the faculty, programs and resources at these universities with the goal of producing better student retention and outcomes with improved financial stability and long-term prospects for growth and success. We believe in the value of education, and that the demand for post-secondary education will continue to be positive. CTU and AIU…

Thanks, Todd and good afternoon everyone. I’ll start first with the fourth quarter University results. Then I'll discuss the results for our Transitional group, Culinary Arts and Discontinued Operations. After that, I'll briefly review some of the consolidated results. And then provide an overview of our liquidity and balance sheet. All percentage variances I mentioned will be comparisons to the prior year quarter, unless otherwise noted. Total revenue for University Group of $137.4 million, was up 8.2% year-over-year, primarily driven by a 4.4% increase in total enrollments at CTU. After adjusting for the accounting of student withdrawals, revenue was up approximately 4.2% year-over-year. Total University Group operating income increased nearly 37% to $31.5 million from $23.1 million in the prior-year period or approximately 30% when adjusted for the accounting of student withdrawals. This was primarily driven by the increase in revenues. Adjusted EBITDA for the University Group and Corporate increased 28.4% to $29.7 million during the fourth quarter driven by increased revenue and our transformation initiatives. As Todd mentioned, this is our second quarter in a row of positive adjusted EBITDA for the consolidated entity, but I would continue to remind investors that quarterly margins are impacted by seasonality and marketing spend, amongst other things. Our first and third quarters tend to be our highest advertising expense quarters. In the fourth quarter advertising expenses for our University Group were $33.4 million compared to $36.7 million in Q4 last year. Total student enrollment within our University Group of 31,900 students, was roughly flat compared to the prior-year quarter. New student enrollments for the University Group were 8,760, a decrease of 3.1% as compared to the prior-year quarter, primarily due to the decline in enrollments at AIU. Revenue is primarily driven by total student enrollments and therefore is a more relevant indicator…

Thank you, Dave. In closing, 2015 was a transition year for the company and we are off and running in 2016, which if we continue to perform as expected is shaping up to be a good year. We're focused on improving the strength of our University Group, responsibly managing the remaining teach-out of our Transitional group and Culinary Arts campuses, and strengthening our balance sheet in the long-term interest of our students and shareholders. We believe we have the right platform to be successful in the education of our students and in the creation of value for shareholders. I'm very excited about the talent we have throughout our company, as well as the opportunity we have for long-term to grow responsibly through focus on student retention and outcomes. With that, I'll now turn the call over to the operator for analyst questions. Operator?

I’m showing no questions at this time, I would like to turn the conference back to you Todd Nelson for any closing remarks.

Okay. Thank you and again for your continued support of Career Education, and we're looking forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Thank you.

The conference is now concluded, thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.