NCCU to pay $1.1M for unapproved Atlanta campus

Durham, N.C. — North Carolina Central University has agreed to repay $1.1 million in financial aid that went to students who attended an unapproved satellite campus in Atlanta, school officials said Tuesday.

The university opened the program on the campus of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., in 2004. It was run by the church's pastor, Eddie Long, who is a trustee of and large donor to the university.

The New Birth program ended in June, when an the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, an educational accrediting agency, refused to approve it.

University of North Carolina system officials have asked the State Auditor's Office to investigate the matter.

Because the Atlanta campus wasn't accredited, the students there weren't eligible to receive federal financial aid. N.C. Central agreed to repay the U.S. Department of Education for all of the financial aid given to the affected students.

SACS said last fall that degrees awarded to 25 N.C. Central students who attended the Atlanta campus were valid.