Former HBCU president talks about the fight Saint Augustine's faces in trying to stay accredited
Monday marks the start of the final week of in-person classes at Saint Augustine's University before students leave campus to finish the semester online.
The university in Raleigh isn't the first HBCU in North Carolina to risk closing due to a lack of money and potential loss of accreditation.
In 2019, Bennett College in Greensboro was in the same situation as Saint Augustine's. It was fighting to stay accredited and raise money to pay down debt.
Bennett survived. Could the same happen for Saint Augustine's?
Phyllis Worthy Dawkins was president of Bennett College when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) revoked its accreditation in late 2018 due to its finances.
"It’s hard when you possibly could lose an institution," Dawkins said. "We had to raise $5 million in 60 days. Oh, that was a wild 60 days, but we did it."
The all-women's HBCU in Greensboro filed a lawsuit against SACS in order to keep its accreditation.
Right now, Saint Augustine's is going through a new 90-day arbitration with SACS, which allows it to stay accredited through that process.
Dawkins said a lot is happening behind the scenes to keep the university going.
"Trying to manage your finances," Dawkins said. "Trying to make sure your students don’t shift so quickly, because you don’t want to lose that many students."
Dawkins said small schools struggle with finances, because they depend so heavily on tuition to pay the bills.
"Institutions like St. Aug's and Bennett and other small institutions, they don’t have large endowments," Dawkins said. "It’s not like a Harvard that has billions of dollars."
Four years later, Bennett College earned accreditation from the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS).
Saint Augustine's is now looking to make that same switch.
"It depends on the money they bring in," Dawkins said.
The interim president of Saint Augustine's told WRAL News in March that the university is $20 million in debt. Bennett owed $1.5 million by comparison. Saint Augustine's has launched a fundraising campaign to try to raise $5 million.
On Monday, WRAL News asked SAU for an update on how much it's raised so far, but did not get a response.
