Down, But Not Out
Barber-Scotia is without accreditation, students and staff, but the college’s president believes there are brighter days ahead
By Marlon A. Walker
CONCORD, N.C.
For the past month, Dr. Mable Parker McLean has been multi-tasking her way through a familiar post at Barber-Scotia College. It has been a job that most people, let alone an 83-year-old woman, would find a bit daunting.
But Parker McLean has become a savior of sorts for her struggling alma mater, which parted ways with its former president, Dr. Gloria Bromell-Tinubu, in a bid to regain accreditation.
“I’ve been working a two-and-a-half full-time job,” Parker McLean says. “But I believe in what we can do based on what we have done.” The president spends a large part of each day answering phones and shuffling people in and out of her office.
Reports have swirled for weeks about the school firing all but one of its employees, which Parker McLean confirms. The decision was made by the college’s board of trustees, which didn’t see a need for employees since no students are currently enrolled. The lone remaining employee had been out of town for several weeks attending to a sick mother. Plans to focus the school on entrepreneurship and business were scratched, too, Parker McLean says, because other issues currently require the school’s attention.
The 139-year-old historically Black institution has been on a downward spiral since the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked its accreditation in June 2004. That move came after school officials revealed that 27 students in their adult education program were awarded degrees without completing the requirements. Bromell-
Tinubu, who officially took over as the school’s president the month after it was stripped of its accreditation, quickly went to work to put the school in order. Professors had been complaining to the state that they were not being paid on time, and the city was owed about $75,000 for unpaid utility services. Paying the utility bills was one of Bromell-Tinubu’s first orders of business upon becoming president. Not long after arriving on campus, she hand-delivered a check to the city to clear the debt (see Black Issues In Higher Education, Aug. 26, 2004).
