Two of the nation’s oldest historically Black colleges, Saint Augustine’s University and Bennett College, were placed on probation Tuesday by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), signaling the two North Carolina institutions continue to battle financial challenges.
The SACSCOC actions against the two institutions were among the toughest of some 200 items reviewed this week in Atlanta by the board of SACSCOC, the influential higher education standards peer group, at its fall meeting. Institutions that fail to meet SACSCOC accrediting standards risk losing their eligibility to receive federal funds for students grants and loans.
SACSCOC took a wide range of other actions, from placing Baylor University in Texas on warning, a status reflecting continued concerns about the university’s athletic program to approving a plan by Tuskegee University to expand its online education offerings. Tuskegee won SACSCOC’s endorsement of its desire to offer Master’s Degrees in environmental science and environmental management.
SACSCOC also approved a plan from the State of Tennessee to overhaul the decade’s old higher education system involving the state’s six four-year institutions. The plan creates a separate board of governors for each of the six institutions, removing governance of the schools from the Tennessee Board of Regents. The shift, which is to take effect late next year, puts Tennessee among a growing number of states dividing governance responsibilities ostensibly to boost the institutions.
The toughest SACSCOC decisions did not come as a surprise, as Bennett and Saint Augustine’s are among a host of small, private liberal arts institutions that have been challenged by the economy, loss of enrollment and rising costs of doing business.
Those ills had already prompted SACSCOC to place the institutions on warning status in recent years. Probation moves an institution closer to losing SACSCOC recognition, a move that would disqualify an institution from receiving federal student aid funds. SACSCOC can extend probation to two years. Still, a one-year status says an institution is nearing the edge of the ledge among peers, absent some dramatic turn of events upward.
If there is a bright side to the case of both institutions, it is the fact that SACSCOC had no issues with their academic operations or programs. The three broad performance standards it cited are all related to finances and the long –term viability of the schools.
