Saint Augustine’s denied accreditation, plans to attraction

The Southern Affiliation of Faculties and Faculties Fee on Faculties voted to take away Saint Augustine’s College from its membership, once more, at its annual assembly this week.

The traditionally Black college in North Carolina beforehand misplaced its accreditation in December 2023 and misplaced a subsequent attraction, although an arbitration committee restored its accreditation this summer time.

In a information launch revealed Tuesday, college leaders emphasised that they deliberate to attraction the choice and the college would retain its accreditation till the top of the appeals course of. They mentioned the accreditor discovered the college resolved all of its points apart from its monetary issues.

Marcus Burgess, president of Saint Augustine’s, mentioned that whereas SACSOC made its resolution based mostly on info submitted by Nov. 18, the college has made “important progress even since that date.”

“We sit up for offering that proof throughout our February appeals listening to, together with different info that can definitively resolve all of the remaining areas of concern,” Burgess mentioned within the launch. “Whereas this may increasingly look like a disappointing resolution, we view this as an encouraging final result that acknowledges our progress, and we’re excited concerning the alternative the Attraction affords us.”

Saint Augustine’s continues to face steep monetary challenges. Earlier this month, college leaders introduced plans to chop half the establishment’s workforce—at the least 130 workers, together with 37 full-time college positions. Saint Augustine has additionally not too long ago gotten blowback from alumni and group members for getting into right into a $7 million mortgage settlement with an area enterprise capital agency that some understand as too dangerous. The mortgage comes with a 24 p.c rate of interest, and the college’s actual property is on the road if it defaults.