Bennett College, One Of The Last Women’s HBCUs, Could Lose Accreditation Over Money

Bennett School, one of many final two traditionally black schools for ladies within the U.S., is preventing to maintain its accreditation after struggling financially for a number of years.

The non-public liberal arts college in Greensboro, North Carolina, was notified final month that the Southern Affiliation of Schools and Faculties’ Fee on Schools had voted to remove its accreditation attributable to failure to adjust to the fee’s monetary requirements. 

Particularly, the SACSCOC discovered that Bennett didn’t meet part 13.1 of its Principles of Accreditation guide, requiring an establishment to have “sound monetary sources and a demonstrated, steady monetary base.”

The fee additionally stated that Bennett, which was based in 1873 and has been a girls’s school since 1926, had “exhausted its two-year interval on probation for coming into compliance” with its necessities. 

Bennett School introduced that it has appealed the commission’s decision. It is going to subsequently stay an accredited establishment on probation till a listening to in February, in line with the fee’s pointers. An appeals committee will convene between Feb. 18 and 20. 

In an NPR interview revealed Thursday, school President Phyllis Worthy Dawkins stated that if Bennett does not win on appeal, it would file a lawsuit towards the SACSCOC. 

“On the identical time, we are going to search different accreditation our bodies to see if we will be accredited by them,” she stated. “So our objective is to keep up our accreditation, maintain Bennett School open for the longer term, in order that we are able to recruit and retain college students.”

In 2003, then-Bennett School President Johnnetta Cole led fundraising efforts that finally helped raise a previous probation, the Greensboro Information & File reported.

Dawkins instructed NPR that Bennett’s enrollment ― which now sits at lower than 470 college students, about half of what it was a decade in the past ― was considerably impacted by the Great Recession and a 2011 tightening of lending criteria for federal loans that folks can take out to assist pay for his or her youngsters’s schooling. She stated the change in underwriting requirements greatly affected college enrollment from African-American households, who analysis exhibits have been disproportionately hit by the Great Recession, too. 

The school, its alumnae and its supporters have turned to social media to boost funds for Bennett. Dawkins instructed NPR that the school is in search of to usher in some $5 million by Feb. 1.

“To date, we’ve raised over one million {dollars} in the direction of the 5 million,” she stated. “So we’re about 29 days out from the February 1 deadline, and so we’re stepping up our efforts in quite a lot of alternative ways to boost these funds.”

In keeping with the school’s accreditation FAQ page, it wants to boost $5.7 million by Feb. 1 in order that it could actually “make the case for reinstating Bennett’s accreditation.”

Bennett School reported surpassing a $4 million fundraising goal from 2017 to 2018 and noticed a rise in first-year enrollment, in line with the Related Press. The school additionally stated its monetary audit for that 12 months got here again clear, per AP. 

“I feel we’ve accomplished properly,” Dawkins said final month. “Apparently we have to do some bit extra.”

Actor Jussie Smollett has joined spiritual leaders, college students and public figures in serving to to carry consideration to Bennett’s fundraising efforts, utilizing the hashtag #standwithbennett.

“The legacy should proceed,” Smollett wrote on Twitter.