get these nets
Veteran
Back From 2 Decades on the Brink
Atlanta HBCU spent nearly 20 years limping along without access to federal financial aid funding. Then its board chair gave an ultimatum: get on a path to accreditation or close.
January 12, 2021
Kevin James, Morris Brown's president, stands behind the college's campus sign.
Three things saved Morris Brown College, according to its president: God, alumni and the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
After nearly two decades in bankruptcy proceedings, rebuilding a crumbling campus and seeking a new accreditor, Morris Brown may be back from the brink of closure. The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, a national accrediting agency, approved the college’s application for accreditation in November. Pending a successful site visit by the agency this month, the college will become a candidate for accreditation after first losing its accreditation more than 18 years ago.
Reaccreditation could be a lifeline for the historically Black college. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, Morris Brown’s former accreditor, stripped the college of its accreditation in 2002 after a former college president and financial aid director were found to be misappropriating money from the Department of Education.
Without accreditation, Morris Brown no longer had access to federal funding, including federal student loans and Pell Grants. The college had enrolled more than 2,000 students but quickly lost them. Carrying millions of dollars in debt, the college filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2012 and sold most of its campus in Atlanta.
In the last 19 years, the college never closed. It has operated as a shell of its former self, enrolling a few dozen students each year and leaning on alumni volunteers to staff its offices and keep the grounds. Some assume the college is already closed; Google suggests that people searching for Morris Brown often also ask “Does Morris Brown College still exist?”
When the college’s president, Kevin James, took the job, even his mother was surprised Morris Brown was still operating.
“I’ll never forget my mother asking me,” he said, “‘how in the world is the school even still open?’”
‘The College Was In Disarray’
James first heard the president’s job was available on TV a couple of years ago.
“My goal has always been to be a college president at an HBCU,” James said. “I was sitting at home, and I was watching the news, and I saw that my predecessor had resigned. It took me a few seconds to say to myself, ‘Wow, I want to be the next president of Morris Brown College.’”
The college needed new leadership, said Bishop Reginald Jackson, chairman of the college’s Board of Trustees and bishop of the Sixth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
“It made no sense that it had been this long and the college had not regained its accreditation,” Jackson said.
About two years ago, he gave the board an ultimatum: if the college was not on a path to reaccreditation by the end of the year, he would recommend to the Atlanta North Georgia Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church -- the college’s church sponsor -- that they close Morris Brown.
The college had been limping along since 2002. That year, Dolores Cross, a former Morris Brown president, and Parvesh Singh, a former financial aid director, were accused of falsifying data and collecting money from the U.S. Department of Education for students who were never enrolled at Morris Brown. The two routed the federal funding to operational expenses, like payroll, which the college wasn’t earning enough revenue to pay. They never used the money for their personal benefit.
SACSCOC pulled the college’s accreditation when Cross and Singh were accused of embezzlement. The two pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges several years later. Singh was sentenced to five years of probation and 18 months of home confinement. Cross was sentenced to five years of probation and one year of home confinement. She also agreed to pay $11,000 in restitution to the Department of Education.
Cross published a memoir in 2010 reflecting on her career in higher education, her time at Morris Brown and her resulting house arrest. She told the Associated Press in 2011 that she takes some of the blame for what happened to Morris Brown, but not all.
“I just feel really bad for the college,” she told the Associated Press. “I would hope that what the memoir does is clear the air. I think Morris Brown can be saved. I think that it's worth saving.”
Years later, the first step on the path to reaccreditation was bringing in new leadership, Jackson said.
“I called in the former president and said to him that it was clear that Morris Brown was not going to regain its accreditation without new leadership,” he said.
Jackson said he persuaded Stanley Pritchett, the college’s former president, to step aside. Pritchett, who had been president for 12 years, formally resigned in December 2018. James started as interim president the following March.
James feels God sent him to the college, which was still in rough shape when he arrived almost two years ago.
“The college was in disarray,” James said. “Our financials were not in order; our processes, procedures and policies were outdated -- the college was in bad financial shape.”
The college’s utility bills were outstanding.
“I was amazed, because we hadn’t paid the light bill in over a year and the lights were still on,” James said.
Morris Brown was also in incredible debt, he said. Even after resolving its bankruptcy case in 2015, the college owed $4.2 million to African Methodist Episcopal Church. With the debt looming, James knew the college would never be able to get on top of its bills and pay operational expenses.
So he asked the church for forgiveness.
“If we’re going to save Morris Brown, we’re going to ask you guys to please forgive this $4.2 million in debt,” he told church leaders.
The church agreed on the condition that the college create a $1.5 million scholarship program for African Methodist Episcopal Church members. The church is one of the largest Black denominations in the world, and the scholarship program will help the college recruit new students in 2021, James told Atlanta Magazine.
(continued)
Atlanta HBCU spent nearly 20 years limping along without access to federal financial aid funding. Then its board chair gave an ultimatum: get on a path to accreditation or close.
January 12, 2021
Kevin James, Morris Brown's president, stands behind the college's campus sign.
Three things saved Morris Brown College, according to its president: God, alumni and the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
After nearly two decades in bankruptcy proceedings, rebuilding a crumbling campus and seeking a new accreditor, Morris Brown may be back from the brink of closure. The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, a national accrediting agency, approved the college’s application for accreditation in November. Pending a successful site visit by the agency this month, the college will become a candidate for accreditation after first losing its accreditation more than 18 years ago.
Reaccreditation could be a lifeline for the historically Black college. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, Morris Brown’s former accreditor, stripped the college of its accreditation in 2002 after a former college president and financial aid director were found to be misappropriating money from the Department of Education.
Without accreditation, Morris Brown no longer had access to federal funding, including federal student loans and Pell Grants. The college had enrolled more than 2,000 students but quickly lost them. Carrying millions of dollars in debt, the college filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2012 and sold most of its campus in Atlanta.
In the last 19 years, the college never closed. It has operated as a shell of its former self, enrolling a few dozen students each year and leaning on alumni volunteers to staff its offices and keep the grounds. Some assume the college is already closed; Google suggests that people searching for Morris Brown often also ask “Does Morris Brown College still exist?”
When the college’s president, Kevin James, took the job, even his mother was surprised Morris Brown was still operating.
“I’ll never forget my mother asking me,” he said, “‘how in the world is the school even still open?’”
‘The College Was In Disarray’
James first heard the president’s job was available on TV a couple of years ago.
“My goal has always been to be a college president at an HBCU,” James said. “I was sitting at home, and I was watching the news, and I saw that my predecessor had resigned. It took me a few seconds to say to myself, ‘Wow, I want to be the next president of Morris Brown College.’”
The college needed new leadership, said Bishop Reginald Jackson, chairman of the college’s Board of Trustees and bishop of the Sixth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
“It made no sense that it had been this long and the college had not regained its accreditation,” Jackson said.
About two years ago, he gave the board an ultimatum: if the college was not on a path to reaccreditation by the end of the year, he would recommend to the Atlanta North Georgia Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church -- the college’s church sponsor -- that they close Morris Brown.
The college had been limping along since 2002. That year, Dolores Cross, a former Morris Brown president, and Parvesh Singh, a former financial aid director, were accused of falsifying data and collecting money from the U.S. Department of Education for students who were never enrolled at Morris Brown. The two routed the federal funding to operational expenses, like payroll, which the college wasn’t earning enough revenue to pay. They never used the money for their personal benefit.
SACSCOC pulled the college’s accreditation when Cross and Singh were accused of embezzlement. The two pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges several years later. Singh was sentenced to five years of probation and 18 months of home confinement. Cross was sentenced to five years of probation and one year of home confinement. She also agreed to pay $11,000 in restitution to the Department of Education.
Cross published a memoir in 2010 reflecting on her career in higher education, her time at Morris Brown and her resulting house arrest. She told the Associated Press in 2011 that she takes some of the blame for what happened to Morris Brown, but not all.
“I just feel really bad for the college,” she told the Associated Press. “I would hope that what the memoir does is clear the air. I think Morris Brown can be saved. I think that it's worth saving.”
Years later, the first step on the path to reaccreditation was bringing in new leadership, Jackson said.
“I called in the former president and said to him that it was clear that Morris Brown was not going to regain its accreditation without new leadership,” he said.
Jackson said he persuaded Stanley Pritchett, the college’s former president, to step aside. Pritchett, who had been president for 12 years, formally resigned in December 2018. James started as interim president the following March.
James feels God sent him to the college, which was still in rough shape when he arrived almost two years ago.
“The college was in disarray,” James said. “Our financials were not in order; our processes, procedures and policies were outdated -- the college was in bad financial shape.”
The college’s utility bills were outstanding.
“I was amazed, because we hadn’t paid the light bill in over a year and the lights were still on,” James said.
Morris Brown was also in incredible debt, he said. Even after resolving its bankruptcy case in 2015, the college owed $4.2 million to African Methodist Episcopal Church. With the debt looming, James knew the college would never be able to get on top of its bills and pay operational expenses.
So he asked the church for forgiveness.
“If we’re going to save Morris Brown, we’re going to ask you guys to please forgive this $4.2 million in debt,” he told church leaders.
The church agreed on the condition that the college create a $1.5 million scholarship program for African Methodist Episcopal Church members. The church is one of the largest Black denominations in the world, and the scholarship program will help the college recruit new students in 2021, James told Atlanta Magazine.
(continued)
HBCU's