I hate to see this. What really gets me is that the Board of Trustees appear to be making the current president the scape goat. That $1.8 million problem couldn't have just happened in the last 18 months. Were where they?

FAMU LAW SCHOOL GETS OFF THE GROUND

While the university is under a financial cloud, the new Florida A&M School of
Law is moving forward. Ground has been broken in Orlando for the new campus of
the law school. The law school was originally founded in 1951 on the Tallahassee
campus of FAMU. At that time blacks were prohibited from admission to
state-operated law schools in the state. To meet the requirements of the Equal
Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the state paid for black students
who wanted to go to law schools in other states.
But in the late 1940s, when a black man named Virgil Hawkins applied to the
all-white law school at the University of Florida, the state legislature
immediately established a law school at FAMU to comply with the separate but
equal doctrine of the U.S. Supreme Court. After the Brown decision and the
integration of Florida's all-white law schools, the state legislature decided to
merge the FAMU law school in Tallahassee with the nearby law school at Florida
State University.

When race-sensitive admissions at Florida's public universities were banned by
Governor Jeb Bush's One Florida plan, the legislature reestablished the FAMU law
school. The legislature believed that blacks might be shut out in the
competition for slots at the predominantly white institutions and thought that
the revival of the law school at FAMU would offer more opportunities for blacks
seeking a legal education. Remarkably, whites now make up the largest ethnic
group of students at the law school, which has been operating for the past two
years in an old office building.

Downtown Orlando, rather than Tallahassee, was chosen for the site of the new
law school campus. The new 160,000-square-foot facility is adjacent to the
federal courthouse. It was designed by FAMU graduates and the lead contracting
firm is also headed by a FAMU graduate.

The new $31 million building is expected to open in the fall of 2005.

I couldn't agree more. I should not have to waste my day off standing in line at the FA Office and deal with their nasty attitude b/c THEY dont have MY money. But yet they are quick to deny meals, room and board, and graduation b/c of their ineffectiveness. :mad:

The school I graduated from waited until the WEEK before graduation to tell me that my FA had not arrived, there fore I would not be graduating!!:mad: :mad: :mad: I talked to the HEAD of the FA office and boooy was he mad b/c someone in the office had forgotten to check ONE box on my form.

For that headache alone, I refuse to give back $$ to that school.

An update on the FAMU situation, yesterday Pres. Gainous went before the committee that oversees the audits and he was trying to convince them that they were getting things under control. It's been a real mess here in Tallahassee. Also check out the following link: http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/7408391.htm

Though I am pleased that FAMU's law school is scheduled to open, I don't think that if I were a prospective law student that I would choose a school that is seemingly on the brink of financial ruin. Who's to say that when a new student gets deep into her/his program that the school wouldn't be put on accreditation probation? I understand that it is a different program, but it still seems to sully the glimmer of the degree.

Yup yup.

What was written in the article is really not "breaking news," most people here have known about the financial issues for quite some time. The state did cut off funding for the school about two or three weeks ago. That got all of the administrators hustling and they got those documents turned in soon after. The state plans to have all schools in the state university system handling their own funds within the next year or two. The problem is that the state is not confident that FAMU will be able to step up to the challenge.

The comment made about the late financial aid check is nothing new. Our financial aid office is notoriously understaffed and overworked. I am on scholarship and my scholarship money just cam through this week and this is the last week of the semester. And, the employee theft is also and old issue, unfortunately. Some of the problems have become so common here that no one really pays them that much attention.

Finally, the only thing that really makes me mad is that the state was not sanctioning the school when they should have been. I understand that no one wants to be accused of racism but something has got to give. It's better to risk the criticism than to let a school continue to operate inefficiently. Just because we are a black school does not mean that we need someone to hold our hands.

ETA: FAMU's law school is already open and operating. I know several students who go there and are enjoying (as much as a first year law student can) their time there.

God is soo good! I still have a school!
 

Everyone is so happy here, we have our annual Christmas Dinner tonight and i'm sure people will be rejoicing!-GRITS



Bennett fully accredited

12-10-03

By John Newsom, Staff Writer
News & Record



After three years in limbo, Bennett College avoided an institutional death penalty by regaining full accreditation Tuesday.

The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools voted Tuesday at its annual conference in Nashville to end Bennett’s probation after two years.

The announcement set off a celebration at Bennett, which was on probation after posting a $3.8 million deficit last year. But an aggressive fund-raising effort has helped Bennett, one of only two historically black women’s colleges in the nation, collect $15 million in a year and a half and close the hole in its annual budget.

“No matter how long the night, the morning is sure to come,” said Bennett President Johnnetta Cole, choking back tears of joy. “And morning has come.”

On the Bennett campus, as word of the vote reached Greensboro, about 30 students and employees prayed, cheered and rang the college’s bell outside the Pfeiffer Memorial Chapel.

They had reason to celebrate. At stake was Bennett’s survival, something that seemed less than assured three years ago. Without accreditation, Bennett would be ineligible for millions of dollars in federal grants.

“This means we’re no longer on a list ... (saying) we are fiscally unstable,” Cole said. “That’s the only reason we were on the list. “Now,” Cole added, “the college is fiscally sound.”

The Southern Association’s Commission on Colleges, based in Decatur, Ga., monitors about 800 colleges in 11 Southern states. To keep accreditation, colleges must show every 10 years that they are meeting the commission’s standards for its academic programs, financial resources and instititutional effectiveness and governance.

The commission had placed Bennett on warning status in 2000 after financial problems emerged. Bennett was on probation — the commission’s most serious sanction next to removing accreditation — for the past two years as fiscal concerns mounted.

Colleges can be on probation for only two years. After that, the association will either restore a school to the ranks of the fully accredited or revoke accreditation entirely. The latter decision would have crippled Bennett and perhaps have forced it to close.

Schools that lose accreditation cannot accept federal scholarship or financial monies used to pay college costs. Ninety-three percent of Bennett’s students get financial aid. Many other colleges will not recognize course credits or degrees from nonaccredited schools, which makes it nearly impossible for students to transfer to another college or enter graduate school.

For senior LaTrease Bruce, the association’s decision came as a huge relief. She had transferred to Bennett this fall from Morris Brown College in Atlanta, which lost its accreditation this spring after years of fiscal instability and mounting debts.

“Bennett has been my lifesaver,” said Bruce, who plans to graduate in May with a sociology degree. “I’m not sure people here know how important this is to Bennett.”

In Nashville, though, a contingent of about 20 Bennett administrators, students, trustees and faculty members hugged each other and exclaimed “We’re off probation!” when the commission announced its decision.

“It’s a blessing,” said Bennett senior Toccara Davenport, Student Government Association president. “It’s definitely a brand new day for Bennett.”

When Cole arrived on campus in July 2002, the college had just ended the fiscal year with a deficit of $3.8 million. Expenses were down, but so, too, were revenues.

That year, according to tax records, Bennett had collected slightly more than $2.5 million in tuition — nearly half of what it had gotten two years earlier. Bennett’s investment portfolio also had lost $732,000.

But Cole, in just 18 months, has raised $15 million in gifts and pledges from alumni, local organizations and even national celebrities. It took Bennett’s previous capital campaign, which began in the mid-1990s, five years to raise that same amount.

Much of the money Cole raised was plowed into closing the college’s deficit. Other proceeds will go toward Bennett’s recently announced capital campaign, which hopes to raise $50 million.

With its accreditation issues settled, Cole said she will turn her attention to raising the enrollment, which has declined by a third during the past five years. Bennett has 429 students this year.

Cole said she has heard from plenty of prospective parents and students who did not consider Bennett because they were worried about the college’s probationary status. Bennett’s accreditation runs through 2009.

“I think there is no question, now that we are off probation, that our enrollment will steadily rise,” Cole said. “(They) know Bennett is solid, so that uneasiness is now removed.”

Though many praise Cole for her leading role in guiding Bennett through its years of crisis, she is quick to deflect it.

“This is not my victory. This is not even Bennett College’s victory,” Cole said. “This is the victory of the entire community that supports us.”

That's great.
Grambling is ACCREDITED also (same meeting)!

However, at the SAME meeting...AUBURN was placed on PROBATION. Now, why wasn't that publicized ALL over the world?

:confused:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ccreditation_1
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunh...al/7455342.htm

I see that SACS is having fun this year. Here at my Community College, we were up for reaccreditation, and finances weren't our problem, but instructors' credentials were! We lost several good instructors because some didn't have their "18 credits of graduate courses in their subject area" and had one instructor that had 16 graduate hours in his area, but was not allowed to teach - and he had been teaching for several years! As a matter of fact, we just received word yesterday that we were reaccredited for another 10 years.

Many students don't realize just how important regional accreditation is - I can tell you that preparing for it is a headache. Bennett and Grambling, congratulations!

And Soror 2D, we know exactly why that wasn't made known. . .

Great news!!!

Re: God is soo good! I still have a school!
 

My mommy, a BENNETT BELLE from '65 will be happy to hear this! :D

That's okay. Soror! Cause when this IHPI finds out about it...I"m posting it HERE! :p

Well, Soror, as your able-bodied assistant, it appears that they're not in compliance with several MUST statements. These could be minor, but nevertheless, if not met, could cost the school its accreditation. SACS generally gives the school several months to comply.

But you're right - I ain't heard NOTHING about this! When my community college had to comply, it was in our local paper that we were about to lose accreditation, and had erbody's bizness in the skreets!

Falsified transcripts.....makes me wonder if any of the 541 are Greek.