[GRITS]

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.”