Is MOB still open?
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Morris Brown plans lean semester
By ANDREA JONES
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Morris Brown College will open this fall with a skeleton staff and vastly decreased enrollment, school officials said Monday.
Interim President Leroy Frazier said the financially strapped college, which lost its accreditation in April, will retain just 21 of its 108 faculty members to teach the approximately 225 students who have committed to attend the private school.
"If you do not have enough students, you cannot support the faculty," Frazier said.
Despite the drastic cutbacks, Frazier said the school will survive.
"Morris Brown has the same quality of education . . . as it did before the accreditation questions came about," Frazier said. "We have the same faculty -- smaller numbers, but the same quality of faculty."
Last year, the 122-year-old school in Atlanta saw its enrollment slip from 2,547 students to about 1,130 as word of the school's financial problems spread.
By attending a nonaccredited school, Morris Brown students cannot qualify for federal financial aid. About 90 percent of Morris Brown students relied on that aid to help pay for their education, including about $10,000 a year in tuition. Federal aid accounted for more than 70 percent of Morris Brown's income.
The school is struggling to pay its bills.
On Friday, school officials sent a letter to faculty members with the news that they would not be paid for August.
"We have had to undertake some drastic measures to reduce its expenses by cutting staff, faculty and academic programs," Frazier wrote in the letter, obtained by WSB-TV and provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "These very difficult and unpleasant decisions were necessary to ensure that the college continued operating until we are reaccredited and sufficient funding is in place to meet all of our expenses."
The school also sent letters to more than 500 current and former students telling them to pay outstanding debt or face being reported to the Internal Revenue Service and having their transcripts withheld. They have until Thursday to pay.
Officials at Morris Brown, which has a mission of serving all students, including many not academically or financially prepared for other colleges, said many students will have a chance to pay off part of their fall tuition by working on campus. The school also is looking for volunteers to teach some classes for free.
In recent months, Morris Brown has laid off staff, closed buildings and eliminated the athletics program to cut costs. Frazier said the school also has begun a "grass-roots" fund-raising effort.
Morris Brown will reapply for accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, he said. The agency's rules require that schools be free of operating debt before starting the application process. The organization initially revoked the school's accreditation in December, citing ongoing problems with financial aid and record keeping, ineffectiveness of the board and the administration, and debts.
"The story of Morris Brown is the story of every historically black college or university," Frazier said. "And the message is that we have learned to do a lot with little resources and made it."
By ANDREA JONES
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Morris Brown College will open this fall with a skeleton staff and vastly decreased enrollment, school officials said Monday.
Interim President Leroy Frazier said the financially strapped college, which lost its accreditation in April, will retain just 21 of its 108 faculty members to teach the approximately 225 students who have committed to attend the private school.
"If you do not have enough students, you cannot support the faculty," Frazier said.
Despite the drastic cutbacks, Frazier said the school will survive.
"Morris Brown has the same quality of education . . . as it did before the accreditation questions came about," Frazier said. "We have the same faculty -- smaller numbers, but the same quality of faculty."
Last year, the 122-year-old school in Atlanta saw its enrollment slip from 2,547 students to about 1,130 as word of the school's financial problems spread.
By attending a nonaccredited school, Morris Brown students cannot qualify for federal financial aid. About 90 percent of Morris Brown students relied on that aid to help pay for their education, including about $10,000 a year in tuition. Federal aid accounted for more than 70 percent of Morris Brown's income.
The school is struggling to pay its bills.
On Friday, school officials sent a letter to faculty members with the news that they would not be paid for August.
"We have had to undertake some drastic measures to reduce its expenses by cutting staff, faculty and academic programs," Frazier wrote in the letter, obtained by WSB-TV and provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "These very difficult and unpleasant decisions were necessary to ensure that the college continued operating until we are reaccredited and sufficient funding is in place to meet all of our expenses."
The school also sent letters to more than 500 current and former students telling them to pay outstanding debt or face being reported to the Internal Revenue Service and having their transcripts withheld. They have until Thursday to pay.
Officials at Morris Brown, which has a mission of serving all students, including many not academically or financially prepared for other colleges, said many students will have a chance to pay off part of their fall tuition by working on campus. The school also is looking for volunteers to teach some classes for free.
In recent months, Morris Brown has laid off staff, closed buildings and eliminated the athletics program to cut costs. Frazier said the school also has begun a "grass-roots" fund-raising effort.
Morris Brown will reapply for accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, he said. The agency's rules require that schools be free of operating debt before starting the application process. The organization initially revoked the school's accreditation in December, citing ongoing problems with financial aid and record keeping, ineffectiveness of the board and the administration, and debts.
"The story of Morris Brown is the story of every historically black college or university," Frazier said. "And the message is that we have learned to do a lot with little resources and made it."