6A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NATION
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4,2002
Atlanta college founded by former slaves may close
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — The financial mess at Morris Brown College is so bad that the cafeteria sometimes runs out of food, computer labs carefully ration paper, and laptop computers that cost students $1,500 each never arrived.
The historically black college founded by former slaves is more than $23 million in debt and could be forced to close in a crisis that is being blamed on its past president and her ambitious efforts to enlarge Morris Brown and raise its profile.
The 2,500-student college, whose alumni include civil rights leader Hosea Williams and teachers and politicians across the South, has been on probation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and could lose its accreditation after a committee review that began Monday.
The final decision, which
could take weeks, could make or break the school, because a loss of accreditation means students would no longer be eligible for federal financial aid.
And more than 90 percent of Morris Brown's students rely on it to cover the $10,200-a-year tuition.
"Morris Brown is the bedrock, the core of what is good about Atlanta," said City Councilman Derrick Boazman, a 1991 graduate. "The school looks at people not for where they came from, but for where they're going."
Founded by members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1885, Morris Brown is one of the six historically black schools that make up the Atlanta University Center, which also includes the better-known Spelman and Morehouse colleges.
Morris Brown takes many students from poor backgrounds. Many return to their hometowns as teachers.
Current school officials blame the problems on former President Dolores Cross, who has acknowledged using more than $8 million in federal student financial aid to pay faculty salaries and other bills
— which could be a violation of federal law.
"When the money came in, we paid the vendors," she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "When you have a college that is 82 percent tuition-driven, when money comes in, you pay bills. You take care of faculty."
In addition, the Education Department has accused the college of obtaining federal financial aid for students who dropped out or were otherwise ineligible. The department has demanded Morris Brown repay at least $5.4 million.
Cross, who resigned in February, declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press. But she has said the financial problems started long before she arrived in
1998.
Among the alleged financial missteps under Cross was a decision to make more money and get more recognition by moving the athletic program from Division II to the bigger-school Division I. But Morris Brown's teams had trouble finding opponents willing to travel to a school with such small facilities.
The men's basketball team had to crisscross the country, playing 21 of 50 games on the road.
"That was an extremely expensive undertaking," said Jim Rogers, executive director of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. "We encouraged them not to move in that direction, but they went ahead and did it anyhow. When you give advice and people ignore it or don't hear it, this is an example of what happens."
Cross was also faulted for expanding enrollment without adding housing space.
In 1998, the school had 588 freshmen. By 2000, freshman enrollment had swelled to 820. Last year,400 students had to be put up in hotels around the city for lack of dorm space, and the college shouldered the costs of shuttling them to and from campus.
College spokeswoman Veronica Shaw said no students are living in hotels this year.
Two dorms had been scheduled for construction but were never built. School officials blamed problems with obtaining financing. The Wall Street rating firm Dun & Bradstreet recently gave its worst possible credit score to Morris Brown.
Among other problems: Some students last year said they never got the laptops they paid for. It turned out Morris Brown never paid the company that supplied them.
In December, the supplier sued the college for $4.2 million.
The school is working on a recovery plan that could include tuition increases, job cuts and cutbacks in athletics and other programs.
Some students interviewed fiercely defended their school and expressed confidence in its future.
"I'm not going to transfer. I don't think anyone's planning on leaving because of this. It made us closer," said freshman Derrick Jones. "We came here for the whole black experience, and this is great. At some regular schools, black students don't get a chance to excel, but at historically black schools they do."
Laresha Pope said: "It's the responsibility of the government, the society and everyone to make sure this school stays open because it's such a historical place. This university has so, so much to offer to society, and that's not being covered. We don't get any help from anywhere."
Students turn in vouchers, return to public schools
The Associated Press
MIAMI — More than one in four students who took a voucher to attend private school in Florida this semester have transferred back to public education, a newspaper reported.
This summer, 607 students requested taxpayer-funded vouchers to leave public schools that received failing grades. As of last week, 170 had returned to public schools, The Miami Herald reported Sunday.
In one county, Miami-Dade, 90 of 330 students who requested vouchers have returned to public school — and more than two in three were back in their original school.
Many returning students said they felt more comfortable at their neighborhood schools, even those labeled as failing. They also cited trouble with transportation, and more demanding curricula or firmer discipline at their new schools.
"I didn't know the teachers
and the principal there," said junior Michael Seymour, 16, who returned to Miami Edison Senior High from Archbishop Curley/Notre Dame High. "I had to learn a whole new system there, and I've already been through that process once at Edison."
Critics of vouchers, a cornerstone of the education policies implemented by Gov. Jeb Bush, said the returning students show that vouchers are misguided.
But a spokeswoman for Bush called the trend a triumph of school choice.
"No longer are these children trapped in failing schools," Katie Muniz said.
A 1999 state law allows students at public schools that earn a failing grade two years out of four to get a voucher to attend private school. Students in Escambia County that year became Florida's first to use vouchers.
About 9,000 students at 10 schools in Escambia, Miami-
Dade, Orange and Palm Beach counties became eligible this summer for the first time.
Miami-Dade officials said they think many students who returned to failing public schools were having academic or behavior problems that weren't resolved in the private schools.
"The private schools were not the panacea they had expected," said Mercedes Toural, associate superintendent foreducation.
Urban education experts say another factor might be at play: culture shock. All five failing Miami-Dade schools, for example, are in low-income neighborhoods, and most voucher students may have had a hard time acclimating to a private-school setting.
"The culture and peer group of a private school are alien, and students feel that," said Joan Wynne, associate director of the Center for Urban Education and Innovation at Florida International University.
Support from White House increases for SEC chairman
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The White House stepped up its support yesterday for embattled SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt as top presidential aides said Pitt had amassed a sterling record of fines and sanctions against corporate corruption.
Both Karen Hughes, one of President Bush's most trusted advisers, and Mary Matalin, counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, repeated the White House position that an internal investigation under way is the way to clear up the latest controversy surrounding the Securities and Exchange Commission chief.
Pitt, under fire from Democrats for a series of alleged ethical missteps, is facing new accusations over his handling of the selection of former FBI Director William Webster to head a new accounting oversight board.
The SEC's inspector general
is investigating whether Pitt concealed from fellow commissioners, who were considering applicants for the job, that Webster had served as an accounting overseer at a company facing fraud accusations. White House sources have said the chief of staff, Andrew Card, was angry because he was not told of Webster's past before urging him to apply for the SEC appointment.
"The White House was not involved in the vetting process." Hughes said Sunday on ABC's This Week. "I think what the White House has said about that to date is ... that we need to learn all the facts and see the results of that investigation."
But, she said, "I will say that under Chairman Pitt's tenure the SEC has imposed a record amount of fines and has enacted a record number of disgorgements against corporate executives who've been engaged in unethical practices."
Appearing on CNN's Late Edition, Matalin too spoke of "a record number of fines collected from the SEC, a record number of disgorgements collected of ill-gotten funds."
"We just don't know the facts of the vetting process for Webster," she said.
Hughes, who has moved back to Texas and advises Bush under a contract with the Republican National Committee, said Pitt's record "is one of a tough crackdown against excesses and abuses in corporate America." Matalin said: "Harvey Pitt has had a great record over there in the SEC."
Previously, White House officials had said anonymously that the SEC under Pitt had a good record against corruption, but spokesman Ari Fleischer and others went no further in praising him than that Bush "continues to have confidence in Harvey Pitt," as Fleischer said Saturday.