Resolute Louisburg College comes back from the brink

LOUISBURG -- Three years ago, trouble nearly shut the doors at tiny Louisburg College, the only two-year private school in the state.

Enrollment sagged. Donations languished. Debt topped $800,000. Accreditors placed the college on probation, and the end looked near for the historic Franklin County campus.

But as new students arrived this week, Louisburg College carried a $500,000 surplus and welcomed the largest freshman class in memory. Donors rose by nearly 40 percent, and total giving increased by more than 70 percent.

Around campus, credit gets handed to new President Mark La Branche and Vice President of Enrollment Stephanie Tolbert, an alumnus who entered the school with a 1.6 grade-point average and finished as its valedictorian.

But the deeper message behind Louisburg College's turnaround is this: People at this underdog school for underdog students refused to let it die.

"We teach people about delayed gratification," said Will Hinton, a longtime art professor. "It just takes awhile and a belief in yourself."

Louisburg College opened in 1857 on the grounds of an older academy, and today it sits on little more than 300 acres outside downtown, its enrollment just above 700 students. Wounded Civil War soldiers were once tended in the main hall, and you can still see hooks that held their hammocks screwed into the white columns out front.

In 2007, the school got notice from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools that its finances merited a six-month warning period, and that its accreditation could get pulled without a turnaround. Then in 2008, President J. Michael Clyburn left his post after less than a year, not long after he cut 20 jobs at the college to help stave off a deficit.

A focus on success

The school caters to students who often can't yet compete at a four-year school but want a more enriching, full-time experience than community college offers. Many come from families without a college graduate. Some suffer from learning disabilities. Nearly all receive federal or state aid.

Allison Hunter struggled at N.C. Central University after graduating from Southeast Raleigh High. She only lasted a semester at NCCU and felt lost among the thousands. In December, she will graduate from Louisburg.

"I'm in the honor society," she said. "I'm in the gospel choir. I made Dean's List twice. I just made the dance team."

More than 90 percent of Louisburg's students transition to a four-year school after graduating, and alumni usually become attached to their larger alma maters. But there is new attention being paid to the generations of graduates, and alumni gifts rose from 341 in 2008 to 488 this year.

Nobody's lost here

Tolbert boasts "American Idol" Scotty McCreery's dad played baseball for Louisburg College, and his mother worked there as a resident assistant.

"We would like to take full credit for the birth of Scotty McCreery," she said.

Louisburg College gets some students who arrive reading at a middle school level, Hinton said. When he teaches them pottery, many of them have never made anything with their hands before. When he asks them to paint a picture of home, "for a lot of them, it's not a happy place."

But the college succeeds, Tolbert said, because five people spring up to help anybody who feels lost. It's impossible to be anonymous at Louisburg, especially with staff living in the residence halls.

"We make it really difficult for you to fall through the cracks," she said. "We're going to know your name, your hometown, your parents' names and your goals."

This year, with nearly 430 freshmen entering, Louisburg was able to turn down about 200 applicants, La Branche said. Nobody wants to turn the college into an elite institution, he said, but it's worth noting that it now has the luxury of being choosy.

"The college was in a doom loop, circling in the wrong direction," he said. "Now we've got the flywheels turning the right way."