Ammons: I thought program was OK'd

Ex-NCCU leader talks of satellite venture

DURHAM -- As chancellor at N.C. Central University, James Ammons routinely attended meetings of the NCCU trustees and the UNC system's governing board. But Wednesday he said he always assumed a satellite NCCU campus that operated for four years at a suburban Atlanta megachurch had been properly approved, even though neither of those boards ever voted on it.

Asked how he never realized the oversight, Ammons said, "In the end, I accept responsibility for it."

In a conference call Wednesday, Ammons, who left NCCU last year and is now president at Florida A&M University, spoke at length for the first time since The News & Observer reported on Sunday the rise and fall of the L.I.F.E. College program at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. The church's pastor is Eddie Long, an NCCU trustee.

NCCU shut the program down in June after it ran afoul of an accrediting agency.

In accepting blame for it Wednesday, Ammons shifted some responsibility to the academic units that operated under him while the program was being created in 2004. He said it was presented to him by faculty members and the University College, the NCCU division that administers distance education programs.

The college dean then was Beverly Washington Jones, who would later become provost. Ammons didn't name her specifically.

"I'm not here to place any blame on anyone," he said.

In an e-mail statement Wednesday, Jones tossed the responsibility back to Ammons, saying in part that though she was involved in some of the academic planning, the responsibility for "securing the appropriate authorizations" rested with the provost and chancellor. The provost at the time was Lucy Reuben; Jones succeeded her in late 2004. Reuben could not be reached.

Last week, UNC system President Erskine Bowles appeared to place the blame on Ammons, saying in part: "I can think of no justifiable reason why the former NCCU leadership would have completely ignored and failed to abide by the appropriate approval process in creating this program. Such action is contrary to all University policy. To say the least, it is very disappointing."

For four years, NCCU offered bachelor's degree programs in hospitality and tourism, criminal justice and business administration at the sprawling megachurch run by Long, a 1976 NCCU alumnus and donor who became a university trustee in 2002. Ammons said Wednesday that Long, who last week donated $1 million to the university, did not ask him to set up the satellite campus. Ammons added that he didn't know whether Long might have asked someone else at the university about the program.

"Bishop Long did not ask me to do it," he said. "Bishop Long and I didn't talk about the establishment of this program."

Long has not responded to requests for comment but did issue a statement this week saying he hoped the New Birth program could be saved. But NCCU has scrapped the program and is looking for ways to accommodate students whose educations were interrupted by its closing.

Ammons said he assumed the program was properly authorized because he knew the Faculty Senate had signed off on it. But the faculty chairman at the time, Kofi Amoeteng, said last week that the issue was contentious and won faculty approval by a slim margin, with many faculty members left feeling that the proposal had been pushed through without a proper hearing. Ammons said Wednesday he did not attend the 2004 meeting where the faculty voted on the program.

He did say he liked the idea when he first saw it.

"We saw it as an opportunity to partner with Bishop Eddie Long ... and also to provide educational opportunities in what would have been a new market to N.C. Central University," he said.

The New Birth program was dissolved in June after the accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, refused to authorize it. NCCU had violated a requirement that the university notify the agency of any substantial changes to its academic offerings. The university did not tell the association about the New Birth program when it began in 2004.

Last week, NCCU officials said degrees earned by graduates of the New Birth program were valid because NCCU, which ran the program, is properly accredited. But an association official said those degrees do not carry the same weight as a regular NCCU bachelor's degree because the New Birth program was not considered the last time the agency accredited NCCU.

As a result, New Birth graduates may run into trouble with some potential employers or face difficulty in trying to get into graduate school.

Students currently enrolled may face similar problems. Though NCCU is now developing a "teach-out" program to help those students finish their educations, the Southern Association will not recognize any course work done at the Georgia site.