No accreditation and $74M in debt. Here’s what St. Augustine’s is selling now
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- St. Augustine’s University is bankrupt, unaccredited, and $74 million in debt.
- The university is offering eight fully online programs; one is a teacher residency.
- The teacher residency costs $4,500, lasts 12–18 months, and requires a bachelor’s.
St. Augustine’s University, the 160-year-old historically Black university in Raleigh, is bankrupt and unaccredited. Despite these dire straits, the school is offering eight fully online programs designed and administered by its faculty this fall.
Last spring, when the school lost accreditation after a prolonged legal fight to keep it, all current students — of which there were around five — had to transfer out and finish their degrees elsewhere.
But the university must generate income, the university’s lawyer Ciara Rogers said in court. It has $74 million in debt, and intends to pay back most of its more than 300 creditors. Aside from a few rental properties the school owns, which bring in around $10,000 per month, making money is a struggle. The campus requires upkeep, its remaining faculty and staff must be paid, and hefty bills still come in the mail. The bankruptcy administrator Brian Behr said in court that it feels like the school is just “treading water.”
So these certificate programs “are key to how the university is going to continue, especially if the idea is for the university to not sell off all of its real property assets,” Rogers said. St. Augustine’s sits on a piece of land in Raleigh most recently valued at $200 million. Selling off peripheral parts of campus is very much on the table, but leaders hope to keep the core of campus intact.
“We’re not waiting to see how the bankruptcy goes,” Rogers said at a May hearing. “The university understands that it needs to generate income to be able to have future operations.”
What online programs will St. Aug’s offer?
- Artificial intelligence. This online certificate program costs $1,900 and lasts eight to 12 months. It covers topics like principles of machine learning and AI accelerator compilers.
- Data analytics. This online certificate program costs $1,600 and lasts eight to 12 months. It covers topics like data visualization and business analytics.
- Python for data science. This online certificate program costs $1,600 and lasts eight to 12 months. It covers topics like data manipulation, cloud tools and introductory statistics.
- Java programming. This online certificate program costs $1,600 and lasts eight to 10 months. It covers topics like object-oriented programming and computational thinking.
- Biotechnology. This online certificate program costs $1,100 and lasts six to eight months. It covers topics like biology and bioprocessing.
- Community-level public health. This online certificate program costs $1,600 and lasts eight to 10 months. It covers topics like behavioral foundations and control of infectious diseases.
- Teacher residency licensure program. This is not a certificate, but rather “a guided, mentored experience ... to progress toward licensure.” It costs $4,500, lasts 12 to 18 months, and has an elementary education track and a physical education track. Enrollment requires a bachelor’s degree.
Each of these programs is currently accepting applications and forms indicating interest. Proof of a previous degree is required, whether it be high school or college. The university did not disclose how many students have signed up for the programs so far.
The school planned to spend nearly $100,000 on payroll expenses, $25,000 on marketing, and $22,780 on IT services in its June budget.
“The launch of these programs represents an important step in the university’s continued operational efforts to expand educational opportunities while responding to workforce needs across North Carolina,” a statement on St. Augustine’s website reads.
St. Augustine’s also has a “longstanding partnership” with Ed2Go, a vendor of continuing education courses.
City watching bankruptcy case closely
The city of Raleigh has filed a notice of appearance in St. Augustine’s bankruptcy case. That means the city is “monitoring [the case] closely,” Robin Deacle, Raleigh’s communications director, told The News & Observer.
The university owes an unknown amount to the city’s public utility authority, and in late June, received a $40,000 bill from the city.
St. Augustine’s will be back in court on July 28.
