The nation's oldest black college, Cheyney University, one of Pennsylvania's 14 state-run universities, is on the verge of a financial meltdown that threatens its ability to continue operating, a state official said on Wednesday.
Cheyney's student body has shrunk by two-thirds, to about 1,000, since its 1983 peak, and its four-year graduation rate is just 9 percent. A quarter of students never receive a degree, and student loan defaults are high.
"Cheyney is in dire, dire, dire straits," the state's auditor general, Eugene DePasquale, said. The university has had a deficit for four of the last five years, growing to a cumulative $12.3 million shortfall as of June 30, 2013.
Cheyney's fiscal problems - students who are unable to repay debt and increasing pension costs - were exacerbated by cutbacks in state higher education funding.
DePasquale called upon the State System of Higher Education - the governing body for the state-owned universities - and the legislature to help Cheyney find a way out of "a vicious, destructive cycle" in which declining enrollment and state funding leads to less money for investments that could attract much-needed students.
Cheyney, located in the Philadelphia suburb of the same name, was founded in 1837 after Quaker philanthropist Richard Humphreys bequeathed part of his estate to build a school to educate descendents of the African race, according to the university's website.
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14 comments:
Call holder.
A graduation rate of 9%? The State should not even be funding this school.
This place sounds like a daycare facility for minorities.
One way out of the vicious, destructive pattern is to stop accepting illiterate people into the college. There are plenty of smart black students in college is all over America. The fact that this college can't attract them tells me that the law of supply and demand is working just fine.
The patient has died, why not just take it off life support at this point and save the state a lot of money
its basically UMES but at UMES they make sure to fudge most of their students to pass with basket weaving or something
My question to him would be, "how MUCH of a decline is necessary to show that your consumer base is dissatisfied with your product and you have failed?".
Because you exist as some type of entity, such as a business, school, fraternity, etc. does not mean you deserve to continue forever. At someone else's expense.
I'll bet if the records were pulled, we'd find the expense accounts of the trustees and the college President were riddled with dinners, trips, gifts, and lots of things not reflecting the "dire, dire straits" of the financial state of the college.
4:01 UMES has a greater graduation rating. It is 16%. Keep the tax dollars coming in because they are on a roll.
UMES is a drug haven.
This is a piece of history that will be missed if it is not saved.
If the rediculous protests and demonstrations keep up from you mes nobody's going to hire their graduates and they'll have to close their doors too.
How come us white folks can't have a all white college?
You mean "an all white college". Because that would be rasist. Duh.
Millions of tax dollars wasted on minority student loans. Blatant fraud. Time for change
You mean "racist" Duh
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