At the foothills of the Black mountain of wealth and political power in Metro-Atlanta resides Morris Brown College. While still a member of the "Atlanta University Center" complex which has educated hundreds of thousands of Black people over the last century - MoBrown is a mere shell of itself today. The buildings still stand erect yet most go underutilized. While there is a great pinned up demand and need for the services that the school delivers - the harsh financial realities of its situation has rendered this HBCU near death.
Earlier this year a massive water bill that was due to the City of Atlanta nearly proved to be the final nail in the coffin.
At Morris Brown there is no Republican governor around to operate as the villain who threatens to blow up the bridge upon which Black people who seek opportunity walk across to the other side and gain access to enlightenment and opportunity. Instead MoBrown's fate is nearly 100% self-inflicted. As such the "public outrage" within the Black community about the situation at MoBrown has been muted.
Years of financial mis-management and the expansion of its physical plant (its buildings) that was beyond its financial means brought this proud institution to its present state of affairs.
There has never been a better time for the Black community to prove that it values education of our young people above all else.
(For the record - despite not being an alumni of the school I have donated more money to it over the years than has the average graduate who has a direct connection to the school. )
AJC Story:
The historically black school has nearly $30 million in long-term debt. Acting President Stanley Pritchett estimated the college would need as much as $50 million over the next five years. It costs about $350,000 a month to run the college.
“The only thing standing between Morris Brown applying for accreditation is fiscal stability,” Pritchett said. “We need money, desperately. We need people to understand that an investment in Morris Brown is a good investment.”
Accreditation shows that a college meets widely accepted standards and makes students eligible for federal financial aid.
While Pritchett and other Morris Brown officials remained confident in the college’s future success, others were unsure whether the college could or should continue.
2 comments:
CF,
As I read this, I'm wondering about the possibility of Morris Brown merging with another HBCU. Many of them probably need to look at doing that as a way to survive. As I understand it, many of the HBCU's have begun expanding the ranks of students (i.e. accepting white students) they take in due to the fierce competition for black students from majority schools. But even that won't overcome a management blunder caused by excessive leverage and an unjustified expansion.
Ain't gonna happen.
Here is a dirty little secret about the AU Center. Of the five schools there is a bit of a stack ranking regarding social status:
ELITE:
Morehouse & Spelman
The Commoners
Clark-Atlanta
The Ghetto:
Morris Brown
(The divinity college is the 5th school but it doesn't count in this measure)
The bottom line is that there is an enormous sense of pride when it comes to these schools and the traditions that are associated with them. Just as the 3 schools in Mississippi are reluctant to merge under one banner as a cost saving plan - the same is the case with Morris Brown's chances of merging with one of these other schools. Definitely not Morehouse or Spelman. CAU being the only possible option and this is still a long shot.
The only option is for Morris Brown to totally remake itself into a school for some other purpose than general studies and then luck up and find a Black multi-millionaire or a corporation to lend it more than $50 million to pay off the debt and invest in this new direction - I don't see it happening.
The location is prime. It is right off of a main thoroughfare. If Morris Brown shudders - and I hope it doesn't - there will be some other academic institution that comes along and takes over the buildings in the long run.
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