Saving Cheyney University
Saving Cheyney University
Junious
Ricardo Stanton
On Monday
evening June 6, Heeding Cheyney's Call
held a rally to provide information, status updates and dispel rumors the
historic institution, the oldest institution for higher learning in the United
States for African-Americans, is about to close.
Heeding
Cheyney' Call is a grassroots, coalition made up of alumni, students, higher
education advocates and activists who were called together in 2013 by the late great
Professor Edgar "Sonny" Harris to save the school. Harris was a
former professor of mathematics and mathematics instruction at the university
who served for many years as the president of the faculty union and the retired
faculty union. In 2013 he became increasingly alarmed at the declining
enrollment, escalating deficits, lack of viable leadership and willful neglect
on the part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE).
Harris called one of his mentees,
activist attorney Michael Coard and several other alumni (myself included) who
began meeting to investigate exactly what the status of the university was and
strategize how to reverse the dangerous trends and save the school.
After a
series of meetings with US Department of Education officials, the US Department
of Education Office of Civil Rights staff, federal, state and local elected officials a
press conference was called to announce our intent to revisit the 1999 federal
consent decree agreement between the University and the US Department of Education's
Office of Civil Rights. Heeding Cheyney's Call as we call ourselves began
searching for an attorney or law firm willing to take on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
After eight
months of face to face meetings and attempts to negotiate with the Corbett
Administration, in July of 2014 Corbett's team informed us they were not going
to give Cheyney any additional funding. HCC
decided to file a federal lawsuit in October of 2014 several weeks prior to the
upcoming gubernatorial election. We engaged Joe Tucker who agreed to handle the
work pro bono and he quickly went into action building a solid case.
Once the
paperwork was filed, HCC prepared for a protracted legal battle but Gov.
Corbett lost the November 2014 gubernatorial election. His successor Governor
Tom Wolf indicated he wished to avoid the expenses and potentially negative
consequences of litigation. Heeding Cheyney's Call entered into good faith
negotiations with Gov. Wolf and his staff and the process moved along smoothly;
so much so HCC agreed to ask the presiding judge to set it aside while we
worked out a settlement. The case was withdrawn without prejudice in January of
2016. We have the option of reopening it!
Since 2010 the university has experienced a
fifty-three percent decrease in enrollment from 1,406 undergraduate students to
a mere 660 in 2017. The university is also burdened with escalating debt due to
loans from PASSHE to keep it operational, and because the federal government
has delayed paying owed financial aid monies to the university. The university
also experienced challenges with the NCAA but avoided sanctions because they
self-reported violations.
Due to the press the university's fiscal
position was generating, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education
returned to campus to look at Cheyney despite having granted the university full
reaccreditation status in 2014. The new Middle States team discovered Cheyney
lacked the financial wherewithal to sustain itself and carry out its mission. They
were especially concerned about Cheyney's declining enrollment and lack of
permanent leadership. Middle States subsequently placed the university on probation
in November of 2015. Cheyney has two years to rectify its shortcomings, November
19, 12017 is the deadline.
The
Commonwealth has steadfastly declined for over two years to initiate a search
for a permanent president and despite several high ranking PASSHE officials managing
and stabilizing the departments of enrollment, financial aid and the bursars
office, the university failed to meet its enrollment projections for Fall 2016.
Now PASSHE says it cannot lend Cheyney any additional funds.
The state
convened a special Task Force charged with coming up with a new institutional
model for mission, operations and sustainability. The Task Force was composed
of a Wolf administration cabinet head, legislators, PASSHE Board of Governors and Cheyney Council of
Trustee members. They published their final report in May. The report proposes
a radical reconfiguring of the university. It specifically recommends exploring
ways to monetize Cheyney's real estate, tearing down several buildings, cutting staff and discontinuing NCAA Division
II sports.
Cheyney is
one of several PASSHE schools experiencing fiscal and enrollment difficulties: Mansfield , Clarion, California
and Edinboro are the others. Each of these schools have historically been
stepping stones for working class families to acquire a college education. Their
demise would be catastrophic for the state. http://www.pennbpc.org/sites/default/files/20170608_RisingCostsPaper.pdf
It was in
response to the Task Force's report that Heeding Cheyney's Call convened
Monday's meeting. HCC is asking everyone concerned about saving Cheyney to do
three things immediately: call Governor Tom Wolf, (717) 787-2500, Chancellor
Frank Brogan (717) 720-4000 and the PASSHE Board of Governors Chairperson Cynthia
Shapira (717) 720-4028, demand they rethink the Task Force recommendations and
work to immediately resolve the chronic systemic causes of Cheyney's problems.
After you do that please send HCC an E-mail at HeedingCheyneysCall@gmail.com,
leave your name and phone number, the date, time and person you spoke with. Your
participation, whether you went to Cheyney or not, is crucial to our success
keeping the oldest institution of higher learning for African Americans in this
nation open, alive and thriving! Please make the calls.
posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 9:03 AM
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