Morris Brown College files bankruptcy
Morris Brown College is one of the oldest traditionally black colleges. But it is in deep financial trouble, as reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
Morris Brown College officials have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a last ditch effort to prevent the 131-year-old school from being foreclosed on and sold at auction, and to give them time to regroup.
Morris Brown, which is more than $30 million in debt, was facing foreclosure next month after investors called $13 million worth of bonds tied to the college. The bonds were issued by the Fulton County Development Authority in 1996. As security for the bonds, Morris Brown pledged several pieces of property, including the school’s administration building. An auction of assets had been scheduled for Sept. 4….
Eugenia McDowell stood at the top of the steps overlooking the football field, waiting for a group to gather for prayer….
“It is sad that we might lose all of this,” McDowell said. “I would love to come back to this campus one day and see it revitalized. That is why we are praying today.”
Morris Brown College seeks federal protection, hopes to prevent auction of campus (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Comments
The closure of any old college is a terribly sad affair, and I hope very much the people at Morris Brown will find a way to restructure and rebuild a worthy educational community.
I have no idea whether there is a political angle to this, and don’t really care in cases like this. If the place has had bad management (which it seems to have had) then that’s the fault of the individual managers and the trustees, and not the students or the generations of students who have gone before. Any old college has decades of tradition, learning, and positive influences behind it, and a few years of incompetence and/or corruption should not be allowed to erase that. Purge the incompetence and preserve the best of the heritage.
I seem to recall that the school had a series of bad administrators and lost its accreditation about a decade ago. Since, no one has been willing to step up to the plate with donations typical for all schools. It’s sad that a school with a line of historical achievements is destroyed scandalous administrators.
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