Paine College president says school is on comeback trail

Accreditation, more enrollment, dorms on his must-do list.

With a series of sweeping pronouncements, Paine College President Jerry Hardee set out bold plans to raise millions of dollars to get the school back into compliance with its accrediting body, to more than double the school’s enrollment in at least a couple of years, to build three $12 million residence halls and refurbish many other buildings and to launch a night school program with shorter-term degrees.

“I have to be optimistic about where we’re going because if I’m not optimistic, where will it come from?” he asked.

Paine has been buoyed by some recent large donations and grants, including drawing down $1.5 million in Title III grants from the U.S. Department of Education that the college had been eligible for in the past but had not accessed, Hardee said.

“We just needed someone to make the decision, to pull the trigger to get it done,” he said, noting that the college was accessing money it was eligible for as far back as 2012. The funds were to go to things like program improvements and infrastructure.

“We have not used any of those monies for operation,” Hardee said emphatically. “In other words, we have tried to do what they were designated to be used for.”

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools voted to revoke Paine’s accreditation in 2016 for continually failing to meet three financial standards: financial resources; financial stability; and control of sponsored research/external funds like grants.

That was stayed after Paine filed a lawsuit against SACS; it is now considered accredited but on probation while the lawsuit is pending. Hardee said two of the three deficiencies have already been fixed. Many of the college’s financial services are now handled by ADP and he has hired someone to oversee contracts and grants at the college, whom he meets with every morning.

As for the last one, “I’ve got to raise about $10-15 million,” he said. But he feels that “we are going to soon be fully accredited” by not only SACS but by another accrediting body, the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools.

“We want both,” Hardee said. “We’re in the process of applying” for TRACS accreditation and that the process will be complete in October. Tanmay Pramanik, vice president for institutional compliance with TRACS, confirmed Paine’s application is still pending.

Hardee revealed Paine’s plans to add new dormitories last week. They will be around $12 million apiece, and he plans to add one a year for three years.

“We’re in a position now to negotiate with developers and financiers that are chomping at the bit to come in and help us with that,” he said. He also announced plans to “by the Fall of 2018 and no later than the Fall of 2019 to have 1,000 students on this campus,” Hardee said. “A lot of people are asking us, ‘Why in the world are you going to build dormitories if you only have 425 students and the dorms that you have are not filled?’ We owe our students an outstanding place to live because they see what is going on around them. We can’t be competitive unless we improve our residential life situation.”

One of his first jobs when he took office nine months ago was to clean up the campus and “the campus is now in good order,” Hardee said.

He estimated they had made about $1.5 million in renovations and improvements. That was aided by a $300,000 donation from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church, which helped found Paine 136 years ago.

But Paine is also starting to get back donations from some who might have given up on the school in the past because of its financial troubles.

“There are so many people that love Paine College that had shut down in terms of their communication with the college, in terms of their giving to the college,” Hardee said. “So we’re getting those people back. It’s going to take a little time but we are going to get it done.”