Commission grants Cheyney another year of accreditation

The body that accredits Cheyney University notified the school’s president late Friday that it has agreed to extend its accreditation for another year on a probationary basis, citing progress made by the struggling campus to right financial and other woes.

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s decision is a major boost to one of the nation’s oldest historically black colleges. Although the school must submit another report in a year, and still faces formidable obstacles, it gives Cheyney precious time to begin implementing a plan developed earlier this year to sustain itself.

“I am very pleased that Middle States has recognized the effort that has been put forth by this university and many, many others outside the university to position us to get this work done,” Cheyney president Aaron Walton said by phone after receiving the late afternoon call.

Officials have said the 180year-old university in suburban Philadelphia could not have survived if the commission had pulled its accreditation, because it would have rendered the university and its students

ineligible for federal and state financial aid programs.

It is one of 14 state-owned universities belonging to the State System of Higher Education.

State System officials hailed the decision. Days earlier, its board of governors voted in special session to forgo the remainder of a presidential search and appoint Mr. Walton, then interim Cheyney president, as its permanent leader in a bid to demonstrate to the commission leadership stability.

“The decision by Middle States affirms the extraordinary progress the university has made under the leadership of President Walton. At the same time, we know there is even more to be done,” State System Board Chair Cynthia Shapira said in a statement.

“Significant challenges remain, and more difficult decisions will have to be made. The Board of Governors is committed to a strong, vibrant future for Cheyney, and we will continue to do everything within our power and authority to assist the university on behalf of the students of this historic institution,” she added.

“We all seek the same goal — a thriving and vital Cheyney University that will provide students the outstanding educational experience they need to be successful throughouttheir lives,” she said.

The decision was announced a day after Mr. Walton appeared before the commission in Philadelphia to defend his school’s accreditation, and nearly three months after his administration filed a mandated report showing its approach to balancing the campus budget and correcting other institutional woes.

The school this fall expected to cut $7.5 million from its $35 million budget, officials said. It had pared about two dozen staff and administrative positions, most of them in recent months, including that of its lead spokesperson.

A number of its 18 academic programs were expected to be placed into moratorium, Mr. Walton has said, while other expense cuts would be made and avenues explored for generating revenue through property it owns, including campus buildings now unused.

The enrollment, budgetary and administrative woes long plaguing Cheyney are the most glaring example of the gulf that exists across the State System of Higher Education in campus finances, price and student outcomes.

The university trails the system’s 13 other state universities in many financial and academic indicators. As of last year, more than half its first year students quit campus after the first year.

Financesacross the System System campuses weakened as enrollment peaked in 2010, thenbegan to recede.

Cheyney’s enrollment dropped by more than half between 2010 and last year to 746 students. Two successive fall enrollment gains put that total at 755 students.

The commission placed Cheyney on probation in November 2015.

At the time, it said there was “insufficient evidence” that the university met the body’s standard for institutional resources. It sought from Cheyney a number of financial and leadership assurances.

In June, the State System and its 13 other universities extendedthe fourth of what ultimately would be five emergency loans totaling $30.5 million so Cheyney could keep its doorsopen.

A month before that came initial word that Cheyney had mishandled tens of millions of dollars in federal financial aid funds. It continues to await a U.S. Department of Education decision on whether it must repay nearly $30 million of thosefunds.

The commission letter Friday explaining its action indicated that Cheyney is now in compliance “with standards related to planning, resource allocation and administration,” the university said in a statement.

It said that in addition, the commission noted that Cheyney demonstrated it has made “significant progress toward the resolution of its non-compliance issues” and is “making a good-faith effort to remedy existing deficiencies.”

The commission said there is “a reasonable expectation that such deficiencies will be remedied within the period of the extension” of the university’s accreditation, the university stated.

Cheyney said it must provide the commission evidence of continued progress over the next year in the areas of financial and institutional resources.”

For years, talk at the campus level and at the system level revolved around shoring up Cheyney’s weak finances and managerial problems and developing a long-term sustainability plan. Many pointed to the school’s Keystone Honors College as an endeavor around which an effort to rebrand Cheyney could be made.

Supporters on campus, in the State System and beyond stress the importance of Cheyney’s survival, noting its distinct mission within the Commonwealth and historic significance.

Cheyney’s pre-Civil War founding in 1837 as The African Institute and later the Institute for Colored Youth predates another nearby Pennsylvania institution, Lincoln University. But that school says the Commonwealth Charter it received in 1854 makes it the nation’s first degree-granting Historically Black College and University (HBCU).

Through the decades its graduates have gone on to distinguished careers in fields including education, among them the state’s current education secretary, Pedro Rivera, ‘01.