Before visiting, she says, the accreditation question had concerned her and she felt much better about the matter after talking it over with Sorrell.

“He told us about previous things that had taken place,” she says. “We were just positive and believe that everything is going to be OK. That school should have never had its accreditation taken away. They should have never touched that small school. I believe in the vision. Believe in what’s going to take place. I believe the Lord won’t lead us somewhere knowing that something bad is going to happen.”

Fred Henley, a lawyer and management consultant in Dallas and father of a senior at Paul Quinn, said he too was moved by Sorrell’s message.

“The guy is sharp and you just can’t get around that,” says Henley, a third-generation HBCU graduate. “Everything he said made sense. My impression has been that the school and Sorrell have delivered and more. My daughter is now doing an internship full-time with HP out in Plano, (Texas). The reality of it is there are kids at the University of Texas, big-name schools that are looking for jobs. Struggling Paul Quinn was the thing that opened the door for her full time at HP. That says a lot about the confidence of the product being produced.”

Carter says presidents of troubled schools like Morris Brown and Paul Quinn can follow a blueprint that inspires confidence in parents, alumni and prospective students by being candid and demonstrating the visionary leadership.

These college leaders, he says, can “talk to parents and say everything is what you say it is, but we want you to look at this plan and realize we’re not just sitting back. We’re being aggressive about getting other accreditation and making the kinds of connection with the community and corporate bodies that legitimizes that. We have new leadership in place and a plan in place to distance ourselves from past  struggles.”