Ten HBCUs across the South had their accreditation reaffirmed Tuesday for another 10 years by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Commission on Colleges, the principal accreditation group for colleges across the region.
Two major colleges—Fisk University and Tennessee State University, both in Tennessee—were placed on “warning” status, a position that leaves their accreditation intact pending resolution of issues SACS raised during their review process. Warning is one step short of probation, a rating that could lead to a school losing accreditation.
Stillman College, a small private historically Black school in Alabama, was denied reaffirmation.
The SACS decisions were announced in Louisville late Tuesday as the Commission completed four days of meetings built around its annual convention.
The Commission placed its stamp of approval on Alabama State, Bethune Cookman, Grambling, North Carolina A&T, Prairie View, South Carolina State, Southern University-Baton Rouge, Xavier of New Orleans, Virginia Union and Winston Salem State University in North Carolina.
“Accreditation indicates that S.C. State has met exemplary standards of quality, capacity and effectiveness,” said S.C. State University President George Cooper, echoing the sentiments of presidents of other schools that won SACS endorsements without conditions. Cooper characterized a SACS endorsement as “the ultimate process that assesses a university’s success in the fulfillment of its mission and continual efforts to enhance the overall academic collegial experience.”
Norman C. Francis, president of Xavier, said the SACS endorsement “is a great victory for us all and we could not have hoped for a better outcome.” Francis said the entire Xavier community—faculty, staff, students, administrators and trustees—worked at various times over the past two years on drafting the school’s application for reaffirmation, adding that “the accreditation required extensive assessment, reporting, documentation, scheduling, interviewing, logistics and hospitality.”
