Grambling Welcomes Extended ‘Probation' Status; Others Face Harsh Reality

BATON ROUGE, La.

Troubled Grambling State University has shown enough progress in cleaning up its finances that the regional accrediting agency decided last month to extend its probation for another year.

At the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' annual meeting in San Antonio, the agency's executive director James Rogers said Grambling has made significant progress in recent months to clean up the financial problems that have threatened the university's accreditation.

But Rogers said the association wanted to see the 101-year-old historically Black institution sustain the progress for a longer period of time.

Dr. Sally Clausen, president of the University of Louisiana System that oversees Grambling, says the decision to give Grambling another year to prove itself is a significant victory.

"We've turned the ship around — they (SACS) just want to see that ship move forward for a little longer," Clausen says.

For schools seeking first-time accreditation, the agency requires two consecutive unqualified or clean audits, and is applying the same standard to Grambling, she says.

Clausen noted that the loss of accreditation would have been devastating for Grambling, where nearly 90 percent of students are receiving some kind of aid linked to accreditation.

SACS also rescinded its warning against St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, N.C. The agency affirmed that the college is in good standing and that its accreditation has been renewed through 2011.

SACS warned the private, historically Black college a year ago that its library services and financial resources were inadequate, that planning and educational support services were weak, that the school failed to evaluate its educational effectiveness and that several academic departments fell short of minimum standards for faculty members' scholarly credentials.