After nearly a decade of financial strife, media misrepresentation, and structural challenges, the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) received some positive encouragement regarding its future.

The twenty-one-year-old predominately Black university had its accreditation approved by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools after much speculation that UDC might not reopen its doors next fall. Worries about accreditation arose in June 1996, when an $18.2 million deficit forced massive program cuts and layoffs.

On the heels of a Clinton Administration rescue package granting the university nearly $40 million in support, the commission restored UDC's full accreditation late last month.

University officials were pleased with the announcement, noting that the public's general perception of UDC has been, in many cases, mishandled by the media, contributing to its struggle to retain enrollment.

"It's important to note that the only reason warning was given to us in the first place was because the commission was unsure of the financial support base for the school," explained Dr. Beverly Anderson, vice president of academic affairs and the university's provost. "We're pleased because a lot of people were unsure of why our accreditation was coming into question -- it was an uncertainty agitated by [the] media that our academic standing was in question. This gives us a chance to clear the air."

In the midst of Washington, D.C.'s, fiscal crisis and the development of an overseeing body known as the District's Financial Control Board, the campus community as well as the city's citizenry has been concerned in recent years about the plight of the only public university in the nation's capital. When the control board began assuming authority over most of the city's operations late last year, much of the District endured significant cuts in services and programs.

UDC's overall budgeted income from the city had already decreased from $76 million in fiscal 1992 to $43 million in 1995. UDC suffered a $30 million budget hit in 1996 and was again told to cut an additional $16.2 million within twelve months of the first cut. In its attempts to survive, the university laid off faculty and staff and cut programs and services.