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.
