Bennett College Loses Its Accreditation Despite Raising More Than $9 Million To Surpass Goal

Bennett College officially lost its accreditation on Monday, Feb. 18, although the news was not widely known until Friday.

Breanna Edwards Feb, 22, 2019

Despite raising millions of dollars to uphold its financial standing, Bennett College, one of only two existing women-only HBCUs, has lost its accreditation.

MyFox8 reports that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on College issued the announcement on Friday, although the HBCU technically lost its accreditation on Monday.

The SACSCOC Board of Trustees voted on pulling the school’s accreditation on Dec. 9, however Bennett appealed the decision. The Appeals Committee, however, doubled down on the board’s decision, refusing to recognize the $9 million the college raised after its initial decision.

According to SASCOC, the committee decided “with no remand for consideration of additional financial information made available after December 9, 2018,” claiming that the college’s alleged financial instability was the reason behind the whole accreditation issue.

The school needed to raise some $5 million by Feb. 1, 2019 to remain in good standing, and thanks to more than 11,000 donors was able to beat that goal.

To no avail, it seems. College officials were still told about the loss of accreditation on Feb. 18.

According to the Greensboro News & Record, officials with the college have previously said that they would sue the SASCOC. The college has also emphasized that it would seek accreditation through another agency.