This HBCU Plans To Reopen After Being Shuttered Due To Unsafe Conditions

A historically black college in Tennessee that was forced to shut down last year due to unsafe conditions plans to re-open this year. 

Knoxville College closed its doors last February after the city found its building were not up to code, according to Knoxville News Sentinel.  

“They would have to get an architect, they would have to get a contractor, they would have to get all the inspections done,” Knoxville public works director, David Brace said in February 2017. “They’re commercial buildings, so they’d have to have full design documents done.”

But now the college’s president tells the Associated Press that the school has been approved for conditional authorization to operate in 2018. The school lost its state accreditation in 2015 — after enrollment decreased down to 11 — and its national accreditation in 1997.

“We are doing everything possible to be able to open in 2018,” said Knoxville College President Keith Lindsey in an email to the Knoxville News Sentinel .

“We have had tremendous success to this point and we are continuing to ride this momentum. It is challenging because it does encompass many moving parts, however, we are being proactive in our approach to have the infrastructure in place once we receive our approval from (the state) to recruit and admit students.”