Saint Augustine’s University held a press conference Monday to address the school’s ongoing financial issues.
The university is on probation after failing to meet accreditation standards set by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Most of the standards they failed to meet fell under financial criteria.
Recently, the university has not met payroll. Faculty and staff reported they had not been paid in a while, which interim president Marcus Burgess said led to one professor canceling classes.
Burgess said the university is now meeting its payroll but will have to lay off some employees to stay afloat.
“We’re going to have to cut to work our way back,” Burgess said. “So, we may have to operate on a leaner budget to ensure our stability.”
Burgess said he does not yet know how many faculty or staff would be laid off.
To help address the university’s debts, Burgess said they have also hired a financial consultant. The firm will help create a financial plan, as well as institute new guidelines and controls for university officials.
“We have begun a forensic audit to determine how the financial issues developed and the extent of liability for the crisis,” Burgess said. “These steps, which do not constitute the entirety of our effort, do resurrect our financial viability.”
Burgess said the university is also in the process of meeting with creditors it owes outstanding debts to. This includes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Last week, the IRS took out a nearly $8 million lien against the university. The federal document said the university had unpaid taxes dating back to 2020.
“The issues we face did not begin yesterday and will not simply be gone and resolved by tomorrow,” Burgess said. “But I assure you, our students, faculty, our proud alumni and community that we are working feverishly to structure a cogent and viable plan to extricate this venerable institution from crisis. And return to educating a generation of leaders.”
Burgess took over the interim role of leading the university in December, after former SAU President Christine McPhail was fired last year amid the private HBCU’s accreditation issues. McPhail had said she’d been terminated as a result of gender discrimination and retaliation, which the university denies.
