Saint Augustine's University (North Carolina)

Early years

Incorporated as Saint Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute on July 19, 1867, Saint Augustine's opened on January 13, 1868, with Jacob Brinton Smith as its first principal. The first classes were held at the state fairgrounds in a former army barrack donated by Major General Oliver Otis Howard, the head of the Freedmen's Bureau. On January 16, 1869, the school moved to its present site, and its first building was dedicated. Brinton Smith died suddenly in October 1872 and was succeeded by John Eston Cooke Smedes. By 1875, less than a decade after the school had been established, 58 alumni had become teachers or pastors. In 1883, all of the classroom buildings were destroyed by fire due to the refusal of White fire companies to fight the blaze, which had to be fought by an underequipped Black fire company. Within a week of the fire, however, instruction resumed in a converted women's dormitory. In the 1883–1884 academic year, collegiate instruction, roughly equivalent to the first year of university, was introduced. Under Robert Bean Sutton, who succeeded Smedes in 1884, the first diplomas were granted in 1885, and the Lyman Building, the school's first brick main building, was completed the same year.^[17]

Aaron Burtis Hunter, who became the school's fourth principal in 1891, introduced industrial training, which was provided to all students until 1933. The institution became Saint Augustine's School in 1893, and the school chapel and a new library were built in 1896. On October 18, 1896, the St. Agnes' Hospital and Training School for Nurses opened, becoming one of the primary Black healthcare facilities between Richmond and Atlanta. The following year, the school acquired 64 acres of land and expanded its campus to 110 acres. Electric lighting began to be installed from December 1906.^[17]

From school to university

In 1916, Edgar Hunt Goold became the institution's fifth principal and introduced the first courses for college credit that year.^[17] The number of junior college-level courses increased over the next two years, and the school became a junior college in 1924,^[18] with Goold as its first president from 1925.^[17][19] The first junior college class graduated in 1925, and the institution was incorporated as the four-year Saint Augustine's College on January 19, 1928,^[20] with the first 12 baccalaureate degrees awarded in 1931 and accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) following in 1942.^[17][2] In 1947, Harold Leonard Trigg became the first Black president of Saint Augustine's and oversaw an expansion of the curriculum and the college facilities, including completion of a science building. In 1949, the college joined the United Negro College Fund. Trigg was succeeded in 1954 by James Alexander Boyer, the first alumnus to head the institution. Under Boyer, enrollment doubled, several new buildings were built, and the curriculum further shifted from that of a normal college to a primarily liberal arts focus, although new graduates predominantly entered teaching as late as 1965.^[17][7] The former college main building, the Lyman Building, which had later been converted to a men's dormitory, was demolished in the summer of 1959 due to structural issues.^[21]

In 1967, Boyer relinquished the presidency and returned to teaching. He was succeeded by Prezell Russell Robinson as the eighth leader of the school and the second alumnus to head it. During Robinson's administration, enrollment reached 1,800 students, an ROTC program was instituted in the 1974–1975 academic year, and a new library, student union, and fine arts center were built. In 1982, Saint Augustine's created a Department of Communications and began operating a radio station, WAUG 750-AM, in 1983, followed by a television station, TV-68 (later WAUG-LD), in 1988. The Division of Allied Health was established in 1992. Robinson retired in March 1995.^[17] He was succeeded by Bernard Wayne Franklin, who served as president until 1999, when Dianne Boardley Suber became the 10th and the first female leader of the college.^[22] Under Suber, the college officially became Saint Augustine's University in 2012 as it prepared to offer master's degrees.^[23]

Instability and accreditation concerns

From the 1990s,^{[8][9][10][11]} Saint Augustine's began experiencing increasingly serious financial problems. During the decade, enrollment declined by 29 percent, the most of any North Carolina college.^[11] Enrollment had peaked at 1,918 students in 1992, and subsequently declined, which was partly attributed to higher admissions standards implemented under president Bernard Franklin.^[8][9] By the fall of 1998, decreased enrollments led to Saint Augustine's resorting to fundraising to cover operating expenses.^[8] Since then, the institution has been severely challenged by persistent financial and administrative instability and other controversies.^[24][25]

In December 2001, the college's accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), placed Saint Augustine's on warning; in addition to insufficient financial resources, the college was cited for inadequate library, planning, and educational support services; failing to evaluate academic effectiveness; and having faculty who lacked appropriate credentials.^[26] Continuing financial problems resulted in Saint Augustine's being placed on probation in December 2003.^[27] The college subsequently succeeded in eliminating its deficit and having the probation removed in December 2004.^[28][29] In September 2013, a financial audit uncovered disorganized accounting and checks being improperly issued.^[30][31] Following these and other instances of mismanagement, coupled with decreasing enrollment, President Dianne Suber was dismissed in April 2014, a month before her planned retirement.^[32][33]

Following President Suber's dismissal,^[32] Everett Ward was appointed president in 2015 after serving as interim president.^[34] In December 2016, the institution was reverted to probationary accreditation for financial and institutional effectiveness issues. After reforms, including implementing computer-based accounting, the probation was lifted in December 2018.^[24] In March 2019, Saint Augustine's board of trustees dismissed Ward four months prior to his intended retirement. Gaddis Faulcon, the institution's former vice president of enrollment management, was appointed to replace Ward as interim president.^[35] In March 2020, Faulcon was himself dismissed.^[36] In October 2020, the new president of Saint Augustine's, Irving Pressly McPhail, died from COVID-19 after three months in office.^[37] He was succeeded by his widow, Christine Johnson McPhail, in 2021. In December 2022, the institution was placed on probation "for good cause" for a third time by its accreditation agency.^[38] After Christine McPhail was dismissed in November 2023, Marcus Burgess, vice president of institutional advancement at Claflin University, was appointed interim president.^[39]

Accreditation revocations, subsequent appeals, and continued decline

On December 3, 2023, the SACSCOC rescinded Saint Augustine's membership for continued governance and financial management issues.^[40][41] University leadership appealed, maintaining the institution's probationary accreditation.^[39] The institution's Faculty Assembly, however, issued a unanimous no-confidence motion against the board of trustees and the administration.^[41] In January 2024, only five days before the spring semester began, students were notified that on-campus classes would begin online due to maintenance issues, resulting in complaints about the short notice.^[42][43] On February 27, 2024, the SACSCOC denied Saint Augustine's appeal,^[44] resulting in university officials submitting the matter to arbitration.^[45] From April, the institution transitioned to online learning, and Wake County Schools announced they would discontinue leadership academy classes at Saint Augustine's after 2024,^[46] eventually announcing their students would instead attend the neighboring Shaw University, another HBCU.^[47]

On July 21, an arbitration panel unanimously reversed the SACSCOC decision, continuing the institution's status as an accredited institution on probation for good cause.^[48] The panel ruled the institution should have been permitted to submit updated financial information.^[49] After a delayed opening on September 3, Saint Augustine's began the 2024–2025 academic year with just 200 students enrolled.^[50] Attempting to stem financial losses, on November 22 the institution's leaders announced the discontinuation of several programs with low enrollment and the dismissal of half of its employees, totaling 67 staff and 69 faculty members.^[51] The institution returned to fully remote instruction from November 27, 2024.^[52] On December 10, the SACSCOC again voted to remove Saint Augustine's University from membership, finding it remained noncompliant with six core requirements and standards; it had also reached the end of its maximum allowable probation period.^[49][13] The same day, having previously suspended the Saint Augustine's Falcons from their conference for 2024–2025,^[53] the CIAA indefinitely suspended all Saint Augustine's athletics from conference participation until the institution was able to support an athletics program "in accordance with NCAA and CIAA bylaws."^[54]

Removal from athletics conference, derecognition, and bankruptcy

On January 7, 2025, interim president Burgess was cited for allegedly failing to secure Saint Augustine's workers' compensation insurance.^[55] On February 3, he said the institution would indefinitely continue fully remote instruction to address deferred maintenance.^[56] On March 5,^[1] a SACSCOC appeals committee upheld revoking Saint Augustine's accreditation; the institution then requested another arbitration process, during which it retained accreditation on a probationary basis.^[12] During its annual spring meeting from June 11–12, the CIAA removed Saint Augustine's from membership for continued noncompliance with athletic conference requirements.^[4]

On July 14, 2025, a SACSCOC arbitration panel unanimously voted to remove Saint Augustine's from membership, stripping the institution of accredited status with immediate effect.^[1][57] By then, enrollment had collapsed to approximately 53 students,^[3] and the fiscal and governance crises had led to much of the institution's campus falling into disrepair; later that month, a fire in Latham Hall, a vacant dormitory, was being investigated as arson.^[58][59] In August, Saint Augustine's stated it had secured a preliminary injunction against the SACSCOC, permitting it to continue operating as an accredited institution until litigation against the accrediting agency had concluded.^[14] On August 31, interim president Burgess resigned, citing personal reasons.^[60] The institution continued to hold fully online classes into 2026.^[61]

Due to its fiscal crisis, Saint Augustine's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 27, 2026, and halted efforts to retain accreditation, with the institution reverting to unaccredited status after May 15; students not graduating that spring would be supported through teach-out agreements.^[16] The institution's administration said "non-degree certificates and apprenticeship programs" would be developed while they built "a pathway toward reaccreditation.^[15] Robert Kelchen, a prominent higher education policy analyst, noted, however, that as bankruptcy proceedings automatically bar academic institutions from receiving federal financial aid, any viable recovery efforts would be extremely challenging and would likely take years.^[62]

Governance controversies

In March 2019, the Saint Augustine's board of trustees, then headed by James E. C. Perry, dismissed president Everett Ward; criticizing the decision, general counsel George Francis consequently resigned and notified the board that the dismissal potentially constituted a governance violation. Over the following year, most trustees either resigned or were removed. The new board, led by Perry and alumnus and trustee Brian Boulware, was criticized for lacking transparency and making decisions without adhering to bylaws and procedures. In December 2019, athletics director George Williams requested the board formally censure Boulware for "...the verbal abuse, threats, and physical intimidation that he shows employees." Subsequently, trustee John Larkins, representing alumni, resigned and led the alumni association in a no-confidence motion, which called for the board to be reconstituted. In response, the board revised bylaws to limit the association's power to select an alumni trustee and changed voting requirements to remove board members from a simple majority to a two-thirds majority.^[77]

In April 2020, vice president Debra Clark Jones filed an internal complaint concerning an unapproved $375,000 payment to the Hughes Company, a contractor that had worked on Boulware's cigar bar. Clark Jones alleged the firm had been paid to repair dormitories without a formal bidding process or signing a contract; she also reported Perry had suggested meeting minutes be altered to falsely indicate a contract had been approved, potentially further jeopardizing the institution's accreditation.^[77] In July 2020, together with George Williams and other former administrators who had been fired, former interim president Gaddis Faulcon filed a wrongful termination lawsuit. The suit cited interim president Maria Lumpkin and the chair of the board of trustees, Perry, alleging the institution's leadership had engaged in age discrimination, retaliation, and other unlawful conduct, including the potential misappropriation of government funding.^[36] The board strongly denied the allegations.^[77] Williams subsequently settled his suit but did not receive any apologies from university leadership.^[78]

In October 2023, head football coach Howard Feggins was fired for allegedly fielding ineligible players. Feggins then filed a wrongful termination lawsuit alleging retaliation, intimidation, and deliberate neglect of student athletes.^[79] In November, the trustees fired president Christine McPhail, which she alleged was in retaliation for filing race- and gender-based discrimination charges against the institution with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); the board rejected "the unfounded allegations."^[38] In January 2026, both Boulware and Perry left the board of trustees.^[80]

Financial crisis

In October 2023, an auditing committee which included the vice president of SACS scrutinized Saint Augustine's finances and governance procedures. The committee found no evidence trustees were "managing the financials of the institution or any strategies for timely audits," and that budgets since 2019 had been approved "without externally audited or verified evidence of resources or operational results." The auditors recommended board members receive "extensive training" regarding fiduciary oversight practices, noting the board failed to understand "its role in the management process," nor did it understand or appreciate "the severity of current fiscal issues."^[77]

Beginning in February 2024, the institution failed to pay employees, with some faculty canceling classes until they could receive paychecks.^[81] By then, the Department of Education had placed the institution on Heightened Cash Monitoring 2.^[25] On March 8, the institution reported its inability to meet payroll.^[82] Multiple organizations accused the institution of having unpaid bills amounting to millions; the N. C. state government claimed Saint Augustine's had nearly $27,000 of unpaid unemployment taxes.^[83] An audit revealed policies regulating wire transfers were often disregarded.^[84] According to interim president Burgess, the institution accounted for $10 million by contacting vendors and creditors.^[85] On April 3, Burgess said the institution required "$30 million for good judgement," to pay creditors.^[86]

On August 16, 2024, Saint Augustine's secured a $7 million line of credit with Gothic Ventures, a Durham-based venture capital firm, against a lien on all university properties, with the main campus and 40 other properties as collateral.^[87][88] The funds would cover operating expenses, including back wages, and the costs of financial audits.^[87] The initial loan, scheduled to come due in 2025, came with an interest rate of 24 percent, an additional 2 percent "management fee," and a $75,000 "due diligence and documentation fee," and was strongly criticized by alumni and advocates for the institution, who characterized the terms as unsustainable and predatory. The lender, however, defended the high interest rate as due to the "...financial challenges facing the University...and the suspension of the University’s accreditation [in 2023]."^[88] In September, two vendors who had filed suit against Saint Augustine's to settle unpaid bills had cases ruled in their favor, allowing both to pursue recovery of their fees, potentially through property liens.^[89]

In early November 2024, the institution completed two overdue audits for the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years; both revealed inaccurate accounting, lack of oversight concerning financial reporting and major transactions, inappropriate procurement and approval procedures for "certain significant contracts," and that as of November 8, unpaid payroll withholdings and taxes totaled "approximately $8.4 million, excluding interest and penalties."^[90] In the 2023–24 fiscal year, the institution recorded a deficit of $6.4 million, in addition to a $9.1 million deficit the previous fiscal year. The audits revealed that net tuition and fee revenues had declined to $7.9 million between 2022 and 2024, while operating expenses in 2024 totaled $27.3 million.^[51] On November 14, Judge Becky Holt dismissed a lawsuit filed by "Save SAU," a coalition of university alumni and supporters suing to remove the board of trustees for alleged financial mismanagement; the judge ruled the coalition lacked standing to sue a nonprofit institution.^[91] "Save SAU" had alleged Brian Boulware, as board chairman, had benefited from loan brokerage fees and had permitted large wire transfers without documentation; a forensic audit found no evidence of such fees or that Boulware had received any unethical payments.^[92]

In July 2025, interim president Burgess disclosed Saint Augustine's had accumulated debts of over $47 million, excluding over $20 million due to a wireless company following a court ruling. The institution was indebted to over 30 separate creditors, including its primary lender, Gothic Ventures, for $15.8 million; to the IRS for $10 million; and to creditors including the North Carolina Department of Revenue, the North Carolina Department of Commerce, and multiple banks, law firms, and contractors.^[3] In January 2026, the institution began working with an advisory firm, Self-Help Venture Fund, to manage its debt burden.^[80] The venture fund assumed at least $7 million of the debt owed to Gothic Ventures. In April 2026, accumulated debts reportedly amounted to "$50 to $100 million owed to creditors" including "debts of $14.4 million to the Internal Revenue Service, more than $7 million to other federal agencies, including the Department of Education, and $1.6 million to the North Carolina Department of Revenue", with "another $3.3 million...owed to the American Trust Company, a retirement organization."^[16] Saint Augustine's was also unable to pay its public utility and energy bills.^[93] On April 27, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to allow it to reorganize its debt and continue efforts to remain operational.^[15]

St. Agnes Hospital

Rev. and Mrs. A.B. Hunter founded St. Agnes Hospital in 1896. I.L. Collins gave $600 of the $1,100 raised to start the hospital, which was named for Collins' late wife Agnes. The hospital opened in the residence of Robert B. Sutton, the school's third principal. By 1904, despite improvements, St. Agnes needed to expand, and Mrs. Hunter raised half the $15,000 needed. Under the direction of Bishop Henry Beard Delany, it became a 75-bed center "built of stone quarried on the Saint Augustine's campus" that opened in 1909.

For many years St. Agnes was "the only well-equipped hospital ... with one exception" for Blacks between New Orleans and Washington, D.C., and served 75,000 Black people in the three states. The building was severely damaged by fire in December 1926. One of its most famous patients was boxer Jack Johnson, who was taken there following a fatal 1946 auto accident near Franklinton, North Carolina. Part of the building still remains and is regarded as a historic property, but the hospital has not operated since 1961.^[101] The building housed offices until the early 1990s, when it was gutted as part of planned renovations; these were halted in 2001 due to escalating costs stemming from unanticipated environmental and structural issues.^[100]

Chapel

The cornerstone of the chapel was laid in 1895 under the guidance of Henry Beard Delany, the first African-American Bishop elected to the Episcopal Church and the first Episcopal Bishop to graduate from the college. The chapel was made possible through the Freedmen's Bureau, and is one of the oldest landmarks at the institution.

Administration and classroom buildings

• Benson Building of Technology (1930)^[100]
• Charles H. Boyer Administration Building (1970; Office of the President)^[100]
• Cheshire Building (1930; Division of Business)^[100]
• Delany Hall (1930; Office of Financial Aid & Admissions)^[100]
• Emery Gymnasium
• Goold Hall Student Union (1930)^[100]
• Joseph C. Gordan Health & Science Center
• Hermitage Faculty Building (1914)^[100]
• Hunter Administration Building (1924)^[100]
• Seby Jones Fine Arts Center
• Martin Luther King Jr. Reception Center (1973): Previously the school's Student Union, and subsequently held the cafeteria, mailing room, bookstore, and ballroom.
• Charles Mosee Building (1919; Office of Academic Affairs)^[100]
• Penick Hall of Math & Sciences (1950)^[100]
• Prezell R. Robinson Library (1972)^[100]
• Tuttle Hall of Military Sciences (1925)^[100]
• George "Pup" Williams Track & Field Stadium

Residence halls

Saint Augustine's University has the following residence halls for students:^[100]

Athletics

Until 2024, Saint Augustine's competed in the NCAA Division II in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. In December 2024, the CIAA indefinitely suspended Saint Augustine's from conference participation for noncompliance with NCAA and CIAA requirements^[54] and revoked its membership in June 2025.^[4]

Varsity men's sports included baseball, which was based at the USA Baseball National Training Complex, football, golf, basketball, cross-country, tennis, and outdoor and indoor track.

Varsity women's sports included cheerleading, softball, bowling, volleyball, basketball, cross-country, tennis and outdoor and indoor track.

Notable alumni