June 9, 2013
Historic Saint Paul’s College to Close
By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Richmond Free Press
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Saint Paul’s College, a historically Black college in rural Southside Virginia is closing its doors after 125 years as an educational beacon.
The closing date is Monday, June 30, Saint Paul’s has announced in a one-paragraph notice posted on its website. Dr. Oliver W. Spencer Jr., chairman of the board of trustees, last week notified the college’s accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), of the closing decision.
“Saint Paul’s is now in the process of working with other institutions to develop teach-out agreements so that currently enrolled students will be able to complete their studies at another institution,” Dr. Belle Wheelan, president of the SACS Commission on Colleges, stated in an email to the Free Press.
The closure represents a stunning end to the school that Episcopal Archdeacon James Solomon Russell founded in 1888. His goal: To train teachers and provide other academic opportunities for Black people who were being shut out of public education by the White supremacists who controlled local governments in the area.
Saint Paul’s board voted for closure last week after the collapse of its plan to turn over the campus to a sister Episcopal-affiliated school, Saint Augustine’s University of Raleigh, N.C. Saint Augustine’s spent six months studying the idea, but announced three weeks ago that it was dropping out because it could not afford the cost of Saint Paul’s, located in Lawrenceville, Va., the seat of Brunswick County, 80 miles southwest of Richmond, Va.
Remaining employees have been notified that they will be laid off at the end of June. Board officials have stated that the plan is to sell the 183-acre campus on the market with hopes of finding interest from another college or institution.
The school had seen enrollment sharply decline and reported serving only 111 students in the most recent academic year that ended in May, down from the nearly 700 students when the school was in good standing.
For a while, it appeared Saint Paul’s might survive its latest challenge — the SACS commission’s decision to strip the school of its accreditation for failure to meet standards, eliminating federal and private tuition support for students.
Saint Paul’s challenged the SACS decision in federal court and won a preliminary injunction to maintain accreditation while searching for a buyer.
“I was hopeful that the merger with Saint Augustine’s would work out, but it didn’t,” Dr. Wheelan told the Free Press. “I never like it when an institution has to close.”