Is College Accreditation Effective as Consumer Protection?
St. Andrews Presbyterian College to Close May 5
I wrote a long piece on accreditation reform friday in response to the Trump Administration’s Executive Order proposing changes, and highlighted what has been known for some time: most accreditation actions are related to finances for institutions on the verge of insolvency, and not academic issues like faculty or curricula. However, just because most actions are related to finances does not necessarily mean that accreditation as currently followed does a good job at warning students and families (and employees) about looming financial problems that force sudden school closures.
St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, N.C. announced friday that it will close for good on May 5, 2025 due to financial insolvency, and faculty were instructed to turn in final grades immediately, in spite of final exams having not yet been held. This brings to an end a multi-decade struggle by the institution to survive financially and keep its accreditation status. The Southern Association on Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) is the accreditor of St. Andrews since it is located in the American South, and a screenshot of its big picture accreditation history is provided below. This story helps to provide insight into the effectiveness of accreditation as currently practiced to provide consumer protection for students and families.
St. Andrews opened in 1896, but that refers to Presbyterian Junior College in Maxton, NC, that merged by Flora MacDonald College in Red Springs, NC to form St. Andrews that was accredited by SACSCOC beginning in 1961 until it merged in 2011 with Webber International University, located in Babson Park, Florida. I grew up in the First Presbyterian Church in Goldsboro, NC and St. Andrews was commonly discussed and my congregation gave to a scholarship fund at the institution.
I did not realize that it had merged with another university in 2011 (Webber International), but they had a history of financial troubles that resulted in SACSCOC removing their accreditation in 2007 due to these troubles. Once accreditation was pulled from St. Andrews, the school had virtually no chance of surviving long term as a stand-alone institution, since their students lost access to federal financial aid such as Pell Grants and federally guaranteed loans. The primary financial issue appears to have been taking on too much debt to finance new programs and enrollment expansions that may have paradoxically been what made St. Andrews attractive to Webber International University, thus giving them another chance (perhaps like a start up that grows sales while remaining cash flow negative in the hopes of getting bought out). This newspaper story from 2011 notes the goal of the merger was to join the business focused Webber with the broader liberal arts focus of St. Andrews to create a more comprehensive institution, but to keep the branding (name) separate even as St. Andrews was legally a campus of Webber International University from 2011 until May 5, 2025.
Webber International University has been accredited by SACSCOC since 2002, when its precursor Webber International College became Webber International University and they had been accredited since 1969 under that name.
I did not find reports in the media or on SACSCOC that Webber International University is under threat of accreditation probation or removal as of May 26, 2025, but their 10-year reaffirmation of accreditation is due in 2026 and their decision to close the St. Andrews campus would seem to be front and center in that, I am sure. However, it was easy for me to find evidence of financial troubles for Webber International by searching its IRS form 990 that must be submitted annually for all not for profit colleges. Its most recent filing contains a so-called ‘going concern flag’ that is linked to their audited financial statements for years ending May 31, 2022 and May 31, 2023. The audit was conducted by a Florida public accounting firm, and in it they note compliance with both Florida and North Carolina law was considered given what they call a ‘branch campus’ at St. Andrews, in addition to the federal regulations for any not for profit that receives more than $750,000 annually must have an audit conducted using generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The audit statement summarizes Webber International’s problems in this way under the heading “Substantial Doubt about the Organizations Ability to Continue as a Going Concern”
The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming that the University will continue as a going concern. As discussed in Note A to the financial statements, the University has suffered significant decreases in net assets over the previous two years and has stated that substantial doubt exists about the University's ability to continue as a going concern. Management's evaluation of the events and conditions and management's plans regarding those matters are also described in Note A. The financial statements do not include any adjustments that might result from the outcome of this uncertainty. Our opinion is not modified with respect to that matter.
This information became public in May, 2024, and the next 990 is due soon, but I cannot find any media coverage about this last year, nor is it noted in the US News and World Report Rankings of Webber. And of course you will not find anything on St. Andrew’s 990 because it no longer exists legally. The audited financial statements combined the operations of the main Florida campus of Webber International and St. Andrews. It may well be that taking on St. Andrews was too much for Webber International and that the pared down operation will survive. Time will tell. However, this entire episode suggests that even though most accreditation actions are related to finances, being accredited is no guarantee that an institution is not in financial trouble and at risk of imminent closure—in this case with two only weeks-notice and a liquidation of the assets of St. Andrews to among other things, pay faculty and staff unpaid wages for April.
Accreditation did not work as an early warning signal for the sudden closure of St. Andrews, which from a SACSCOC perspective no longer exists—it is a branch of Webber International. In another sense though, accreditation had been sending warnings for three decades that there were problems. It seems to me that a consumer protection function needs a shorter timescale than accreditation has, and that it likely should be a state function run alongside other consumer protection activities. Further, while legally St. Andrews was a branch of Webber International, that fact is somewhat opaque and there is no mention of this development on the Webber International website that I can find. The closure of St. Andrews appears to have been received as a shock by students, though faculty and staff received only part payment in their last pay check so they knew something was wrong.
I feel for the students, faculty and staff who find this on the Universities website this afternoon.
When you dig a bit more a closure page provides a list of 15 accredited colleges and universities in North Carolina that are prepared to receive students via teach outs and/or transfers. The faculty and staff of course will need to find a job as well. There are likely hundreds of colleges and universities that could go out of existence in similar fashion given reductions in the college age population in the next few years, even before the uncertainty brought by the Trump Administration policies. We on the inside of higher education are going to have to get creative, and learn to think not only for our own campus interests, but the sector as a whole if it is to remain the envy of the World. We better be the change we hope to see, because John Wayne aint coming.
