By Alex Bass
Alex.bass@triangletribune.com
RALEIGH – St. Augustine’s University Interim President Marcus Burgess says finances will not preclude 26 seniors from receiving their degrees on May 3. “We have a plan,” Burgess said via text message. “They will be fine. Thank you for caring.”
SAU recently published on its social media platforms that 26 students owed a total of $164,000 in unpaid tuition, fee and other expenses that could hinder them from graduating. Alumni and community members were asked to make donations to the Falcon Pride Initiative to offset the collective. The graduation detail, however pleasing, is independent of lingering transparency concerns about the university’s finances. Students departed campus early and finished the 2024 spring and fall semesters in remote teaching and learning. The entire spring 2025 semester has been online. Fiscal issues have kept the Episcopal institution with a teetering accreditation status – including an ongoing arbitration process – with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
“Why is any ‘plan’ you have so covert?” asked alumnus and SaveSAU Coalition Chairman Ben Johnson. “When will the plan be executed? When will students be made whole with receipts that say, ‘paid in full?’”
St. Aug’s Miss Senior J’Niyah Love began a GoFundMe campaign to offset her debt. SAU, on its Instagram account, acknowledged March 29 that Love had an “account balance,” while highlighting her visit to Capitol Hill as a Common Cause Fellow.
Love set a goal to raise $3,500. “Recently, my university cut my scholarship in half, stating that my funds were exceeding limits,” she wrote on GoFundMe. “This moment is crucial—now is my only opportunity to graduate with my degree fully accredited.”
SAU remains accredited on “probation for good cause” by SACSCOC as it completes its arbitration process, which will not conclude before graduation at Wake Chapel Church. Love, an all-CIAA cheerleader during the 2023-24 academic year, is like scores of SAU students across generations who came to the Oakwood Avenue campus seeking to become the first in a family to earn a college degree.
SAU, per its 990 form for July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, had an end-of-fiscal year endowment balance of $13,607,529. It is common for a college endowment’s interest rate to yield a 5% or more annual return relative to the endowment’s principal. Two percent of SAU’s endowment balance is $272,150.58, far beyond the $164,000 owed.
“The institution lacks transparency with alumni and the community, yet consistently asks for funds without explaining how the money is to be used,” said alumnus Steven Williams who was selected last July to represent the National Alumni Association on the SAU Board of Trustees. He, still, has not been seated on the Board.
Lamont Sparrow, a former SAU professor who coached Love as part of the Falcons’ Spirit Squad, said he wishes he could do more, but he is not in charge, and there are seasons and times in which students and educators alike move on to new opportunities.
“It is up to us as adults to ensure what they are doing and how they are going about doing it, and they have a smooth transition,” Sparrow said of educators serving students. He was clear, though, in his perspective about the need for external involvement.
“We recognize that it is a responsibility of the students, the alumni, community, state and local government, and everyone else that makes the body do what they are supposed to do to ensure that the institution survives,” he said.
