BANKRUPTCY COURT APPOINTS
RESTRUCTURING OFFICER TO
MANAGE ST. AUG’S DEBT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Just as attorneys for embattled St. Augustine’s University (SAU) were about to submit a court-ordered financial restructuring plan to the federal bankruptcy court last week, bankruptcy Judge David Warren agreed to appoint Malcomb Coley, a veteran accounting professional and former SAU professor to takeover from the SAU Board of Trustees in directing the HBCU’s efforts to return to financial solvency.
“The Debtor was prepared to file a plan of reorganization today that would have paid its creditors in full…however, given the historical significance of [Saint Augustine’s University] to the City of Raleigh, the State of North Carolina, its alumni and supporters, the Board did not believe that the plan it would have proposed would have been the best plan to allow the [Saint Augustine’s University] to emerge from bankruptcy and relaunch itself as an institution of higher education,” court documents state.
Coley also served on the Trustee Board of 160 year old Queens University in Charlotte for eight years during its financial struggles. Coley also once served on th trustee board of UNC at Wilmington. His appointment to taking charge of SAU’s restructuring effort is seen as a positive development by both the school and its lender, Self-Help Ventures Fund.
Coley will be paid $450.00 an hour, a fraction of what his new role should cost, court officials note.
SAU’s Trustee Board believes Coley “would be better suited to weigh the options for the [Saint Augustine’s University] to obtain exit financing, sell certain real and/or personal property assets, and propose the best plan of reorganization possible on behalf of [Saint Augustine’s University],” according to court documents.
As the appointed bankruptcy administrator in charge, Coley now has until Jan. 8, 2027 to submit a new restructuring plan to the court for SAU.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Judge Warren told Coley. “I wish you were here four months ago.”
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2026 MIDTERM ELECTION
RESULTS YIELDS MORE
BLACK HISTORY
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Without question, the 2026 midterm general elections across the nation yielded extraordinary results for Democrats in terms of Republican seats being flipped in Congress and in state legislatures. Driven by an angry Black vote, Democrats claimed majorities across the board, helping many Black candidates to rise to power.
In the North Carolina Congressional delegation, instead of there being a 10-4 Republican House majority, there will now be a 11-3 Democratic House majority representing the state for the 120th Congress starting in January.
Democrats flipped six congressional seats, including the District 3 seat formally occupied by Republican Rep. Greg Murphy, now won by Rep.-elect Raymond Smith; the District 6 seat held by GOP freshman Addison McDowell, now won by High Point Mayor Cyril Jefferson; and District 14 in west Charlotte once held by former NC House Speaker Tim Moore, now won by LaKesha Womack.
Those three newly elected African-American congresspeople, along with reelected Black Democratic incumbents Don Davis in the Republican-leaning First District, Valerie Foushee in the Fourth District, and Alma Adams in the 12th District, gives North Carolina a record six African-American Congresspeople out of the eleven Democrats who will be representing the state in the next Congress.
In the NC General Assembly, while the NC Senate is still in Republican-led hands, 26-24 despite losing of its majority, Democrats shocked political observers by claiming the NC House majority for the first time in 16 years. Democratic House Leader Robert Reives III will now become the new Speaker of the NC House, only the second African-American to do so.
Under Rep. Reives’ leadership, Democrats will hold a 71-48 advantage over Republicans, with one independent.
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