LAWMAKERS PLEDGE TO
HELP ST. AUG’S, STATE’S HBCUs
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Last Saturday morning, St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh graduated over 200 students, as happy family members and friends cheered them on.
Ordinarily, spring commencement exercises at the private 157-year-old historically black Episcopalian school wouldn’t be much news. But given St. Aug’s recent trials and tribulations, the question over whether or not the embattled institution will ever hold another commencement again looms large over its future.
As of February, St. Aug’s has been on the brink of losing its accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, in large part because the school’s finances are reportedly millions of dollars in the red.
Faculty have already missed salaries for the past five pay periods. At least fifty percent of the school’s student body is not expected to return for the next academic year.
In addition, the school faces several lawsuits from former employees, including its former President Christine McPhail.
And there have been growing calls for St. Aug’s Board of Trustees to step down.
There is a strong possibility of staff cuts and reduced in class sizes going into the next school year.
The problems at St. Augustine’s were front and center during a special news conference at the state legislature last week, organized by the bipartisan HBCU Caucus. State lawmakers gathered with the presidents and representatives of North Carolina’s ten HBCUs to call for the importance of continued support for their institutions, and make special note of the NC General Assembly’s historic underfunding of public HBCUs compared to predominately-white public institutions like UNC-Chapel and NC State University.
For example, according to a 2023 federal report, there has been a $2 billion funding gap between NC State and the nation’s largest HBCU, NC A&T University in Greensboro for decades.
Both are premier research institutions.
In the case of St. Augustine’s University, while it faces a $7.9 million tax lien from the federal government it needs help, with in addition to hundred of thousands in additional debt, state lawmakers noted that while they may not be able to help the school financially, they could help St. Aug with needed technical assistance to aid it in staying in operation.
“Legislators can’t promise St. Aug will receive money,” said Sen. Gladys Robinson (D-Guilford),”but there are other kinds of support [we can offer].”
“Don’t count us out,” said St. Aug’s interim President Marcus Burgess.
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FORMER U.S. ATTY. GEN. LYNCH
TELLS NCCU GRADUATES TO
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the first African-American woman in US history to hold the post, told graduating students at North Carolina Central University’s School of Law's May 3rd commencement that they will face many obstacles during the course of their legal careers, but despite all, stand strong, and make a difference.
“People may seek to challenge your right to your place in this world based on your race, based on your gender, where you went to school, or your southern connections. Never let them do it, never, never,” Lynch said. “Class of 2024, you did not come this far to make small-minded people comfortable. You came here to this place to make a difference.”
Lynch, a Greensboro native, is the daughter of Lorenzo and Lorine Lynch of Durham. An alumna of Harvard College in 1981, and then Harvard Law School in 1984, Lynch joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District in Brooklyn, NY as a prosecutor in 1990, fighting racketeering, drug smuggling, public corruption and other high profile federal crimes.
One of her most notorious prosecution cases was for the sexual assault of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima by uniformed New York City police officers with the wooden end of a bathroom plunger at a Brooklyn Police precinct in 1997.
After being elevated to lead the Eastern District US Attorney’s Office by Pres. Clinton in 1999, Lynch left in 2001 for private practice, only to return to that office under Pres. Barack Obama, and then be nominated to become U.S. attorney general in April 2015. Lynch, the country’s 83rd U.S. attorney general, remained in that post until 2017.
As commencement speaker for NCCU School of Law’s 85th Anniversary, Lynch reminded graduates of the school’s historic legacy.
“You were founded 15 years before Brown versus Board of Education was even decided,” said Lynch. “You were founded 26 years before anybody even heard of Miranda rights. It was a world of Jim Crow, it was a world of poll taxes, it was a world of literacy tests, but the leaders of this school stepped out on faith and began the bold and the daring and the audacious mission of training Black lawyers.”
Lynch told NCCU School of Law graduates that they live in a world where the law is being used to justify injustice, but that they must fight against that, and never give up.
“I know it’s especially painful to see the opponents of equality and inclusion actually use the law to roll us back to the last century, the law which has made an imprint on everyone of us in this room, the law which has been our sword and shield in some of the most important fights in our history, we have used the law to open our society, to level the playing field, to unlock our greatness. Now, we see it being turned around and being used to close opportunity and even to close minds,” Lynch opined.
“The lesson we take from this is that the pendulum has swung this way before, it likely will again, but we have not lost this fight, as our gains and our progress have struck a chord with those who fear our power,” she continued. “It’s not that our values are not true, and our efforts aren’t strong, but it comes to every generation to defend those values in their own time.”
“We have pushed even when the law was not on our side, there was a time in this country when the law didn’t even recognize our humanity, and we didn’t give up then, we will not give up now.
Former U.S. Attorney General Lynch added, “We worked to change things then, and we will do so now.”
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