LT. GOV. MARK ROBINSON
ROBINSON REMAINS IN
GOVERNOR’S RACE
AMID TURMOIL
By Cash Michaels
An analysis
When Republican Lt. Governor and gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson spoke to supporters last Saturday at Fayetteville Motor Speedway, he was among friends.
Any concerns he had of being treated disrespectfully by the people there after a troubling blockbuster CNN report two days earlier revealed evidence alleging that Robinson, prior to entering politics in 2020, frequented a pornography website where he called himself a “black Nazi,” expressed admiration for German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and boasted of positive thoughts about slavery and reinstating it, among other more salacious musings, were gone.
Instead, the crowd gathered there treated Robinson, 56, and his wife, Yolanda, warmly, especially during the meet-and-greet with the embattled candidate.
When asked by various media outlets what they thought of the explosive allegations about the Greensboro native - allegations that he has strongly denied - many said they didn’t believe the CNN reporting, and will continue to support Robinson in his bid for governor in November.
"Everybody makes mistakes,” one diehard Robinson supporter said. ‘You live and you learn, and nobody truly knows a person’s background and really knows the truth about things.”
The state NAACP doesn't agree. It has called on the black conservative culture warrior to step down from the race, as have some Republican colleagues.
For his part, Robinson is pointing his finger at who he believes is the source of his problems.
After alleging that his Democratic opponent, state Attorney General Josh Stein, is responsible for leaking the story to CNN shortly after it broke, Robinson went on to charge that like another prominent black Republican, conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, he is the victim of a “high-tech lynching.”
Robinson has vowed to stay in the race.
Stein’s campaign denies Robinson’s charge, and according to several political observers, there’s strong reason to believe him.
First of all, by state law, Robinson had until 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19th to withdraw his gubernatorial candidacy, and he refused to do it, even though various published reports had several top Republican leaders not only calling for him to leave so that the NCGOP could legally replace him, but other Republicans went to him as well, asking directly, only to be rebuffed.
Democrats actually want Robinson to stay in the race, as he’s doing, because they believe he will be a drag on the Republican ticket, hurting both former Pres. Donald Trump’s chances to win the state for a third time in his presidential campaign, and down ballot races for other key state government positions.
The Harris-Walz Democratic presidential campaign has already produced commercials tying Trump - who enthusiastically endorsed Robinson several months ago - to the controversial black conservative.
Replacing him with a Republican seen as more feasible, and legislatively experienced, with just over two months to go before Election Day, was seen as a more practical move to help the party save face, sources say.
Secondly, according to published reports, Republicans had been itching to get rid of Robinson anyway since he was plucked from obscurity in 2018 to run for lt. governor. But because of his race, and meteoric rise in popularity within the party, party leaders backed off, even though they already had information about alleged questionable behavior and other problems that they could have exploited against him, but didn’t.
Robinson’s controversial social media posts bashing women, Jews, Muslims, Blacks and LGBTQ+ people were also common knowledge in GOP circles, but the thinking was those conservative musings would further help distinguish him as a culture warrior with North Carolina’s hard-right base.
“Many of us considered [attacking Robinson] and had seen a lot of the [opposition research] that we believed would hurt him in a general [election],” State Sen. Scott Stone, one of Robinson’s eight GOP 2020 primary opponents, told WRAL-TV recently. “But with nine in the race, if one person goes after him, it only helps the others.”
Reports are that even though Trump ignored Robinson and his troubling allegations last weekend during his campaign visit to Wilmington, he’s not turning his back on the man he once told a crowd was “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
Why? Because Robinson’s supporters are as devout as Trump’s MAGA following. Indeed, many of them are one in the same. Trump reportedly does not want to anger what essentially is his base.
However, that same loyalty to Robinson apparently didn’t extend to the candidate’s campaign staff, many of whom, including the campaign manager and chief fundraiser, quit Robinson’s campaign late Sunday.
On Monday, Robinson said he was putting together a team to go after CNN, which includes not only a new campaign manager, but even legal counsel.
With several weeks to go in the campaign, funding drying up and an unceasing amount of negative news reports to overcome, Robinson’s toxic brand now may be too much.
At press time, Robinson was still at least 14 points down behind Stein in at least three recent polls. By staying in the race at this juncture, Mark Robinson is betting that his supporters are just as loyal as Donald Trump’s and will see him through to improbable victory in November.
At the very least, he’s hoping that a stronger than expected finish at this juncture carves out a future in conservative politics for the fiery culture warrior. Otherwise, where else does he go?
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SAU’s PROBLEMS ARE FAR
FROM OVER, DESPITE RENEWED
ACCREDITATION, LOAN
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
It was the story of the summer.
Will St. Augustine’s University (SAU) in Raleigh, survive to see another academic school year amid an avalanche of lawsuits from former employees, millions owed to the government and creditors, lost accreditation, and negative press?
Brian Boulware, chairman of SAU’s embattled Board of Trustees, certainly was feeling the growing pressure with the school’s future on the line. One of those lawsuits filed against the school, still pending, was from several alumni, among others, including two former members of the trustee board, alleging SAU “…now teeters on the edge of chaos, brought to its knees by the utter neglect of its board of trustees and especially its most recent chairmen, defendants Brian Boulware and [former SAU Board Chairman] James Perry."
Filed May 31st, the 204-page suit sought to have the SAU trustee board removed for alleged fiscal malfeasance.
On June 17th, Boulware, who was accused in the lawsuit of using SAU as his own “personal piggy bank,” issued a four-page open letter on SAU Trustee Board letterhead, adamantly denying the blistering allegations contained, but interestingly starting out by recounting Boulware’s recollection of a dinner “business meeting with influential Raleigh business leaders” where he alleged he was told “Raleigh doesn’t need two black universities,” meaning St.Augustine’s University and Shaw University (Shaw U). “We need the two to merge.”
Boulware’s open letter further alleged that he was told at this business meeting, “We need them both on SAU’s property because we need downtown land to expand the development footprint.”
Others at that meeting emphatically deny that was ever said or implied, though they admit that the option of merger to help both schools survive was discussed.
Boulware, in an interview, stands by his claim. He adds that he thought the reason for the last minute dinner business meeting invite to him and then brand new SAU Interim Pres. Marcus Burgess, was to discuss how the Raleigh business community could financially help SAU.
The ensuing controversy, based solely on Chairman Boulware’s alleged written recollection of the facts, caused much subsequent discussion, consternation and charges that he was trying to deflect from the serious charges against him alleged in the lawsuit.
But after months of investigation, interviewing many of the people who were actually at that meeting about what their true intentions were, and what the facts actually are now that the subsequent controversy has subsided, it can be reported one reason given for that business meeting is undeniable.
Whether SAU and Shaw U ever merge or not, in the words of one of those prominent business leaders there, the market share of Black students available has shrunk to the point where both private schools must take drastic action soon, or else one of them may cease to exist in the near future.
“What I said at the [business meeting] is that [number] one, we have an immediate St. Aug problem, and two, Shaw is in the midst of cutting budgets, and what Shaw and St. Aug need to deal with is a change in the marketplace,” Jim Goodmon, chairman of Capitol Broadcasting Co., who also invited the chairman and president of Shaw U to that business meeting last February, said in an exclusive interview.
“[The situation for] small, private colleges is tough everywhere,” Goodmon, owner of Raleigh’s WRAL-TV, among other television and radio stations across the state added,”… but this is particularly difficult because neither Shaw nor St. Aug have [large enough] endowments or funds to supplement tuitions, and don’t have enough students …they don’t have [enough] tuitions to run the place.”
“That, to me, is a business fact,” Goodmon insisted.
One harbinger of Mr. Goodmon’s “business fact” that came in September - two months after his interview - was SAU’s startling student enrollment for this academic year 2024-25.
According to multiple published reports, just 200 students enrolled.
That’s dramatically down from 2002-03’s 1,552 students, 2012-13’s 1,142 students and 2022-2023’s 1,108 students.
Almost one eighth the student enrollment of over 20 years ago. The serious implications of this are many, beyond the reality that SAU cannot fiscally operate at this low level of enrollment for long.
What also makes this dramatic decline in student enrollment at SAU so striking now is that because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 landmark affirmation action ruling removing race as an unconstitutional factor in college admissions for students of color, this academic year there are actually more African-American students applying to HBCUs (historically Black colleges and universities) who can’t enroll in predominately white institutions.
At UNC at Chapel Hill, for example, “The percentage of first-year and transfer students identifying as white or Asian increased this year from 88.5 percent to 89.6 percent, compared to the fall 2023 report,” according to NC Newsline. “Meanwhile, the number of Black, Hispanic, and Native American students declined from 22.9 percent to 19 percent. (“The numbers add up to more than 100% because some students identify as more than one race or ethnicity,” NC Newsline added).”
Experts are quick to suggest it’s too early to definitively proclaim that the High Court decision is primarily responsible for an uptick in Black students applying to HBCUs, but the fact remains, most of North Carolina’s HBCUs except one, have experienced significant growth this academic year.
The one that hasn’t… is St. Augustine’s University.
While serious questions about its accreditation status may have been responsible for much of the significant decrease in SAU’s student enrollment this academic year (its accreditation has since been restored), there is another critical factor that affects both SAU and Shaw U that cannot be denied - NC Promise, the state-sponsored tuition program instituted by the North Carolina General Assembly several years ago to increase enrollment at several institutions in the 16-campus UNC System.
For the record, a student’s enrollment tuition helps to pay a school’s operating costs and overhead - like salaries and benefits, campus upkeep and maintenance, administration, etc.
The amount a particular student pays is traditionally supplemented by financial aid, grants, and other qualifying tuition assistance. Thus, the stated tuition rate is rarely what the student actually pays to enroll.
NC Promise drastically reduces the upfront costs for students enrolled in one of its UNC System schools.
Based on the fact that NC Promise schools historically serve low-income student populations of color, Fayetteville State University, Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), Western Carolina University and UNC at Pembroke enroll in-state students at just $1,000 tuition per academic year (or $500.00 per semester) and $5,000 tuition per academic year for out-of-state students).
At ECSU, which saw an increase of nearly 500-student applications last February over the previous year, the school is allowed by the UNC System to have an equal number of in-state and out-of state students enrolled, allowing it to recruit more prospective students from neighboring states.
“We’re going to be more affordable to them, so that’s definitely a draw,” ECSU Admissions Director Arlinda Halfacre told The News & Observer earlier this year.
Compared to what a small, private institution like SAU charges a student to enroll - a reported $13,606.02 per semester for tuition, fees, room and board- the NC Promise school program provides a low-cost alternative, even with various grants and financial aid packages applied, that’s hard to compete with.
“Absolutely, absolutely,” admitted a Shaw University administrator who asked that their name not be used for this report, when asked to confirm how NC Promise has impacted small private institutions - both white and black - like Shaw U and SAU.
“I dare say it not only impacts the North Carolina private schools, but has impacted all North Carolina HBCUs. It’s a very good program for the schools that are able to participate in NC Promise, very good,” the unnamed administrator added.
Still this semester, Shaw U was able to welcome a 400-student enrollment increase, the largest freshman class post the Covid-19 pandemic, a 36% increase from Fall 2023 to Fall 2024 in new student enrollment .
In Fall 2022-23, Shaw U had a 924 student undergraduate enrollment, and cost a reported $16,480 per semester (tuition, fees, room and board) to enroll.
Even with the 400-student increase over 2022-2023, Shaw U’s numbers pale to Fayetteville State University’s record-breaking 7,107 for the 2024-25 academic year, and ECSU’s 2,261 students for the same period.
Still, at least Shaw U’s leadership is seen as making some controversial, if not critical decisions, and investments, in the school’s future. The question is whether they are the right decisions and investments, and at what costs to the school and its surrounding community.
As for SAU, it was able to secure a $30 million line of credit from a Durham venture capital group using some of its 105-acre property as collateral; borrow $7 million from that to satisfy some of its immediate debts (including back pay for employees), and have its accreditation reinstated, for now, by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to allow it to open for the fall semester.
But SAU’s problems are far from over. What happens going forward, especially if students are afraid to enroll in an historically Black institution that's fighting mightily to survive?
With this lopsided reality, SAU and Shaw U are faced with making tough decisions about their futures.
Merger, some observers say, is an option they may not like, but can’t ignore.
Editor’s note -SAU Interim Pres. Marcus Burgess was asked for comment for this report, but did not respond by press time.
In Part 2, why merger must be considered for SAU to survive.
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