HPU invests $1 million in Bennett College
By Nicholas Bainbridge// News Editor
High Point University owes much of its success to the donations of its benefactors. However, on Feb. 1, HPU donated to another University. HPU has a history of being charitable Some of HPU’s most notable contributions are the renovation of downtown High Point and the construction of the new baseball stadium. This donation was different because it was made to support another private college.
Bennett College is a private liberal arts university in Greensboro, North Carolina that has recently been suffering from a lack of funds. This was putting some of their programs at risk. Dr. Phyllis Worthy Dawkins, the president of Bennett College, realized that if the university failed to raise enough it would lose its accreditation.
In order to ensure that the college can continue to provide its students with the resources, it promises to stay open. The college has reached out to the wider community for donations, with a stated goal of five million dollars.
Members of the HPU faculty, including HPU President Nido Qubein, decided to aid Bennett College during its time of economic need and donated one million U.S. dollars to the fundraising campaign.
President Qubein characterized the donation as “a gift and an investment,” as he believes that Bennett College is an essential part of the academic community in Guilford County.
“Bennett will cross this chasm successfully,” said President Qubein at the conference when the gift was announced. “We as a neighboring school cannot stand by and let Bennett somehow go down a valley that is less than extraordinary.”
The presidents of these two colleges are interested in garnering a positive relationship between their universities. This is why President Qubein was quick to come to the aid of Bennett College
“When we received the devastating news, Nido was one of the first people who contacted me as I was leaving the office of SACS,” said President Dawkins. “Nido contacted me and said that we needed to do something. They say thin your toughest times, you know who your friends are.”
Despite HPU’s efforts, Bennett College formally lost its accreditation on Feb. 18 from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, an organization that purports to measure the quality of a university based on the six core values of integrity, peer review, student learning, continuous quality improvement, accountability and transparency.
The decision to remove their accreditation was actually decided months ago on Dec. 8, 2018; however, Bennett College filed for an appeal on the grounds that the removal of their accreditation was arbitrary. According to a statement from the association, the accreditation is still to be removed. Bennett College’s accreditation is to be removed based on the grounds that its recent financial difficulties prevent it from making due on its promises for its students.
The report reads, “The Appeals Committee found that Bennett College had failed to show that the institution possesses resources to demonstrate a stable financial base to support the mission and scope of programs and services.”
The argument that Bennett College lacks funds to fulfill its promises was in spite of the fact that the university raised almost 10 million dollars including the one million from HPU. To put this in perspective, the estimated goal they required was only five million dollars.
This appeared to be the end for Bennett College; however, on Friday, Feb. 22, the university filed a lawsuit and was successfully able to regain its accreditation.
President Phyllis Dawkins (left) and Nido Qubein (right) smile at the press conference where HPU announced their donation to Bennet College. Photo by WBTV