After a seeming comeback, Cheyney University lands back on probation

Just four years after Cheyney University had its accreditation reaffirmed and seemed to be making a comeback, the nation’s oldest historically Black college is facing difficulty again.

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, its accrediting body, this month placed the state university back on probation and said it “is in jeopardy” of losing accreditation for insufficient evidence that it is meeting several required standards. Those standards cover ethics and integrity; design and delivery of the student learning experience; and planning, resources and institutional improvement. It also fell short in requirements covering compliance with laws, regulations, and commission policies; financial planning; and budget processes and other areas, the commission said.

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As is typical, the commission did not provide details on the specific issues it found at Cheyney, which straddles Delaware and Chester Counties.

The commission, according to its regulations, places institutions on probation when “there is evidence that the noncompliance is sufficiently serious, extensive or substantial that it raises concern” about the quality of the student learning experience, the school’s capacity to improve within a short time, and the school’s capacity to sustain itself in the long term.

The commission’s action comes even though officials from Cheyney and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education of which it is a part have heralded the school’s progress in recent years, including enrollment increases and business partnerships that have provided internship opportunities for students.

Earlier this year, state system chancellor Daniel Greenstein bragged about Cheyney at a budget hearing in Harrisburg. “When I took over,” Greenstein said, referring to when he became system chancellor in 2018, “Cheyney was at serious risk of losing its accreditation. It’s now stable.”

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Aaron A. Walton, Cheyney’s president, said he did not anticipate Middle States’ action. He declined to discuss the specific standards and where the commission said Cheyney fell short.

“We’re going to respond to the report,” Walton said. “We have until March 1 to respond.”

He defended Cheyney’s progress in recent years, noting that the school has finished with a balanced budget the last four years and increased enrollment to more than 700 students from a low of 469 a few years ago. That includes a 15% boost in freshmen this year, he said.

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“We are aware the university is reviewing MSCHE’s action, and the university will respond appropriately to the accreditor,” the state system said in a statement.

For others, the commission’s action raised worries.

“We just continue to have serious concerns about Cheyney,” said Ken Mash, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, the union that represents faculty and coaches in the state system.

Alumnus Steven P. Anderson, who has been critical of Walton’s leadership and is leading an effort to have Cheyney taken away from the state and placed under the jurisdiction of the federal government, said the issues cited by the commission sound similar to the complaints he and other alumni have had. The school has not sufficiently tended to student life, academics and infrastructure, he said.

And the state system is really to blame, he said.

“It’s a victim-blaming system,” said Anderson, a 1976 alumnus from Washington D.C. “Cheyney is the victim of their incompetence.”

As is standard, the university has to provide a “teach out” plan to the commission to show how it would ensure students can complete their education if accreditation is withdrawn.

Probation is the second level of action that the commission takes against universities when it has concerns about the schools’ ability to reach compliance. Warnings are the least serious action, while “show cause” — when schools must prove they should keep their accreditation or lose it — is the most serious.

Cheyney was on “show cause” in 2017 and battled back from the brink of losing accreditation. Without accreditation, the school would not have been eligible to receive federal and state financial aid, on which the vast majority of its students depend.

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In 2019, it had its accreditation reaffirmed. Key in the decision was former Gov. Tom Wolf’s pledge to make sure Cheyney’s $40 million debt to the state system and its chancellor’s office was eliminated.

Founded in 1837 by Quaker abolitionists, Cheyney has a long tradition of serving underprivileged students, many from the cash-strapped Philadelphia school system, and producing distinguished alumni, including Philadelphia civil rights activist Octavius V. Catto; Bayard Rustin, a chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington; and Ed Bradley, of 60 Minutes fame.

But the university has faced significant financial and enrollment challenges over more than a decade. Deficits climbed and charges of mismanagement surfaced, including lapses in the school’s handling of millions in federal financial aid funds between 2011 and 2014, which brought scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice. The university is on a payment plan to satisfy its debt to the federal education department for the financial aid problems and it remains on the department’s “heightened cash monitoring” list, which means it doesn’t receive advance payments for student financial aid but must request reimbursement.

In 2017, the state system tapped Walton, a retired executive from health insurer Highmark and then-member of the system’s board of governors, to turn around the school.

To balance the budget, Walton cut expenses, including dismantling the football team and reducing the number of available academic majors by about one-third, cutting those that were least popular, with the caveat that football could be restored once Cheyney was back on firm financial footing.

Walton has emphasized lucrative career paths for students, an increase in the number of students in STEM majors from 8% of the enrollment to nearly a quarter, and establishment of partnerships that lead to internships, while leveraging Cheyney’s land and buildings to raise revenue.

Anderson, the 1976 alumnus, is part of a group of alumni who have formed a nonprofit, Save the Oldest HBCU Institute, in part aimed at wresting control of Cheyney from the state and placing it under the jurisdiction of the federal government, specifically the National Park Service. The proposal hasn’t yet gained traction.

More than 90 students and alumni signed on to a discrimination complaint, originally filed with the state system in February 2022, citing loss of academic and athletic facilities and teams and poor conditions in some residence halls, including peeling paint, filthy floors, and “a mold-like substance that appears around the vents,” leaving them with health concerns.

Walton had said earlier this year that the university had addressed the complaints, and the state system dismissed allegations of discrimination, contending that over the last nine years, Cheyney’s per-student funding has been at least double that of the former Mansfield University (now part of Commonwealth University), which had the next-highest per pupil funding of its schools.