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[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 11/7/02 ]
Morris Brown students consider transferring out
By KELLY SIMMONS
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Georgia State and Clark Atlanta universities have fielded a growing number of calls in recent weeks from Morris Brown students thinking about transferring out of the troubled school.
"They're coming in asking questions, finding out what the deadline is," said Georgia State admissions director Diane Weber. "We're getting a lot more phone calls from Morris Brown students."
Clark Atlanta, which is a sister school in the Atlanta University Center, has seen a similar pattern in recent weeks.
"We have had an increase in the number of Morris Brown students who have called or raised questions about transferring," said Joel Harrell, vice president for enrollment services and student affairs.
Morehouse College officials said they had not noticed an increase in inquiries from Morris Brown students. Spelman College did not respond to requests for information.
Neither Georgia State nor Clark Atlanta gets many transfer students from Morris Brown in a typical year. GSU gets most of its transfers from Georgia Perimeter College, a two-year state school.
Students within the AU Center, a cluster of private, historically black schools, rarely transfer from one school to another because they are allowed to take classes at each other's campuses. Students at Morris Brown, for example, can take classes at Morehouse, Clark Atlanta or Spelman without paying extra money or doing additional paperwork -- and Morris Brown's tuition is lower than that at the other AU Center schools.
"It's not a situation in which [Morris Brown] is one of the schools we look to as a feeder school," Harrell said.
Morris Brown College is $23 million in debt, under investigation for possible fraudulent use of student aid funding, and in danger of losing its accreditation when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools meets next month. If Morris Brown loses accreditation, its students would be ineligible for financial aid, which would be a devastating blow. The federal money provides more than 70 percent of the school's revenue. And more than 90 percent of the 2,500 students at Morris Brown depend on the aid to pay some of their college expenses. Morris Brown's mission is to provide education to students even if they are underprepared for college. Many students could find it difficult to find a place to transfer to if the school closes. Most Georgia schools, even state community colleges, have higher criteria for admissions than Morris Brown, which requires little more than a high school diploma or GED.
It also would be difficult for the nearby schools to accept as many as 2,500 additional students, said M. Christopher Brown, associate professor and senior research associate at the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Penn State University.
"It's a challenge when you talk about closing any institution," said Brown, considered an expert on historically black colleges and universities. "It's a different situation if it's a school of 500 to 1,000 students."
Senior Donnell Morgan is one student who has begun looking for an alternative to Morris Brown for spring semester. Morgan said he feared Morris Brown would lose accreditation and be forced to close. So far, he has talked to Clark Atlanta, where he said he had taken most of the classes for his communications major in the past year. He also plans to explore a transfer to Georgia State.
However, he said he had been unable to get a copy of his transcript from Morris Brown because the school said he owed $2,000, a debt Morgan disputes. Without a transcript, he cannot apply to another school.
"It's too bad it's gone this way," said Morgan, 25, of Minneapolis. "My senior year has just been a catastrophe."
Morgan said he was working two jobs -- at CNN Center and at Georgia State's Rialto Theater -- to pay off the money Morris Brown said he owed.
Morgan said he chose Morris Brown because he wanted to go to a historically black college in Atlanta and the school offered a lower tuition than Morehouse or Clark Atlanta. He has paid for his education with federal grants and loans. He estimates his loan debt at graduation will be between $11,000 and $12,000.
"I made a wrong choice when I came to Morris Brown," Morgan said. "I'm suffering the repercussions of it."
The deadline for spring admission to Clark Atlanta was Nov. 1, so students who missed that deadline will have to wait until fall to transfer. Harrell could not say how many Morris Brown students had already applied.
But Clark Atlanta will not be able to accommodate many of the students, Harrell said. Students who have taken classes at Clark Atlanta would be given no special consideration for admission, he said.
"They would be considered like any other student applying to the university as a transfer," Harrell said. "We're not in a position to absorb 2,000 students; that just wouldn't be possible. Certainly we would want to work with as many as we could."
Georgia State University could take a greater number of transfers as long as students meet the school's criteria, Weber said. Transfer students must have accumulated at least 30 hours of college-level courses and must have a 2.3 grade-point average, she said. The deadline for spring semester applications is Nov. 15.
Morris Brown students consider transferring out
By KELLY SIMMONS
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Georgia State and Clark Atlanta universities have fielded a growing number of calls in recent weeks from Morris Brown students thinking about transferring out of the troubled school.
"They're coming in asking questions, finding out what the deadline is," said Georgia State admissions director Diane Weber. "We're getting a lot more phone calls from Morris Brown students."
Clark Atlanta, which is a sister school in the Atlanta University Center, has seen a similar pattern in recent weeks.
"We have had an increase in the number of Morris Brown students who have called or raised questions about transferring," said Joel Harrell, vice president for enrollment services and student affairs.
Morehouse College officials said they had not noticed an increase in inquiries from Morris Brown students. Spelman College did not respond to requests for information.
Neither Georgia State nor Clark Atlanta gets many transfer students from Morris Brown in a typical year. GSU gets most of its transfers from Georgia Perimeter College, a two-year state school.
Students within the AU Center, a cluster of private, historically black schools, rarely transfer from one school to another because they are allowed to take classes at each other's campuses. Students at Morris Brown, for example, can take classes at Morehouse, Clark Atlanta or Spelman without paying extra money or doing additional paperwork -- and Morris Brown's tuition is lower than that at the other AU Center schools.
"It's not a situation in which [Morris Brown] is one of the schools we look to as a feeder school," Harrell said.
Morris Brown College is $23 million in debt, under investigation for possible fraudulent use of student aid funding, and in danger of losing its accreditation when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools meets next month. If Morris Brown loses accreditation, its students would be ineligible for financial aid, which would be a devastating blow. The federal money provides more than 70 percent of the school's revenue. And more than 90 percent of the 2,500 students at Morris Brown depend on the aid to pay some of their college expenses. Morris Brown's mission is to provide education to students even if they are underprepared for college. Many students could find it difficult to find a place to transfer to if the school closes. Most Georgia schools, even state community colleges, have higher criteria for admissions than Morris Brown, which requires little more than a high school diploma or GED.
It also would be difficult for the nearby schools to accept as many as 2,500 additional students, said M. Christopher Brown, associate professor and senior research associate at the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Penn State University.
"It's a challenge when you talk about closing any institution," said Brown, considered an expert on historically black colleges and universities. "It's a different situation if it's a school of 500 to 1,000 students."
Senior Donnell Morgan is one student who has begun looking for an alternative to Morris Brown for spring semester. Morgan said he feared Morris Brown would lose accreditation and be forced to close. So far, he has talked to Clark Atlanta, where he said he had taken most of the classes for his communications major in the past year. He also plans to explore a transfer to Georgia State.
However, he said he had been unable to get a copy of his transcript from Morris Brown because the school said he owed $2,000, a debt Morgan disputes. Without a transcript, he cannot apply to another school.
"It's too bad it's gone this way," said Morgan, 25, of Minneapolis. "My senior year has just been a catastrophe."
Morgan said he was working two jobs -- at CNN Center and at Georgia State's Rialto Theater -- to pay off the money Morris Brown said he owed.
Morgan said he chose Morris Brown because he wanted to go to a historically black college in Atlanta and the school offered a lower tuition than Morehouse or Clark Atlanta. He has paid for his education with federal grants and loans. He estimates his loan debt at graduation will be between $11,000 and $12,000.
"I made a wrong choice when I came to Morris Brown," Morgan said. "I'm suffering the repercussions of it."
The deadline for spring admission to Clark Atlanta was Nov. 1, so students who missed that deadline will have to wait until fall to transfer. Harrell could not say how many Morris Brown students had already applied.
But Clark Atlanta will not be able to accommodate many of the students, Harrell said. Students who have taken classes at Clark Atlanta would be given no special consideration for admission, he said.
"They would be considered like any other student applying to the university as a transfer," Harrell said. "We're not in a position to absorb 2,000 students; that just wouldn't be possible. Certainly we would want to work with as many as we could."
Georgia State University could take a greater number of transfers as long as students meet the school's criteria, Weber said. Transfer students must have accumulated at least 30 hours of college-level courses and must have a 2.3 grade-point average, she said. The deadline for spring semester applications is Nov. 15.
