Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Paul Quinn College to appeal accreditation ruling

By Staff of Dallas Weekly

An undaunted Michael Sorrell, president of historically black Paul Quinn College, stated that the school will appeal the impending decision by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to remove the school from their accreditation membership. Sorrell was contacted by phone by a SACS commission member; an official letter will be sent this week.

Paul Quinn is still a full-fledged college until the appeal decision is made in August, said Sorrell.

"We are still here, a functioning entity," Sorrell said about the historically black college he took over in 2007. "It is not time to write Paul Quinn's obituary."

"Paul Quinn College is open and in the business of educating our students. Until the appeal is ruled upon, we still have the ability to grant degrees and our students have not lost any of their credit hours or academic standing."

Since Sorrell took over as president in 2007, the school has undergone dramatic improvements. They include:

*A 600 percent increase in applications for admissions (273 to 1,283) over the past year;

*A 50 percent student retention improvement;

*No findings of non-compliance in the school's 2008 audit, compared to 23 findings in 2007, the first clean audit for the school in 10 years, according to Sorrell;

*A 90 percent increase in donations over the past two years, including over $500,000 in unrestricted donations the past two months;

However, SACS president Dr. Belle Wheelan said the improvements were not enough to pull Paul Quinn out of the probation status they were put under two years ago.

"While they had indeed made progress, they just ran out of time," Wheelan said.

Sorrell expects to state his case and receive a decision around the third week in August.

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