What is the state of our colleges and universities? Does it still make sense for us to keep their doors open or have they outlived their usefulness?

-- Anonymous, September 19, 2001

Answers

A number of our schools are on-line. Perhaps you can ascertain what their foci are from their own presentations.

Please reference the list available at http://www.ghg.net/jlpayne/schools.html. Also, a new link is available for Payne Theological Seminary. (I apologize for not having it in the table yet.)

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2001

Morris Brown College www.morrisbrown.edu.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2001

Our AME colleges and universities are on the uprise. I can talk about the schools of which I am intimately aware. First, the school I am attending, Turner Theological Seminary, has 103 students this fall. This is, by far, the highest enrollment in the history of our school. Our dean, Dr. Daniel W. Jacobs, made this announcement to the Turner Student Body at our Fall Dinner this past Tuesday. The Chairman of the Board of Turner, Bishop Frank Curtis Cummings, has the highest enrollment of any district. He usually does, and does now because he pays tuition for any student who wishes to attend. Praise God! This will be the hallmark of his Episcopal Ministry. Across the street is Morris Brown College who has an enrollment of more than 1000. I pastor in SC so lots of the money my church pays during budget time goes to the school in SC, Allen University. It too, is on the uprise. 500 students plus roam the halls of Allen. I understand that hotels had to be rented for students to stay in until halls are renovated. Equipped with the new Adams Gymnatorium (the largest black venue of its kind in Columbia, SC) and the newly renovated Arnett Hall (the place where my late father, an Allen 1950 graduate stayed), Allen's physical appearance is attracting students from all across the country. In 2 years, Allen will begin playing football again, which will bring in more money and more students. Teacher education is returning to Allen, which was Allen's claim to fame in years past. Allen's Chairman of the Board and my bishop, Bishop Henry Allen Belin, Jr., has recently appointed Rev. Dr. Charles E. Young as intermin president of the university. We hope Dr. Young becomes the president because he is the man for the job . . . and an excellent preacher.

Most of our colleges are accrediated bodies (I know the ones I named are) and are doing quite well. It was the AME Church who first saw the need to educate Black people in America. This is our heritage and legacy. When black folks could not go to white schools, black schools, particularly AME schools provided, quality education for our people. For this reason and so much more, it is not the time to abandon them, but to bless them.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2001