Saint Augustine’s University filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday and announced on Tuesday that its interim president, Dr. Jennie Ward-Robinson, has resigned after about four months on the job.
The 159-year-old Raleigh HBCU has been struggling for years with mounting debt and declining enrollment. Leadership turnover and financial mismanagement exacerbated the university’s problems. SAU lost accreditation in 2025 and tried to sue its accreditor to regain it—a last-ditch effort the school now says it has dropped.
Last summer, then-interim president Marcus Burgess said the university’s debts exceeded $47 million. According to the bankruptcy filing, SAU now owes somewhere between $50 million and $100 million to 345 different creditors, including vendors, financial lenders, former students, and multiple federal agencies.
Filing for bankruptcy imposes an “automatic stay” that pauses debt collection, lawsuits, and foreclosures against SAU. According to court documents, the goal of SAU’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy is to develop a “plan of reorganization” approved by the court that describes how the university will settle its debts and move forward. In the meantime, SAU cannot sell off its property or enter into significant financial agreements without the court’s approval.
“This structured, court-supervised process will enable SAU to organize its financial affairs in an orderly and transparent manner,” the university wrote in a Tuesday press release. “The decision, made by the University’s Board of Trustees, reflects a deliberate and strategic step to advance the University’s long-term sustainability while addressing current financial realities.”
SAU will develop its plan of reorganization with the support of its “primary lending partner,” -Help Ventures Fund, according to the press release. WRAL reported in January that Self-Help, a local nonprofit lender, assumed some of SAU’s debt and offered the university a lower interest rate.
“Self-Help believed in the mission and legacy of Saint Augustine’s University when we provided the lifeline financing at the very end of 2025, and we still believe in the mission and potential of the school going forward,” Self-Help CEO Martin Eakes told INDY on Tuesday. “And we think that the Chapter 11 process will give the university enough time to put a sustainable plan back into operation.”
Per the press release, SAU’s board has appointed Dr. Verjanis A. Peoples to be the new interim president. The release did not give a reason for Ward-Robinson’s resignation, and a university spokesperson declined to respond to INDY’s questions on the subject. Ward-Robinson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Peoples was previously SAU’s interim provost and vice president of academic affairs. She briefly served as interim president in 2025 between Burgess’s resignation and Ward-Robinson’s hiring. She is SAU’s ninth president or interim president in ten years.
The university also announced on Tuesday that it will stop its legal battle to regain accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). SACSCOC revoked SAU’s accreditation in July 2025 and the university has been fighting the decision ever since. A higher education expert told INDY at the time that lawsuits to regain accreditation are rarely successful.
“After careful evaluation, the Board determined that continuing litigation would not be a prudent use of resources,” the press release read. “SAU will instead focus on supporting students through teach-out agreements, developing non-degree certificates and apprenticeship programs, and building a pathway toward reaccreditation. The institution reached this conclusion in cooperation with its accreditor, SACSCOC, to ensure impacted students were able to graduate from an accredited institution.”
Without accreditation, the value of SAU’s degrees drops. But very few students reportedly remain enrolled to be affected by the change. The private university did not respond to INDY’s questions about current students but referred us to its FAQ page, which says remaining students “will need to finish their degrees at another accredited institution.”
A university spokesperson emphasized that SAU “will continue operating” during bankruptcy proceedings. The FAQ page says SAU will continue to offer technology and nursing certifications.
For small schools that lose accreditation, the most common outcome is permanent closure. But a handful have made comebacks against the odds. Morris Brown College, an Atlanta HBCU, lost accreditation in 2002 due to financial mismanagement and filed for bankruptcy in 2012. It stayed open, fundraised, negotiated to get some of its debts forgiven, and brought on new leaders. The college regained accreditation in 2020 and enrollment has reportedly rebounded from 20 to over 400. Other financially-troubled small colleges have merged with bigger, more stable institutions to stave off closure.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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