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Bennett College Faces Loss Of Accreditation

The Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel on the Bennett College campus. Photo courtesy of Bennett College.

Bennett College in Greensboro is in danger of losing its accreditation. The private women's school has been on probation for the last two years.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges announced on Tuesday Bennett faces the loss of its accreditation after years of financial and enrollment struggles.

According to the News and Record, a commission official says Bennett is out of compliance with a rule requiring colleges to have sound financial resources and a stable financial base.

Enrollment has dropped nearly in half since a similar crisis in 2010.

Bennett President Phyllis Worthy Dawkins says she will appear at a hearing in February in hopes of convincing the commission to reverse its decision.

The college will remain open and accredited in the meantime.

Bennett is one of just two historically black colleges for women in the nation.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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