Isabella Ngedzeyeem thought she'd be graduating this month from Sojourner-Douglass College, but Wednesday she was instead working to transfer her already earned credits to Morgan State University.
Ngedzeyeem was among about 20 current or former Sojourner-Douglass students to attend "Transfer Decision Day" at Morgan, meeting with staff about ways to complete their degrees as Sojourner-Douglass' future remains unclear.
"It's been a hectic process," Ngedzeyeem said of trying to transfer. She met Wednesday with Morgan officials at the school.
Sojourner-Douglass, which has served a nontraditional, mostly adult population, has struggled financially in recent years. Enrollment has dipped from 1,300 students to about 850. Last year, the Internal Revenue Service filed $5 million in tax liens against it.
Citing the school's financial difficulties, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education last year announced Sojourner-Douglass would lose its accreditation, effective June 1. The school closed its campus in Anne Arundel County earlier this year.
Last month, officials of Sojourner-Douglass and the Virginia-based Stratford University announced a memorandum of understanding to bring Sojourner-Douglass into the Stratford system and rename it the Sojourner-Douglass Center at Stratford University. The tentative deal would grant Sojourner-Douglass a one-year provisional accreditation as a "new campus" under the Stratford name. Stratford, a for-profit institution, previously turned around the struggling Baltimore International College, a culinary arts school.
But no formal agreement regarding the Sojourner-Douglass and Stratford deal has been announced since the memorandum. Officials at both colleges did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
A spokeswoman with the Maryland Commission on Higher Education also did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, but officials previously said agreements were in the works to allow Sojourner-Douglass students to transfer to Morgan State and Coppin State universities if they desire.
Shonda Cain, Morgan's director of Undergraduate Admission and Recruitment, said in addition to the 20 students who signed up for Wednesday's event, she expects more at similar session June 10.
Most of the students that came to Morgan Wednesday are studying nursing, social work and business, Cain said. Morgan officials were available to help students figure out what credits would transfer and apply for financial aid and housing, she said.
Ngedzeyeem, 38, works full time, and the process for transferring has not been simple. She said she needs a copy of her transcript from Sojourner-Douglass, which she hasn't been able to get. She said when she and a fellow classmate attempted to get their transcripts, they were told by Sojourner-Douglass staff that computers were down.
"I'm lost," Ngedzeyeem said. "Nobody knows what is going on."
She said that for months, school officials had assured students there were remedies available to keep the college from losing accreditation. "They keep saying this can be done and that can be done," Ngedzeyeem said.
Anika Waller, 37, is trying to complete the bachelor's degree in social work she was pursuing at Sojourner-Douglass. She said she has been accepted to Morgan and will attend classes in the fall, but "I've got to find out what all can be transferred."
She said she was initially upset, but has decided just to move on.
"You can't get upset over something you can't change," Waller said. "I'm over being frustrated."
Linda Wallace, 53, another Sojourner-Douglass student at Morgan Wednesday, said she was in the process of completing her final year for a business management bachelor's degree. While she was frustrated by how Sojourner-Douglass has handled the situation, she said she would miss her old school.
"It was always a really great school. The atmosphere, the professors were great. It was an adult-learning atmosphere," Wallace said. "You don't get that one-on-one with the larger universities. I'm just moving forward."
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