Tougaloo College was removed from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools' warning list this June after the association's Commission on Colleges found the institution's financial standing to have improved since its July 2009 sanction.
Tougaloo and its partnership with Brown are as strong as ever, said administrators from both schools.
Tougaloo was placed on the warning list last July for failing to comply with financial standards mandated by the commission. The primary concern was that Tougaloo did not complete its audit before the commission's regular reaffirmation visit.
Once completed, the audit did show the school's assets and enrollment increasing, according to Tougaloo President Beverly Hogan.
"I'm not saying there weren't also financial difficulties, but had we completed our audit on time, I'm confident we would not have been placed on the warning list," Hogan said.
When the commission reviewed the school in June 2010, Hogan said, the school made sure to emphasize that its finances were improving. The commission requires "an institution to provide evidence that it has a sound financial base and financial stability to support the mission of the institution and the scope of its programs," according to a June 2009 article in The Herald.
To ensure that Tougaloo is not placed under sanction in the future, the school is pursuing a real estate investment plan with local developers. A large part of the school's $4.7 million endowment rests in acreage around Jackson, Miss. The school is considering leasing tracts of that land to provide a steady source of income apart from tuition and donations, Hogan said.
Even if Tougaloo had not been taken off the warning list, the Brown-Tougaloo partnership would not have been at risk, said Associate Provost and Director of Institutional Diversity Valerie Wilson.
"It's hardly likely we would have said goodbye (to Tougaloo). It's too strong a bond," Wilson said. The partnership has its roots in the civil rights era, and includes a variety of student exchange programs and joint research ventures between Brown and the small, historically black Tougaloo.
Though Wilson previously headed the program, the directorship of the Brown-Tougaloo partnership passed to Associate Dean of the College for Diversity Programs Maitrayee Bhattacharyya in July of this year.
"The partnership is thriving," Bhattacharyya said. "The semester-exchange program is very vibrant." Since her appointment as director of the partnership, Bhattacharyya has worked to codify the procedures for the Early Identification in Medicine exchange program, which sends Tougaloo graduates straight to Alpert Medical School.
Hogan also emphasized the academic strength of Tougaloo, pointing out that it was recently named among the top 50 U.S. schools for the sciences by the National Science Foundation.
"Throughout the college's 104-year history, we have struggled financially, but we have never failed to educate students well," Hogan said.
