St. Augustine University to Enter Arbitration Following Accreditation Appeal Loss

Now, let’s chat about an incident that went down in North Carolina. See, St. Augustine University, nestled in the heart of Raleigh, recently had a major upset with its accreditation pursuit and has now been nudged into a 90-day arbitration stride. The story? Well, grab your coffee folks because it’s quite arresting.

Our pals at WTVD-11 informed us that SAU has been trying to charm the socks off the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (short name—SACSCOC), for a good two years. They’ve been on academic probation, per se. Come December 2023, SACSCOC decided it’d had enough. Governance qualms and financial quandaries led the board to strip SAU of its membership.

Shaken but not defeated, SAU managed to pull off a triumphant appeal, securing its accreditation again in July 2024, which tasted sweet until the year’s end. Flash forward to Thursday, March 6, 2025, and we’ve got news straight off the press—WDTV-11 reporting that despite pulling all stops, SAU couldn’t win over SACSCOC’s heart this time around. The appeal to maintain its hard-earned accreditation was, sadly, denied.

But hey, don’t lose hope yet! SAU has excitingly announced its decision to march into the 90-day arbitration process. The goal? Making sure all their students who are to graduate by May 2025 can spread their wings and fly with degrees from an accredited institution. As for the university’s stand? They said, “We have made substantial progress and are confident that our strengthened financial position and governance will ensure a positive outcome,”…

What do we take away from this? Resilience. Persistence. The determination to bounce back. This is a salute to the spirit of SAU and its students, a testament that even in the face of adversity, they’ll put up a fight to ensure their journey ahead is legit and duly credited. They are standing their ground, taking a hit, but most importantly, they’re getting back up.