Cheyney University Alumni Dispel Takeover Rumors
By Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Scores of Cheyney University alumni met in North Philadelphia this week to discuss the future of the financially strapped school.
Less less than a month after it was announced that Cheyney University and it's neighbor, West Chester University, would begin collaborating, alumni began to fear worst: that the nation's oldest historically Black institution of higher ed would be taken over.
"It's not true, that's a bad, bad rumor," says E. Sonny Harris, a longtime professor at Cheyney University. While he admits that the school is facing a multi-million dollar deficit, plagued by sub par facilities and a declining enrollment that will hit roughly 750 when it opens this fall, he is hopeful.
"We hope that in three years, we can get the enrollment up to 2500," says Harris.
"The students that normally go to Cheyney are all going to West Chester now, it just doesn't seem fair," says Cheryl Merriweather Harper, a 1969 Cheyney grad. Her sister Barbara is class of '70. Both are devastated at the current state of their beloved institution.
"A lot of us wouldn't be who we are or where we are without Cheyney," says Harper, who worked her way up in the department of education.
Attorney Michael Coard, who is also an alum of the school, represents Heeding Cheyney's Call. The group of alumni sued the Pennsylvania Dept of education last year, alleging decades of discrimination in funding left the school cash-strapped. He says the group is hoping to settle their civil rights lawsuit.
"Based on the negotiation, Cheyney's going to be back on its feet in the next few months, bigger, better and blacker," says Coard. He notes that settlements and court cases could take months or even years. So in the meantime, collaborating with the larger and more popular West Chester University, will provide a much-needed lifeline.
"The collaboration is going to help both schools move forward," says Coard, "but the collaboration does not mean takeover-- I would never let that happen."
A West Chester University spokesman says they look forward to the collaboration and that the universities will remain separate institutions.
