Established 1882 Undergraduate tuition and fees 15,408 USD (2010) Founded 1882 | Campus Rural Phone +1 978-368-2000 | |
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President Dr. Avis D. Hendrickson Address 338 Main St, Lancaster, MA 01523, USA Notable alumni Robert S Folkenberg, Jon Paulien, Henry Feyerabend, Ari Hoogenboom, Delmas Campbell Similar Washington Adventist University, Andrews University, Anna Maria College, Becker College, Burman University Profiles | ||
Bcu black christian union concert 2011 at auc atlantic union college
Atlantic Union College (AUC) is a Seventh-day Adventist college in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. It suspended bachelor's degree programs in May, 2011 after a financial crisis and an ensuing loss of accreditation, but resumed them in August 2015. In the meantime, the college continued operation by way of its renowned Thayer Performing Arts Center. As of November, 2013, it has additionally been the home of a certificate program for instruction in evangelism - NETS, the Northeast Evangelism Training School.
Contents
- Bcu black christian union concert 2011 at auc atlantic union college
- 04 21 12 afternoon q a on auc atlantic union college alumni
- Origins
- Crisis and closure
- Restart of Academic Programs
- Campus
- Racial ethnic profile
- Legal troubles
- People
- References
Two bachelors level degrees are currently available at AUC - the BA in Theology/Religion, and the BS in Biology/ Health Science, as well as several certificate programs. Classes began on August 24, 2015.
04 21 12 afternoon q a on auc atlantic union college alumni
Origins
Founded in 1882, Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Mass. is the oldest campus in the Seventh-day Adventist worldwide educational system. In 1882, the school was organized as a preparatory school under the leadership of Adventist 'pioneer' Stephen Nelson Haskell to serve the needs of Adventist constituents in the northeastern part of the United States and Bermuda, and was named "That New England School". The next year, it was incorporated and renamed South Lancaster Academy. In 1918, it was renamed: Lancaster Junior College. Then, in 1922, it was yet again renamed Atlantic Union College after being authorized to grant degrees in the state of Massachusetts. That year, the academy and college separated. In 1933, Governor Joseph Ely granted AUC the right to confer the bachelor of arts degree. In 1945, the school was first accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). In 1954, it was authorized to grant the bachelor of science degree. Herbert E. Douglass was president from 1967 to 1970. In 1990, Atlantic Union College was authorized to grant the master of education degree.l
Crisis and closure
In 1993, with 82% of enrolled students receiving financial aid, there was a high default rate on student loans and enrollment was dropping well below projections. An auditor's report had shown the college was "essentially bankrupt" and at the time was at least $3 million in debt. By the Fall of 1994, another enrollment drop forced them to borrow $2 million to get through the 94-95 school year; a violation of North American Division working policy to borrow money for operating purposes. In May 1995, the AUC had $6.2 million in debt. Approximately $3 million was owed to the Atlantic Union Revolving Fund and $2.4 million owed to the General Conference. By August 1995, AUC met their first cash crunch and were forced to dip into the endowment funds to meet payroll. This process was repeated in November and December of the same year until the endowment funds were exhausted.
In 1998, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges issued 28 citations to Atlantic Union after an on-site visit. Most pertained to problems with finances, fund raising, the curriculum, student services, and faculty pay.
After a focused evaluation in 2001, the Massachusetts Commission on Institutions of Higher Education recommended to the Board of Trustees for NEASC that the College’s accreditation be terminated. In December 2003, the Board of Trustees placed the College on probation.
In 2008, NEASC placed the College on probation status due to "failure to meet [its] Standard on Financial Resources". In February 2011, it was announced that Atlantic Union College would lose its accreditation on July 31, 2011.
The AUC board of trustees undertook negotiations with Washington Adventist University with the aim of establishing a branch campus of WAU on AUC's former campus. However. AUC President Norman Wendth announced in July that the plan had not gained approval from the Massachusetts Department of Education in time for the Fall 2011 school term. All 179 faculty and staff at AUC were laid off on July 31, 2011. Only one of the 450 enrolled students failed to find a new college in time for the fall semester, while all nursing students transferred to Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, Massachusetts. Adult degree program and distance learning students were not affected and automatically became students of Washington Adventist University.
In October 2011 the AUC board of trustees voted to suspend any further negotiations for a branch of WAU after the institutions were unable to reach an operating agreement.
Restart of Academic Programs
The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (DHE) performed a site visit on October 2, 2012, to evaluate the reestablishment of degree-granting authority.
On November 11, 2012, the Atlantic Union College (AUC) Board of Trustees appointed Duane M. Cady, M.D. as interim president.
On June 18, 2013, Atlantic Union College won approval by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education to offer two degrees. The approved degrees are a Bachelor of Arts in Theology/Religion and a Bachelor of Science in Health Science/Biology. The college is currently pursuing accreditation through several avenues.
In November 2013, the College became the home of a non-degree educational program, the Northeast Evangelism Training School.
Upon the recommendation of the AUC Strategic Planning Committee, the AUC Board of Trustees, on May 5, 2014, voted to authorize the offering of three non-higher education programs approved by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In November, 2014, the Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Avis D. Hendrickson as President. She serves as the first woman to hold this position in the College's 133-year history.
On April 18, 2015, Dr. Hendrickson announced the launch of two Bachelor's level academic programs to begin August, 2015: a B.A. in Religion/Theology, and a B.S. in Health Sciences/Biology. Certificate programs are also offered at the Northeast Evangelism Training School (NETS), the new English as a second language center, as well as in the areas of business, and computer sciences.
Campus
Atlantic Union College is located on 135-acres in Lancaster Massachusetts.
Racial & ethnic profile
Atlantic Union College has been for some time a thoroughly diverse academic environment. Co educational since its founding, it has long served the full range of ethnicities of Seventh-day Adventists, both in the northeast of the U.S. and around the world. It has been a Minority Serving Institution as defined by the Office of Civil Rights, as well as a Hispanic Serving Institution, for federal financial aid purposes. While racial and ethnic proportions have varied, during the college's last year of operation in 2011, ethnicity of the student body was 65.7% Black or African American, 16.7% Hispanic/Latino, 6.9% White, 5.9% Asian, 3.9% Race and/or Ethnicity unknown and 1.0% Two or more races non-Hispanic/Latino.
In January 2003 a former employee filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission on Discrimination charging President Sylvan Lashley and assistant Dwight Carnegie with reverse discrimination, and in October 2006 an ethnically charged disturbance broke out between Haitian and Bermudan students after a soccer game.
In the spring of 2015, the AUC Board of Trustees created a "Reconciliation and Unity" committee to address the lingering effects of past tensions, both social and personal. On April 18, 2015, a "Reconciliation and Unity Forum" was held, with frank, open and constructive dialogue, at the Machlan Auditorium. On May 11, the Board approved the final 8 point Resolution on Reconciliation and Unity was approved, including the declaration to "create a new and safe culture at AUC that includes graciousness, dignity, respect and love", and a plan to "schedule town hall meetings throughout the Atlantic Union territory to share the principles of reconciliation and unity".
Legal troubles
In October 1997, Bruce Wells, AUC's Dean, appointed by President Lashley, approached surprised town selectmen in the neighboring town of Clinton for permission to use a Clinton address to sell used cars out of the college's parking lot in Lancaster in order to circumvent the Town of Lancaster's local zoning laws.
In 2003, its president at the time, Sylvan Lashley, left under a cloud. His administration was accused of infractions from racial discrimination to mishandling of student aid funds, which resulted in a federal investigation. The Federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Education focused on the college's handling of Title IV student aid funds, on which the vast majority of the college's 500 students were dependent.
On January 30, 2008, a lawsuit was filed in the Worcester Superior Court against a former Atlantic Union College choir director and music professor, for allegedly sexually abusing four students and a consultant in 2005 and 2006.
In March 2009, AUC was fined $177,500 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after the discovery of a leak in a 500-gallon oil tank located in the Colleges Power Plant. The EPA found that Atlantic Union College did not have a spill prevention control and countermeasure plan, a violation of the Clean Water Act and did not have a legally required secondary containment system around the tank.
People
Presidents of the College
Heads of the School prior to Incorporation as a College