Is The End Near?

Is Paul Quinn College Doomed?

Darren Camper
Texas Editor

Dallas-Like Bishop College before it, Paul Quinn College may be on its way out.

Last week, former CEO and President Dr. John K. Waddell resigned and left the college. This after one month before in an exclusive interview with AAN&I promoting the college’s positive points and its optimistic future.

His quick and silent departure raises many unanswered questions about his comments on how the college would survive the arrival amidst the $18 million construction of University of North Texas facilities in southern Dallas.

It appears the squeeze is on that promises in the end to suck the life out of Paul Quinn and suffocate years of traditional Black education at the historically Black college.

Sadly, a community of Black leaders and Black citizens surrounding the college seem content to allow Paul Quinn to slide down a slippery slope that will lead to its eventual demise.

AANI posed the question to then President Waddell wondering how the arrival of a new university would impact funding, student enrollment, campus improvements and raised the possibility that the historically Black college could be choked out by the new state institution.

At that time, an upbeat Waddell said. “This is not about competition. We see this as a new education corridor where we will work together and build partnerships …that opens the possibilities for upgrades to our facilities and programs…”

Since his arrival in August 2006, Waddell, his faculty and staff cultivated beneficial relationships with corporate, political and community leaders.

Some of his work included forming strategic alliances with the Boston Consulting Group, Honeywell, the Ketchum Group and the Tom Joyner Foundation, while maintaining its relationships with the United Negro College Fund, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Paul Quinn College National Alumni Association.

However, with the latest ribbon cutting at UNT, one main emphasis is on recruiting students and building the program that will lead to it becoming the first public university in the city of Dallas. Some of those students could be Paul Quinn students.

No where was Paul Quinn mentioned in that UNT plan and neither Dallas State Sen. Royce West nor State Rep. Helen Giddings, State Rep. Terri Hodge, State Rep. Yvonne Davis, State Rep. Barbara Mallory Caraway or Dallas Commissioner John Wiley Price have talked about their plans to make sure Paul Quinn is not severely impacted or overshadowed by UNT.

As a matter of fact, it was West who led the push for a public university in southern Dallas County as an educational catalyst and economic booster for the region.

However, in an area where there is a high concentration of African-Americans, the failure to utilize Paul Quinn and allow it to lead the influence and attraction of African-American students appears to be lost in the translation.

Paul Quinn College was founded by a small group of African Methodist Episcopal circuit-riding preachers in Austin, Texas in 1872. The College was later relocated to Waco and established as a modest one-building trade school at Eighth and Mary Streets, where the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway Station now stands. Here, newly freed slaves were taught blacksmithing, carpentry, tanning and other skills.

As A.M.E. districts were developed throughout the South, funds became available for a larger school. Consequently, in 1881 two acres of the Garrison Plantation in East Waco were purchased. Later, twenty more acres were added. To construct the first building, a “Ten Cents a Brick” campaign was launched throughout the A.M.E. congregations, thus, pennies of the desperately poor people built the first solid monument to their dreams

In May 1882, Paul Quinn College, named for Bishop William Paul Quinn, A.M.E. Bishop of the Western States for almost thirty years, was chartered by the State of Texas. Today the College is the oldest liberal arts college for African Americans in the State of Texas.

In 1990, under the leadership of Dr. Warren W. Morgan, Paul Quinn College relocated to Dallas, Texas.

The first semester in its new home began on September 20, 1990, with an enrollment of 1,020 students. Several innovative programs were soon implemented, including a cooperative agreement with the Dallas County Community College District - designed to facilitate easier transition from all seven of the DCCCD 2-year institutions to Paul Quinn College.

Not developing Paul Quinn College and using it as the springboard of Black education in southern Dallas seems not a priority among West and other Black leaders in Dallas.

Waddell had high hopes that Paul Quinn would be that catalyst for Black education, but truly having to compete with UNT and the potential of African-American students from Dallas Community Colleges bypassing the school in favor of UNT may have been too much to overcome for the school.

Maybe Waddell realized that despite all his plans, hopes and dreams of bringing Paul Quinn back, upgraded and mainstream were neutralized by the unwilling groups of Black Dallas elitists that are reaping huge monetary favors and benefits from the UNT push.

It could be that despite promises made to him by business and political interests, Waddell could hear the giant sucking sound of students, funding and support moving away from Paul Quinn to UNT- a fate similar to Bishop College.

In December 1986 the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked Bishop College's accreditation and membership in the association. Because of this the college lost its right to participate in several government financial programs and access to funds from the United Negro College Fund. In April 1987, Bishop College filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an unsuccessful attempt to restructure its debts and raise money to remain open; it was closed in 1988.

Another possibility for his departure could be that the results of the Boston Report for college were not the optimistic report he anticipated?

Did it show that growth potential suffered competing with UNT? Did it reveal that the growth direction of the college and potential for survival in the coming years was bleak?

For a man with the kind of experiences and successes at educational institutions as he had, AANI watchers are convinced Waddell could see the handwriting on the wall at Paul Quinn College and cast his “educational lots” in another direction.