Morris Brown College Morris Brown College ( MBC ) is a private , coed , liberal arts college located in the Vine City community of Atlanta , Georgia , United States . It is a historically black college affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church . Although Morris Brown College is not a member of the Atlanta University Center Consortium , it is located within the Atlanta University Center ( a district designated by the Atlanta City Council ) . In 2002 it lost its accreditation and federal funding due to a financial mismanagement scandal during the 1998 – 2002 tenure of Dolores Cross as school president . The United Negro College Fund also terminated its support for the college . In August , 2012 , Morris Brown filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an attempt to prevent foreclosure and sale of the school at auction . Academics . Morris Brown offers baccalaureate degrees in Management , Entrepreneurship and Technology ( for traditional students ) and Organizational Management and Leadership ( for Adult Degree matriculants ) . Accreditation . Morris Brown is in a " Self - Study " phase of the accreditation process with Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools and is looking to reapply in October of 2012 . Until 2003 , Morris Brown was accredited by a regional accreditor , the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools ( SACS ) . Morris Brown was more than $ 23 million in debt and was on probation in 2001 with SACS for shoddy bookkeeping and a shortage of professors with advanced degrees . In December of 2002 , SACS revoked Morris Brown ' s accreditation . Almost eight years later , the college settled its nearly $ 10 million debt with the Department of Education . History . Establishment . The Morris Brown Colored College ( its original name ) was founded by African Americans affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church , which had expanded in Georgia following the American Civil War . The North Georgia Annual Conference of the AME Church on January 5 , 1881 , passed a resolution to establish an educational institution in Atlanta for the moral , spiritual , and intellectual growth of Negro boys and girls . The school formally opened its doors on October 15 , 1885 , with 107 students and nine teachers . Morris Brown was the first educational institution in Georgia under sole African - American patronage . For more than a century , the college enrolled many students from poor backgrounds , large numbers of whom returned to their hometowns as teachers . Fountain Hall , originally known as Stone Hall when occupied by Atlanta University , was completed in 1882 . It is closely associated with the history of the college and has been designated a National Historic Landmark . After Atlanta University consolidated its facilities , it leased the building to Morris Brown College , which renamed it Fountain Hall . Criminal scandal . Eighty percent of the school ' s 2 , 500 students received financial aid from the federal government , which gave Morris Brown $ 8 million a year . A federal criminal case against the former president , Dolores Cross , and the financial aid director , Parvesh Singh , proved the pair had embezzled a great deal of the federal aid and diverted it to ineligible college costs , such as personal staff , instead of subsidizing the students . In 2002 , the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked the college ' s accreditation because of its financial problems . Cross and Singh were charged in December 2004 in a 34 - count indictment that accused them of defrauding the school , the U . S . Department of Education , and hundreds of students . The pair , who had first worked together at a college in Chicago , Illinois , were convicted of using the names of hundreds of students , ex - students , and people who were never enrolled to obtain financial aid for the school . During the time Cross held the college presidency , from November 1998 through February 2002 , Singh obtained about 1 , 800 payments from federally insured loans and Pell grant s for these students , who had no idea they would be responsible for paying off the loans , the indictment said . At the time of the 2004 indictment , Cross was teaching at DePaul University in Chicago . On May 1 , 2006 , Cross pleaded guilty to fraud by embezzlement . She agreed to pay $ 11 , 000 to the Department of Education in restitution . Singh pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement . On January 3 , 2007 , Cross was sentenced to five years of probation and one year of home confinement for the fraud . Cross , 70 years old , suffers from sleep apnea and has had a series of small stroke s , factors the judge took into consideration . Singh , 64 , also received five years of probation but 18 months of home confinement . An additional factor the judge considered was that the embezzled funds were not used for personal profit , but to prop up the school ' s poor finances . However , the initial indictment said Cross had used the funds to finance personal trips for herself , her family , and friends . The prosecutor , U . S . Attorney David Nahmias , said at the sentencing : " When the defendants arrived at Morris Brown , the college was already in serious financial condition . Thereafter , these defendants misappropriated . . . money in fairly complicated ways in what appears to have been a misguided and ultimately criminal attempt to keep Morris Brown afloat . " Uncertain future . The school has $ 22 million in long - term debt and $ 5 million in short term debt . Both the alumni association and the African Methodist Episcopal Church have pledged to keep the school from closing . As of January 2009 , Morris Brown has 240 students . Morris Brown College , at one point reduced to an enrollment of just 44 students , continues to operate as a scaled - down version of its former self . In 2004 , Dr . Samuel D . Jolley , who had been the school ' s president from 1993 to 1997 , agreed to return to the presidency to help the college ' s attempts to recover . The school hoped to have 107 students in the fall of 2006 , the same number when the school opened in 1881 , but failed to meet even this modest goal . Tuition in the fall semester of 2006 was $ 3 , 500 , but without accreditation , students cannot obtain federal or state financial aid for their tuition and other school expenses . By February 2007 , MBC had only 54 students in two degree programs , supported by 7 faculty and staff employees . Despite this , after the sentencing of two former administrators , the chair of the college ' s board of trustees , Bishop William Phillips DeVeaux , issued a press release stating the college would move forward and that " This sad chapter in the college ' s history is now closed . " In addition to civil lawsuits filed by former and current students , Morris Brown faces a civil suit for defaulting on a $ 13 million property bond , a case that eventually could lead to foreclosure on some of the college ' s most historic buildings , including its administration building , attorneys involved in the case say . The complaint asks for $ 10 . 7 million in principal owed on the loan agreement , $ 1 . 5 million in interest and a per diem of $ 2 , 100 for each day Morris Brown does not pay . In December 2008 , the City of Atlanta disconnected water service to the college because of an overdue water bill . The debt has since been paid and the service restored . Radio personality Tom Joyner made several offers to buy the troubled college from 2002 through 2004 , during the worst of the accreditation and fraud crises . In 2003 , his charitable foundation gave the school $ 1 million to assist with its immediate needs . The school faces foreclosure in September 2012 . Athletics . The college briefly had a NCAA Division I athletics program , until it lost accreditation . Notable alumni . This is a list of notable alumni which includes graduates , non - graduate former students , and current students of Morris Brown College .