Monday, August 11, 2008

Follow the Money

25 students had their degrees invalidated because a satellite program of North Carolina Central University at Bishop Eddie Longs Lithonia megachurch New Birth Baptist Church was not accredited. Nobody involved will take responsibility, The kids are screwed.

Eddie Long is known by another name, Bling Bling. He preaches prosperity theology. Let's look at that in the context of 25 students getting screwed. I don't know what it costs to put a kid through state school in North Carolina, but I can tell you here in California is was ~$23K a year. I'm going to the $23K and assume 5 years of school per student. That's $2.8M of tuition paid to the university by the graduating class. Factor in the 39 other students in the educational pipeline for an additional $897K of income per year. In turn the University pays the church rental/lease income for the use of church facilities, administrative costs, and I would assume other fees as well. Somebody made money here. The students paid the bill.

In other news, Eddie Long announced a 1 million dollar gift to North Carolina Central University last week. Nothing suspicious here, move along folks, move along.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interestingly, the link on NCCU's homepage doesn't work for tuition and fees, but a search led to their list (http://www.nccu.edu/admissions%20and%20aid/Tuition%20and%20Fees/INTER-INSTITUTIONALONLINETUITIONANDFEES_08-09_ESTIMATED.pdf). For in-state, full-time students, it's $264 per 3 hrs. For out-of-state, it's $1,252.

According to the Raleigh News & Observer, "Students paid $888.57 per three-credit course".

"From those revenues, NCCU paid the church $120 per student per course taught... UNC system officials confirmed that is the proper way to administer an out-of-state program. The church provided classrooms, equipment, offices and administrative support, helped recruit students and instructors..."
(http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1171548.html) .

None of the administration involved in this are still at the campus, so there's not much info yet. Long also gave $400,000 to the school a few years ago, and has been the commencement speaker twice. They claim that the curriculum was purely non-theological.

"A human growth and development instructor's degree was listed as "doctor of graduation."

"Long told the Atlanta newspaper in 2005: "We're not just a church, we're an international corporation. We're not just a bumbling bunch of preachers who can't talk and all we're doing is baptizing babies. I deal with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around this world. I pastor a multimillion-dollar congregation."