Greensboro College Forced to Use Its Campus as Loan Collateral

The financial pressures on Greensboro College, in North Carolina, continue to mount. On Friday, the News & Record, a local newspaper, reported that the college is now about $19-million in debt and has put up its campus and most of its endowment as collateral with Bank of America.

And with the start of classes just a month away, the college has sent an aggressive pitch to some prospective students — four years of free tuition to honors students who maintain a 3.2 grade-point average and pay the annual charges of nearly $9,000 for room, board, and fees.

The news has not been good in recent months for the Methodist institution. Earlier in July, longtime President Craven Williams suddenly retired. And in April, the college announced layoffs and a temporary, 20-percent pay cut across the board.

The school had renegotiated loans late last year, but in June, facing more credit trouble, it agreed to move a $12-million endowment from Wachovia to Bank of America as collateral. It also put up much of the college’s real estate as a guarantee for the loan, including the historic main campus, the newspaper reported. —Scott Smallwood