Arkansas Baptist College faces more scrutiny over its finances and leadership, after an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette investigation reveals that its foundation is sharing a tax-exempt status with the institution after losing its federal 501(c)3 designation in 2013.
From the Gazette:
The Arkansas Baptist College Foundation continued raising money after the federal government stripped it of its tax-exempt status, a sanction that generally subjects nonprofits and their donors to tax bills.
In one instance, the foundation managed the money for a February 2017 fundraiser — ultimately turning over meager proceeds to an organization that is not part of the Little Rock college and that was not listed on promotional items as one of the event’s beneficiaries, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette found.
Officials say that the shared exemption status is common in higher education, and that plans are underway to reactivate its individual nonprofit standing to continue raising money.
Last month, former Arkansas Baptist President Joseph Jones laid out the dire financial straits faced by the institution, and called out its former president and current Foundation Executive Director Fitz Hill, along with the ABC Board of Trustees, for years of negligence in administration.
i attended this school as girl on a Basketball Scholarship… or so i thought. Many student athletes and i referred to this college as the “bap trap” because coaches will tell students that theyll “take care of their bill” but at the end of it all you’ll still be hit with that 3,000 or 5,000 dollar bill. My coach, Dion Cross reassured me over and over again that tuition, room and board would all be covered, which turned out to be false. During registration, the administration and financial aid offices are very unorganized and they miss inform students and they get us to sign and next thing you know we get strapped with a bill. In the offices they don’t answer the phones, and they never respond to emails. They hold on to your transcripts and threaten you into staying or just flat out discourage you from bothering them for your transcripts and your degree. By the way, this school is in a ghetto area, there have been instances of gun violence, murders, and drug sales on campus. The students live in insufficient dorms with damage all through out, and noise disturbances all throughout the night. The entire time i played basketball there, we played on a warped court, putting ourselves at risk for injury, and we lifted in a weight room with holes in the floor that we could’ve easily fallen through and injured ourselves. I really hope that they shut this school down because its very corrupt. They recruit and court kids from the poorest parts of the south looking for a way out and for a better future just to mislead and swindle them into attending a college that will surprise you with various hundred and thousand dollar fees, and when you make attempt to refute let alone understand what and why you owe, the staff gives you the run around hoping you’ll cave and pay up or just walk away. This school keeps student’s return checks and collects fee after fee from students, but we still were in classes in buildings that were in dire need of repair, and we lived in dorms with broken elevators and toilets and holes in walls.