College Sues Middle States Commission Over Loss of Accreditation

Sojourner-Douglass College has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the Middle States Commission on Higher Education for revoking the institution’s accreditation over financial problems, The Baltimore Sun reports. In February the commission denied Sojourner-Douglass’s appeal of Middle States’ decision, announced last fall, and the predominantly black college was officially stripped of its accreditation on Tuesday.

Sojourner-Douglass asserts in its lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Maryland, that Middle States arbitrarily changed the terms of its warning to the college, violating the Civil Rights Act of 1867.

The court denied the college’s request to postpone for 14 days the withdrawal of its accreditation. Sojourner-Douglass intends to file for an injunction this week, according to the Sun, which reported that the Internal Revenue Service filed more than $5 million in tax liens against the college last year.