Dolores Cross
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dolores Cross was a celebrated educator and university administrator who rapidly fell from grace when she pled guilty to fraud for her mismanagement of Morris Brown College (MBC), a historically black college in Atlanta, Georgia, of which she was president from November 1998 until February 2002.
[edit] Early career
Doloros Cross was born in Newark, New Jersey. After receiving her B.S. in Education from Seton Hall University in 1963, Cross obtained her M.S. in education from Hofstra University and later received a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1971.
Dr. Cross was a successful professor and university administrator, teaching at Claremont University, becoming vice chancellor for student affairs at City University of New York, and rising to become the first female president of Chicago State University in 1990. President Bill Clinton appointed Cross to the steering committee for his America Reads initiative. She was elected vice-chair of the American Association of Higher Education and has received eight honorary degrees from various universities. Cross stepped down from the position in 1997 to head the GE Fund, a non-profit wing of General Electric, but within a year she accepted the position as the president of Morris Brown College.
[edit] The MBC Scandal
Morris Brown College was financially troubled. Under her tenure as President, she fraudulently obtained $3.4 million in federally insured student loans and Pell grants in the names of ineligible students, including some who never attended the college, some who were enrolled part time and others who had already left. It is unclear how the money was used, although it is believed they were acquired to pay the school's already existing debts. The responsibility for paying back the loans fell on the students and the school soon lost its accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools over the scandal, which in turn caused MBC students to become ineligible for many government grants and loans. The school nearly closed in 2003 as enrollment dropped.
