It’s no secret that Averett University experienced some financial troubles in the last few months, however, the situation seems to have had some silver linings, showing how truly committed many people are to the school.
The incident was first uncovered in the late spring by President Dr. Tiffany Franks when she noticed inconsistencies in the university’s financial reports. The figures were not matching with the reports she had received previously, which raised some red flags. After confirming the situation, Franks immediately took action and alerted Averett’s Board of Trustees, which led to the university’s CFO at the time being dismissed. Since this occurred, Averett University’s Board has been more involved in decision making and finances.
“We certainly had things in place to try to flag these sorts of things,” Cassie Williams Jones, associate vice president of university marketing and communications, said. “Definitely we have taken steps to be proactive in enhancing controls and in assurance that there’s extra sign offs on things, and the board has been more involved in helping make decisions on spending and new contracts.”
From the beginning the students were always in mind when it came to any decisions being made following the financial losses. While cutbacks had to be made, everything was done with the students’ best interest in mind, trying to keep the student experience consistent and meeting expectations.
“As we would talk, the students were always at the center,” Jones said. “There has been a collective commitment to minimize the impact on students, we tried to mitigate anything that would affect that student experience.”
Although these times have been difficult to navigate, the Averett community, along with their faculty and staff have shown a true commitment to the school and to its students.
“The commitment to the school is unique, I’ve worked a lot of different places and that is one thing that makes Averett really unique,” Jones said. “It’s not just a tagline, the people at Averett, from the students, all the way up to the president, and everyone in between. It’s a different place, it’s a different culture, and it’s really special.”
While the situation was not ideal, Averett has found ways to stay positive despite the financial downfalls. Through analysis of the schools finances, they have been able to find ways to increase efficiency as well as possibilities to increase revenues without impacting student tuition.
“There’s been a lot of good that’s come out of all of this,” Jones said. “I think overall it’s shown us a lot of opportunity for the future as well.”
Ultimately it takes time to recover from setbacks like this, but Averett is working hard to get back to where it was before the incident. Through steady and consistent methods, the university is working to move forward and refocus its efforts back to students and the community.
