After a years-long uphill battle, the historically Black Morris Brown College is on the brink of regaining its accreditation.

Morris Brown is one step closer to full accreditation after the Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission (GNPEC) has decided the school deserves to be recognized as a quality institution of higher learning again. According to 11 Alive, the school lost its accreditation in 2002 after accumulating an overwhelming amount of debt. The institution has struggled to attract students ever since according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. As of March, only 42 students were enrolled in the school.

They lost the ability to secure financial aid and eventually went bankrupt in 2012. In 2014, the school was purchased by the Friendship Baptist Church.

Interim President Dr. Kevin James was integral in moving the school forward.

For the last six months, James and his administration began appealing to the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools to seek status as a correspondence school. The term "correspondence school" indicates Morris Brown has officially started the process of regaining its accreditation.

Bishop Reginald T. Jackson of the 6th Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church praised James for the administration's tireless commitment to getting the school back on track.

"I am extremely pleased with the process we have gone through and that GNPEC has recognized that we are on solid ground as an institute of higher learning," Jackson, who is chairman of the Board of Trustees, said via a press release provided to 11 Alive.

"Dr. James, the Board and the administration are commended for navigating our school through this challenging process. Dr. James has provided bold leadership to address problems at Morris Brown College."

The news comes after the popular Atlanta-based megachurch New Birth Ministries gave Morris Brown a large donation.

Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant on Sunday told parishioners that a donation received from Kanye West will be given to Morris Brown in order to honor his late mother, Dr. Donda West. The Chicago rapper came to New Birth in September to host a Sunday Service ahead of his upcoming album, Jesus is King.

"I went into prayer, and it dawned in me in prayer that Dr. Donda West, who was the mother of Kanye West, is a former professor at Morris Brown College," Bryant said Sunday according to Channel Two Action News.

The outlet reports Dr. Donda West was an English professor in the 1970s and then went on to be a department chair.

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