Atlantic Union College

Atlantic Union College
Active	1882–2011
Type	Private
Religious affiliation	Seventh-day Adventist Church
Location	South Lancaster, Massachusetts, USA
Campus	Rural
Affiliations	COWC
Website	www.auc.edu

Atlantic Union College (AUC) was a Seventh-day Adventist college in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. Its final year operating as an independent institution was the 2010–2011 school year following loss of accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Although currently closed, in 2011, negotiations began with Washington Adventist University with hopes to operate a South Lancaster satellite campus, pending approval from the Massachusetts Board of Education and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. However, on October 5th 2011, the AUC board of trustees voted to suspend any further negotiations, after the institutions were unable to reach an operating agreement.

History

The plaque in the foreground reads: "Site of the Parsonage of Rev. Edmund Hamilton Sears, Minister of the First Church of Christ 1840–1847, Author of the Christmas Hymn 'It Came Upon a Midnight Clear'. Lancaster Historical Commission

In 1882, the school was organized as a preparatory school under Stephen Nelson Haskell to serve the needs of Adventist constituents in the northeastern part of the United States and Bermuda, and was named "That New England School". The next year, it was incorporated and renamed South Lancaster Academy. In 1918, it was once again renamed Lancaster Junior College. Then, in 1922, it was yet once again renamed Atlantic Union College after being authorized to grant degrees in the state of Massachusetts. That year, the academy and college separated. In 1933, Governor Joseph Ely granted AUC the right to confer the bachelor of arts degree. In 1945, the school was first accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). In 1954, it was authorized to grant the bachelor of science degree. Herbert E. Douglass was president from 1967 to 1970. In 1990, Atlantic Union was authorized to grant the master of education degree.

In 1998, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges issued 28 citations to Atlantic Union after an on-site visit. Most pertained to problems with finances, fund raising, the curriculum, student services, and faculty pay.

The school’s finances had been shaky for years. It had a legacy of bureaucratic bungling and misunderstandings with state and regional higher education authorities, and it had spent the last decade on and off probation with its accrediting body. The school hit a low point in 2003, when its president at the time, Sylvan Lashley, left under a cloud. His administration was accused of transgressions from racial discrimination to mishandling of student aid funds, which resulted in a federal investigation.

In January 2003 a former employee filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission on Discrimination charging President Sylvan Lashley and assistant Dwight Carnegie with reverse discrimination. The employee, who is white, claims minority employees were hired and promoted over better-qualified non-minorities who had seniority. The complaint alleged Mr. Lashley, who is black, made biased, racial remarks about non-minorities in public.

On January 30th 2008, a lawsuit was filed in the Worcester Superior Court against a former Atlantic Union College choir director and music professor alleging sexual misconduct with four students and a consultant. The suit alleged that Mr. de Araujo, who is called “Maestro” and known around the world for his choral direction and musical performances, engaged in inappropriate touching and sexual abuse. It also alleged that the college was aware of his previous alleged sexual predatory behavior, but ignored the men’s complaints. The plaintiffs also accused AUC of firing workers that opposed the abuse. On June 20th 2008 a settlement was reached however specifics of the agreement were confidential.

In 2008, NEASC placed the College on probation status due to "failure to meet [its] Standard on Financial Resources". In February 2011, it was announced that Atlantic Union College would lose its accreditation on July 31, 2011. It was later announced that Washington Adventist University would take over and open a branch campus on AUC's former campus.

In mid-July, 2011 Norman Wendth, President of the college, announced that that Washington Adventist University's plan to establish a satellite school on Atlantic Union College's old campus was not approved by the Massachusetts Department of Education in time for the fall 2011 school term. The delay resulted in all 179 faculty and staff at AUC being laid off on July 31, 2011. Only one of the 450 enrolled students failed to find a new college in time for the fall semester, while all nursing students transferred to Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, Massachusetts. Adult degree program and distance learning students were not affected and automatically became students of Washington Adventist University.

The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (DHE) performed a site visit on October 2, 2012 to evaluate the reestablishment of degree-granting authority. A decision is expected from the DHE by March 2013 at the soonest.

On November 11, 2012, the Atlantic Union College (AUC) Board of Trustees appointed Duane M. Cady, M.D. as interim president. Duane M. Cady is a graduate of Atlantic Union College in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and Loma Linda University in California. He is also an elder in the Syracuse Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Campus

The Music Department was housed in the Nathaniel Thayer Estate, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. It is now the Thayer Performing Arts Center. The G. Eric Jones Library was built in 1970 and contains a gift of a thousand volumes from the private library of poet Edwin Markham.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities
• List of Seventh-day Adventist hospitals
• List of Seventh-day Adventist medical schools
• List of Seventh-day Adventist secondary schools

External links

• Official website
• Atlantic Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
• Official website of Browning & South Lancaster Academy