Southeastern University was a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...
, non-profit undergraduate and graduate institution of higher education located in southwestern
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
The university lost its accreditation from the
Middle States Commission on Higher Education
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, abbreviated as MSCHE and legally incorporated as the Mid-Atlantic Region Commission on Higher Education, is a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit membership organization that performs peer evalua ...
on August 31, 2009. The Commission reported that the college lacked rigor and was losing faculty, enrollment, and financial stability. The 130-year-old school ceased offering classes after an extended summer session in 2009.
[de Vise, Daniel. D.C. ''University Loses Accreditation: Southeastern Doesn't Expect to Offer Fall Classes.'' Washington Post. September 14, 2009] The closure was very likely linked to the
Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009. .
Southeastern University was established by
YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
and chartered by an
Act of Congress
An act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called Public and private bills, private laws), or to the general public (Public and private bills, public laws). For a Bill (law) ...
in 1879. It had degree programs in
Criminal Justice
Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...
,
Child Development
Child development involves the Human development (biology), biological, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the conclusion of adolescence. It is—particularly from birth to five years— a foundation ...
,
Public Administration
Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...
,
Business Management
Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization.
Overview
The administration of a business includes the performance o ...
,
Accounting
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...
,
Finance
Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...
,
Liberal Studies
Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refer to st ...
,
Computer Science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
, and Allied Health, a program initiated in 2006 at
Greater Southeast Community Hospital. There were also certificate programs in entrepreneurship,
property management
Property management is the operation, control, maintenance, and oversight of real estate and physical property. This can include residential, commercial, and land real estate. Management indicates the need for real estate to be cared for and mon ...
, real estate, Web development, and others. It was a member of the
Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area The Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area (CUWMA) is a nonprofit educational association of 20 colleges and universities in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Department o ...
but lost this affiliation after the Fall 2009 semester.
Through the spring of 2009, Southeastern University had a total enrollment of about 870 students, with 222 of those students pursuing postgraduate degrees. About 77% were locally based,
and a majority (60%) were female, but there was also a significant international enrollment.
International enrollment had been in decline after the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, when the student population shifted from international students to primarily low-income District residents.
[ The university employed approximately 140 faculty and staff before the university was notified of its loss of accreditation.
]
History
Southeastern began as a series of classes offered by YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
of the District of Columbia in 1879. The Washington School of accountancy was added in 1907. In 1923, the university incorporated under the authority of the District of Columbia as "Southeastern University of YMCA of the District of Columbia". An August 19, 1937 federal charter from Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
renamed the institution "Southeastern University". The university afterward added other colleges.[ In 1977, the university received accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. During the 1980s, two university officials were fired due to misappropriation of funds, and SEU's student loan default rate reached 42% by 1987. In 1989, the federal government temporarily cut off the university's loan funds. Enrollment declined from 1800 to 500 in the early 1990s.
]
Closure
Three months before the university was notified it would lose accreditation, Southeastern received $1.5 million from the District of Columbia to fund improvements intended to prevent the school's loss of accreditation. Efforts by the D.C. government to recover the funding after the school lost accreditation were unsuccessful.
Elaine Ryan replaced Charlene Drew Jarvis as university president on March 31, 2009, after Jarvis had been president for 13 years. Prior to losing accreditation, the university was negotiating a merger with Graduate School USA (formerly Graduate School, USDA
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...
), also based in Washington, D.C.Fine Could Hamper Southeastern U. Merger
''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', Retrieved October 13, 2009
In May 2014, the Shakespeare Theatre Company
The Shakespeare Theatre Company is a Regional theater in the United States, regional theatre company located in Washington, D.C. The theatre company focuses primarily on plays from the William Shakespeare, Shakespeare canon, but its seasons inc ...
announced plans to redevelop the former site of Southeastern University at 501 Eye Street SW into an actors' campus. These plans fell through. The campus building was demolished and the space became a vacant lot.
Notable alumni
* Tolulope Akande-Sadipe (born 1966), Nigerian Congresswoman
* Mohammed Barkindo
Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo (20 April 1959 – 5 July 2022) was a Nigerian politician. From 1 August 2016 until his death, he was the secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. He helped to create the OPEC+ alli ...
(1959–2022), Secretary General of OPEC
Below is a list with each secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), based on the organization's official publications. The secretary general is OPEC's chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (C ...
* William Ralph Basham (born 1943), Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Director of U.S. Secret Service
* William C. Bilo (born 1944), United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
Brigadier General, deputy director of the Army National Guard
The Army National Guard (ARNG) is an organized Militia (United States), militia force and a Reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, federal military reserve force of the United States Army. It is simultaneously part of two differen ...
* Howard Carwile (1911–1987), Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
attorney and politician
* Gülden Ilkman (born 1970), Chief of Staff
The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...
- Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
* Apirat Kongsompong
Apirat Kongsompong (; ; born 23 March 1960) is a Thai military officer who was the List of commanders-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army, commander in chief of the Royal Thai Army from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2020. He serves as the Vice-Chamb ...
(born 1960), Commander in Chief of the Royal Thai Army
* Hervey Gilbert Machen (1916–1994), Maryland Congressman
* Faisal Shahzad (born 1979), terrorist convicted of the 2010 Times Square car bomb attempt
References
External links
Southeastern University
at seu.edu (2009 archive. seu.edu now refers to an unrelated university)
Southeastern University
at southeastern.edu (2009 archive. southeastern.edu now refers to an unrelated university)
{{Authority control
Defunct private universities and colleges in Washington, D.C.
Universities and colleges founded by the YMCA
Universities and colleges established in 1879
1879 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Educational institutions disestablished in 2009
2009 disestablishments in Washington, D.C.