Saint Augustine’s University (SAU) is financially restructuring as the Raleigh-based historically Black university appears in federal bankruptcy court on Tuesday for a formal Chapter 11 hearing tied to its ongoing effort to stabilize operations amid mounting debt, lost accreditation, and federal scrutiny over millions in grant funding.
The hearing comes roughly two months after SAU filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April, a move university leaders described in court filings as a “voluntary bankruptcy filing” intended to “strengthen its financial foundation” over the long term.
The filing, however, revealed the scale of the institution’s financial distress: between $50 million and $100 million in total debt, including $14.4 million owed to the Internal Revenue Service, and between 200 and 999 creditors…