St. Augustine’s University hit by dorm break-ins amid bankruptcy crisis

Dorm windows were smashed, furniture was thrown outside and a campus already battered by bankruptcy absorbed another blow at St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh. Police said the vandalism was reported around 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 9, and officers found 20 broken dorm windows. Nothing was taken, but the damage was estimated at up to $10,000.

The break-ins landed at a moment when the university’s finances are already straining every corner of campus operations. St. Augustine’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 27 and 28, and court records list assets of $100 million to $500 million and liabilities of $50 million to $100 million. The emergency pressure is so acute that a judge approved a $200,000 loan during the bankruptcy case to keep the school going through June, with the money intended for security upgrades, payroll and utilities.

That loan now sits at the center of a much larger question: how much of St. Augustine’s can still be protected, and who will pay to do it. School officials have said the campus is difficult to secure because the institution cannot easily absorb new costs. Repairs to board up broken windows were estimated at about $4,000, while fencing repairs could run about $10,000. As of May 14, no arrests had been made and the investigation remained open.

The damage also underscores how far the university’s crisis has spread beyond the courtroom. Parts of the campus now have boarded-up buildings, shattered windows and kicked-in doors, while only a handful of staff members remain on site and much of the property sits largely empty. The school’s legal fight tied to accreditation was set to end effective May 15, forcing students in degree programs to finish elsewhere through teach-out agreements.

For Wake County, the stakes reach beyond one campus. St. Augustine’s was founded in 1867 by Episcopalians in the Diocese of North Carolina, and classes began on January 13, 1868. It remains one of the few historically Black higher-education institutions with Episcopal roots, alongside Voorhees College in South Carolina. Its collapse would not only erase a storied Raleigh institution, but also leave a vulnerable property in the middle of a neighborhood that has long been tied to its presence.