NORTH LITTLE ROCK -- Shorter College will hold its first graduation commencement since the private two-year college regained its accreditation last fall.
The milestone will be celebrated with a banquet at 7 p.m. Friday at the Embassy Suites hotel in Little Rock. Graduation exercises for the school's 12 graduates will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Belin Healthplex gymnasium on the Shorter College campus.
The historically black college was founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1886. The once-robust student body had dwindled to near extinction in 1998, when it lost its accreditation amid a $1 million tax lien, internal conflict and financial destitution.
There were only two students enrolled when President Jerome Green took over leadership of the college in 2012. The North Little Rock college has since regained its accreditation, and enrollment stands at nearly 500 today.
Friday's banquet will feature personal injury attorney Willie Gary, who has won lawsuits against major corporations. The keynote speaker for Saturday's graduation commencement will be Edison Jackson, president of Bethune Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Fla.
State Desk on 05/07/2014