Paul Carr was one semester away from finishing his degree at Morehouse College when he found out his girlfriend was pregnant. So he decided to drop out and get a job to help support his new family, telling himself he’d come back and finish his degree right away.
That was more than 25 years ago.
Carr was determined to return – in fact, on his deathbed he promised his father that he would get his college degree.
So when he saw an announcement that Morehouse College was launching an online program to help upperclassmen with college credits complete their degrees, he thought it would be a good fit. He applied and became a student in the program’s inaugural class in 2021.
Carr was one of the students we interviewed two years ago for our podcast series, “Second Act,” which detailed the challenges adult students facing returning to college and completing their degrees.
When the series ended, Carr still didn’t have his degree. Even after a year of taking courses in the online program, he didn’t know when Morehouse would be satisfied he had the extra credits needed for his degree, or if he’d even be able to graduate. He said he was in “limb.”
And it turns out he wasn’t the only one hitting roadblocks with the new program.
As he shared in the final episode, he became a student leader to air student concerns to administrators after hearing many of his classmates experience similar struggles navigating their programs.
Anne USA Today research article Last year, he went into more detail about the “pitfalls” faced by students who participated in the program.
“Students were being sent to take online classes at other universities because there weren’t enough slots for students to take the classes they needed,” said Chris Quintana, one of the reporters for USA Today. “They wanted to know when things would be completed. When would these classes be available to take? It was especially frustrating for students because this is a degree program.”
On this week’s EdSurge Podcast, we asked Carr what happened next.
Carr made it clear that he and other students had been hesitant to speak to reporters about their complaints because they feared the resulting article would be a “smear campaign” that would tarnish Morehouse’s reputation.
“And we weren’t going to let that happen,” Carr said. “Even though it had some issues, Morehouse is a really, really important institution. It’s a great institution. It’s not perfect, but it’s perfect.”
Morehouse is the only all-male HBCU, and its alumni include Martin Luther King Jr. “Historically, the black community has always had to do more with less,” Carr said. “So black people always say, ‘Okay, nobody’s going to help us. We’ve got to figure it out ourselves.'”
But he and several other students decided to participate in the USA Today story after learning the story was going ahead regardless of whether they participated or not. “So we made sure to tell our honest experience, but at the same time make it clear that we were here to defend our school,” he says.
Carr liked how the article turned out and said it “lit a fire under the hood” for the university to improve Morehouse Online more quickly — not because of the pressure of media attention, he said, but because the article shed light on challenges facing students that the university didn’t previously have detailed knowledge of.
As it turned out, part of the budding Morehouse Online’s challenges stemmed from its contract with 2U, the online program manager that helped the school build its online degree programs. The school initially announced plans to offer up to six majors in its first two years, including one in computer science. But more than three years after opening, it now offers just one major: business administration.
2U Issue Blog Post Quintana disputed some of the reporting in the article but said he and the newspaper stand by their story and are not making any corrections. When EdSurge reached out to Morehouse for comment on this article, Kendrick Brown, vice president and senior vice president for academic affairs, said the school “remains committed to expanding” its online programs.
“With 245 students enrolled and 42 graduating in the past two years, the program continues to provide exceptional value to men who wish to gain a unique Morehouse experience,” he says.
Carr said she had nearly given up, so she posted a note to that effect in an online discussion forum for students in the program. She soon received calls from classmates she’d never met, encouraging her to persevere.
Listen to the episode to find out what happened next. Spotify, Apple Podcastsor watch it in the player below.
