Bacone College has survived many troubles. Can it avoid a court-ordered sheriff's auction?

One of Oklahoma’s oldest institutions of higher education is set to be sold at a sheriff’s auction — and that’s only one of the myriad of issues facing long-troubled Bacone College in Muskogee.

Opened in 1880, Bacone has survived a multitude of financial, enrollment and accreditation crises in recent years, when it seemed the four-year school with a history of serving students from tribal nations would be forced to close. But this latest development is unique for Bacone ― it might not own its own campus if the court-ordered auction by the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office occurs as scheduled on Dec. 14 in order to satisfy what’s now about a $1.6 million judgment against the college.

Posts on Bacone’s Facebook page indicate the college plans to hold second-semester classes starting in January for its 100 students ― representing about 45 tribal nations ― but exactly how that might happen is unclear. Bacone desperately wants to avoid the fate of two other small, private Oklahoma colleges that have closed in recent years — Phillips University in Enid in 1998 and St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee in 2017.

“We don’t know what will happen. That’s the ‘black hole’ part of it,” said Bacone’s interim president, Nicky Michael, noting the buyer “could be somebody who wants us to continue and sees the magic we make here, or somebody who wants to tear everything down. It’s really, really stressful … it feels like there’s no humanity.”

How Bacone College ultimately wound up for auction

Since 2019, Bacone has sought — so far unsuccessfully — to morph from a private school into a public tribal college, which would require approval by the Bureau of Indian Education and allow Bacone to gain access to federal funds available for such schools. Bacone has sought to do so by seeking charters from multiple tribal nations. Four Oklahoma-based tribal nations currently provide charters to Bacone — the Kiowa Tribe, the Osage Nation, the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. Until recently, so had the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians. But there has been no recognition from the Bureau of Indian Education, something that led Michael to go on a four-day hunger strike recently.

Accreditation also has been an issue. After removing Bacone from its probation list in March 2022, the Higher Learning Commission said this June that while its accreditation of Bacone stands, the commission has assigned a “Financial Distress” designation to the college. According to the commission, such a designation “is a consumer protection mechanism meant to apprise the public that current conditions at an accredited college or university raise serious concerns about its resource base to support its educational programs” and thus meet the commission’s criteria for accreditation.

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Michael said the Higher Learning Commission officials visited Bacone in November and they seemed “very supportive. We were really refreshed. It gave us a sense of hope.” But when officials learned about the impending auction of the campus, “they got wide-eyed. They were concerned and they should be. All of these things play into each other.”

Bacone long has struggled financially, and in recent years, reports of crumbling and failing infrastructure and mold issues on the campus have increased. A recent crisis came in May 2018, when Bacone announced it was more than $2 million in debt and would close, but the college reopened that August after selling some property, cutting some faculty positions and dropping six sports, including football and wrestling.

The college’s lack of sufficient finances has played a key role in Bacone’s latest quandary.

According to court documents, in August 2020, Bacone — then under a previous president, Ferlin Clark — contracted with Utah-based Midgley-Huber Energy Concepts (MHEC) to provide energy conservation services, lighting, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment for the college campus. Most of that work was complete by spring 2021. MHEC said the cost of the work was $1,038,500. Court documents include testimony from Bacone officials that MHEC’s work met the contract specifications and helped the campus save money.

But John Harper, a Tulsa-based attorney for MHEC, said, “To this day, Bacone College has not voluntarily paid a single dime” toward that bill.

In September 2021, MHEC sued Bacone, and on Nov. 15, 2022, Muskogee County District Judge Timothy King granted MHEC a summary judgment in the case. King’s order commanded a foreclosure of MHEC’s mechanics and materialmen’s liens against Bacone and subsequently, the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office set an April 27 auction date.

That auction was canceled just before it would have started. King said MHEC and Bacone had agreed to work together for 30 days “to try to come up with some sort of plan by which MHEC would be made whole and Bacone could move forward,” Harper said. “That never happened.”

Michael disputes that assessment, saying Bacone made an offer that MHEC rejected and that Bacone “lost the case because they (MHEC) have the best attorneys in the state.”

Last month, the court set the Dec. 14 date for the auction, and Michael said she found out about it through the media. With interest and attorney’s fees tacked on, the amount now owed by Bacone to MHEC is about $1.6 million. Harper said that if the campus is sold and the debt paid, that would end MHEC’s involvement with Bacone.

“Ideally, they pay us and they stay open,” Harper said. “We … just want to get paid.”

'We don't want to be the ones who have to shut down Bacone'

According to court documents, the campus has been appraised at $4.65 million, and the sale price must be for at least two-thirds of that amount. Michael said she’s not heard anything concrete about potential buyers, or suggestions that a wealthy Oklahoma tribe — or a consortium of tribes — might step in to help Bacone, either by paying the bill or buying its campus, or both.

Bacone sits on the Muscogee Nation’s reservation. Muscogee Nation spokesman Jason Salsman said the tribe had no comment about the situation and noted the tribe has no connection with Bacone.

Michael said if Bacone had about $5 million, it could pay its creditors and begin implementing what she called the college’s “economic development plan” that includes completing long-neglected audits, working with accrediting agencies and applying for a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan. The college has a link for donations on its website.

“Donations don’t solve the problems of longevity, but if we could get tribes to help us through this really rough time, then we could pay all of our debts and turn around and apply for the USDA loan,” Michael said. “We don’t want to be the ones who have to shut down Bacone. This is a place where students can go and feel good."

She added: “People preach about education. The tribes claim to support education. If they’re making those claims, this is the perfect way to do it, especially when they have students who attend our college.”

Michael acknowledges there’s the possibility that whoever buys the campus won’t want the college there, and she is making contingency plans for that. She’s determined to have the college finish out this academic year.

“Do we have to have the buildings or land to do the education? No,” she said. “Will it be a big problem? Yes, but we could put (students) online and finish. That would be the best option we would have.”

And after that? If the college closes?

“Then we start working with other colleges” to start placing students, she said.

But Michael remains determined. She points to the dedication of Bacone’s 40 remaining faculty and staff members who “have gone above and beyond” to help “empower those (Native American students) who have been disempowered for so many years. There is such fulfillment.”

“If we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down fighting. I know there will come a point where we will have to walk away, but we’re not there yet.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Bacone College, one of the oldest in Oklahoma, up for auction