A group of Shaw University alumni has asked the North Carolina Attorney General's Office to launch an administrative review of the historic Raleigh school, raising alarms over its finances, governance and a push to develop campus land. The Save Our Shaw Coalition wants officials to halt any sale or lease of university assets while the complaint is examined, arguing the stakes for the 159-year-old HBCU could not be higher.
Alumni Group Demands Answers on Endowment and Land Deals
The coalition, made up of Shaw University alumni, submitted its complaint seeking what it called an administrative review of the university, according to CBS17.com. Eugene Myrick, who founded the group, requested a halt to the sale or lease of any of Shaw's assets and said millions of dollars were removed from the university's endowment without clarity on who moved the money. Jared Ollison, another member of the coalition, said he fears Shaw may one day cease to exist, while also saying the university can still thrive if it puts personnel in place focused on its survival.
Shaw University president and CEO Paulette Dillard shared a letter with the university community addressing the complaint. She said the university's responsibility includes supporting students, stewarding resources and sustaining its educational mission, and said Shaw is coordinating its response to the inquiry. The complaint raises concerns about university governance, the stewardship of charitable assets and institutional funds, and the campus Master Plan, according to a statement posted on the Shaw University website. The university said the North Carolina Department of Justice requested materials tied to that Master Plan, and that the school is coordinating its response.
Finances Under Strain Even as Development Plans Advance
Per the same CBS17 account, Shaw secured a loan of up to $20 million last June, with an available balance of a little over $14 million as of June 30, 2025. An audit also found that more than $2 million in endowment contributions over the prior two years were not invested and instead went toward supporting operations. The university says it plans to return those assets to the endowment by 2030, with an outstanding balance of $2.1 million as of last June, and has acknowledged that returning to operational profitability will require an enormous amount of effort and time.
The North Carolina Attorney General's Office forwarded Save Our Shaw's complaint to the Shaw University board for a response, the station's report notes. Those financial pressures are not new: the university has said it has struggled due to declining enrollment, underfunding and a shrinking market share, according to Open Campus. Over the past decade, two-thirds of Shaw's revenue came from tuition, room and board, far above the roughly 40 percent nationwide average, as reported by The Assembly. By comparison, nearby Meredith College had a $125 million endowment as of June 2022, the outlet notes.
ShawU District Envisioned as a Lifeline, Not a Land Sale
The Raleigh City Council rezoned Shaw University for mixed-use development in 2023, laying the groundwork for what the school calls the ShawU District. Shaw's Office of Real Estate and Strategic Development describes that office as leading the institution's efforts in optimizing its real estate assets and forming strategic partnerships, and says the planned district will include mixed-use development, state-of-the-art facilities and enhanced student amenities. The office currently lists no active requests for proposals.
Shaw has said it does not intend to sell its land, and instead plans to develop it with long-term partners, per Open Campus. That distinction, between leasing and selling, sits at the center of the current dispute: the university hopes to lease land for development as a way to help generate revenue, even as the alumni coalition pushes to pause any such transactions until the attorney general's review plays out. Creating diversified revenue streams is listed among Shaw's six strategic priorities, according to EducationNC.
A Cautionary Tale Down the Road
Shaw's predicament echoes a more dire situation at fellow Raleigh-area HBCU Saint Augustine's University, which is weighing the sale of part of its 105-acre campus amid Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, according to Bisnow. That university owes between $50 million and $100 million to creditors, despite real estate holdings valued at $200 million spanning North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. In 2023, Saint Augustine's partnered with developer Carter to build a 320-unit apartment complex for $75 million under a ground lease. In November 2024, it announced a separate land-lease agreement valued at $70 million, per Bisnow.
For now, Shaw's leadership maintains that leasing rather than selling its land remains the path forward, with Dillard framing the university's obligations around its students and its educational mission. Whether the state's review changes that calculus, or simply confirms the university's own account of its finances, remains to be seen as the Attorney General's Office and the Shaw board work through the coalition's complaint.
