MUSKOGEE, OKLA. (KTUL) — Bacone College, a historic private school, has been ordered to “turn over all keys and control” of the school, tomorrow at 11 a.m.
This comes after Bacone was instructed to liquidate its assets following a declaration of bankruptcy last year.
Amanda Swope, the Director of Tribal Policy & Partnerships with the City of Tulsa tells us she’s sad to hear the news about this historic school.
“It’s certainly unfortunate. You know, not only it takes away an option from students and people in the rural part of Oklahoma that are seeking higher education, but, you know, Bacone was really such a mecca and a well-known university in Indian Country, and for Native students in particular,” said Swope.
According to the Oklahoma Historical Society website, Bacone College was chartered by the Muskogee (Creek) Nation in 1881.
The school served a majority Native American population.
“I think that for that community as well, it’s certainly a loss,” said Swope.
We reached out to Muskogee (Creek) Nation for comment and they texted us back saying, “No thank you.”
In 2023, Bacone was supposed to be auctioned off to help pay some of its debt from a lawsuit, but the aution was called off.
The school decided to shut down, with its last nine students graduating last Spring.
“It sounded like the university was kind of taking steps that they could to try to rebuild and to get things in good standing. But it sounds like, unfortunately, some of those efforts did not work out, and they were forced to be in a place where they had to liquidate,” said Swope.
We reached out to the school’s acting president, Dr. Leslie Hannah for more information, and he said he first heard about the court order last Tuesday.
We asked him for an interview, and he said the court told him that he’s not supposed to speak to anyone about what’s going on, but he did tell us that he has to turn over all keys to and control of Bacone by tomorrow at 11 a.m.
“They had some really good things that they have been known for that I think that they were hopefully going to stand the test of time and even get them to maybe the next level that just didn’t pan out,” said Swope.
We responded to Hannah’s text to get more clarification on how we got to this point, and he texted back, saying in part, “Myself and this current board did not create this problem; we inherited it. And simply did not have the time to fix it.
