New Birth student aid to cost N.C. university system

DURHAM, N.C. - The state auditor’s office is investigating an unauthorized campus that North Carolina Central University operated in an Atlanta suburb before it was closed this summer.

State Auditor Les Merritt told The News & Observer of Raleigh his office was asked by the University of North Carolina system to investigate.

The University of North Carolina system and North Carolina Central University has been working to resolve problems created by the unauthorized campus.

The campus was at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., whose pastor is Eddie Long, an NCCU trustee.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles said last week he thinks the university will have to repay federal financial aid money that NCCU received from the Education Department and gave students in the New Birth program.