Tuesday, May 15th 2018, 7:50 pm
The future of Bacone College is unknown as many employees have found themselves laid off without warning.
The Bacone cheerleading coach said she's just as confused as we are about the future of her university and the cheerleading squad she was hired to rebuild just last fall.
Coach Allison Swepston said rumors have been swirling for months at Bacone.
"I had heard rumors from my cheerleaders that, you know, the school was closing, but when you coach college kids, you've gotta be careful with what all you believe," she said.
Swepston said she took it all with a grain of salt until she received a phone call on May 6th telling her she had been laid off.
"He let me know, ‘Hey, we're in a financial crisis and we're going to have to...you're laid off as of now,’" she said.
The coach said the VP of student affairs told her she could continue working on a volunteer basis, which has her confused about whether or not the school is actually closing.
5/11/2018 Related Story: Bacone College Announces It Will Remain Open
"If they're closing, do I keep recruiting, or what am I doing as a volunteer if the university is closing," Swepston asked.
To add to the confusion, after she called the mom of one of her recruits to tell her about the closure, the university still allowed her to sign up for class.
"She took her daughter up to campus and they went ahead and had her enroll in classes and everything for fall. So, again, I'm kind of stuck in limbo really," Swepston said. “It’s a waiting game right now.”
In fact, the entire future of Bacone College is in limbo.
A recent statement from Bacone says the college is not closing and is announcing a new president, Dr. Ferlin Clark.
A staff e-mail sent out Monday reads, "Unless you have been notified you should report to work today, you're being placed on layoff status."
We reached out to the university for comment but have not heard back.
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