Wednesday, August, 17, 1988/The Battalion/Page 5
Conditions improve
for 2 in van crash
MIDLAND (AP) — Two of the
victims involved in the Friday crash
of a Midland Boys’ Club van were
upgraded from critical to serious
condition Tuesday, while two others
remain in critical condition, hospital
officials said.
The driver of the van, Damon
Polk, 23, of Midland was removed
from the critical list and was in se
rious condition at Methodist Hospi
tal in Lubbock with spinal injuries.
He may undergo surgery later this
week, a spokesman said.
Damon’s cousin, Forrest, 12, of
Midland, also was upgraded from
critical to serious condition at Meth
odist Hospital with multiple chest
wounds, officials said.
Meanwhile, two other Midland
youngsters remained in critical con
dition at St. Mary of the Plains Hos
pital in Lubbock, a spokesman said.
Quincy Hubert, 12, is suffering
from multiple cuts and fractures,
while Marvin Brown, also 12, has
head and chest injuries.
Five children were killed and 13
others injured when the Boys’ Club
van collided with a Coca-Cola Com
pany semi-truck about 1:30 p.m.
near Sweetwater, Department of
Public Safety officials said.
Killed in the accident were An
thony Johnson, 11; Jimmy Shep
herd, 12; Jamie Polk, 12; Cristal
Denise Brown, 12, and Ebony Polk,
15.
Bishop College fails to get
funds needed to stay open
DALLAS (AP) — Bishop College,
founded by freed slaves and steeped
in tradition, teetered for years on
the edge of financial ruin before fi- ■
nally collapsing into bankruptcy and
shutting its doors after 108 years.
College officials said the private
school was unable to raise the nec
essary $1.85 million to keep it
opened. Federal protection from the
school’s creditors was then lifted
Monday, and the school filed Chap
ter 7 bankruptcy.
“I’m personally and professionally
hurt,” said John Q. Taylor King, a
longtime educator who is a former
president of Huston-Tillotson, an
other historically black college in
Texas.
The sense of loss for the school
was also felt on the national level.
“We feel that it’s a tragedy that a
college that had such great expertise
in educating disadvantaged and mi
nority students was not able to sur
vive because there was no money
available,” said Harriet Schimel, vice
president of communications for the
United Negro College Fund.
When Bishop’s accreditation was
dropped in 1986, the fund stopped
providing money to the college.
“Right now Bishop College is
dead,” Michael Goldstein, a school
attorney, said.
The liquidation of the college’s as
sets — 21 buildings on 400 acres in
the Dallas’ Oak Cliff section — will
begin as soon as a trustee is ap
pointed.
Bishop was founded in 1881 in
the small northeast Texas town of
Marshall and has produced lawyers,
teachers, doctors and ministers that
added to its reputation among black
and white contributors. __
The school moved to Dallas in
1961. At its height, it enrolled about
1,500 students and was the largest
black college west of the Mississippi
River.
By last year, however, the school,
after having been rocked by scandal,
was mired in financial ruin; enroll
ment had dipped to 300.
MCorp officials begin considering utilizing money from FDIC fund
DALLAS (AP) — After trying to raise
money from private investors, MCorp offi-
dals also are considering using cash from
the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to re
capitalize the bank-holding company, a
newspaper reported.
If MCorp took such action, it would indi
cate a shift in the att itude of chairman Gene
H. Bishop, who said as recently as June at
the company’s annual meeting that he
hoped to raise money from private sources
and not involve regulators, the Dallas
Morning News reported Tuesday.
“They have some definitive ideas on how
they want to do the deal,” an unidentifed
banking source told the paper. “But it’s still
preliminary.”
MCorp has sold various affiliated opera
tions, including data processing and credit
card units. Citing unnamed banking
sources, the newspaper reported that the
holding company may seek additional asset
disposals and likely will continue to press
for private funds on its own.
Bishop, through a spokesman Monday,
said, “We are continuing to pursue all alter
natives for raising new capital.”
MCorp would not comment directly on
possible FDIC involvement, and the federal
agency had no comment regarding MCorp.
Bishop, in an Aug. 1 letter to stockhold
ers, mentioned a “growing perception that
private capital for Texas banks may be
available only in combination with some
form of public sector investment. . . .”
Calls to Bishop by the Associated Press
were not immediately returned.
MCorp officials have said they are confi
dent the company can remain afloat indefi
nitely and is not under immediate pressure
to turn to the FDIC. But, sources said,
growing loan problems and commitments
of federal money to other Texas bank bail
outs have convinced Bishop public assis
tance is necessary to raise private capital.
MCorp has been trying since last spring
to raise at least $200 million in new capital
without government assistance, but Bishop
has said that effort has been hindered by
continued adverse publicity about Texas
banks.
It is unclear whether MCorp has commu
nicated directly with the FDIC, but the
company has retained advisers to prepare a
proposal for regulators.
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