The U.S. Department of Education did something unprecedented late this March when they came out with a list of more than 550 colleges in the United States for whom federal financial aid will be restricted in some way due to the concerns this Department has about their finances and other aspects of management.

13 of these colleges are in Alabama.

The Alabaman colleges that found their place on the list include:

Calhoun Community College in Tanner (public)

University of West Alabama in Livingston (public)

Lawson State Community College in Birmingham (public)

Alabama State University in Montgomery (public)

Central Alabama Community College in Alexander City (public)

University of North Alabama in Florence (public)

Marion Military Institute in Marion (public)

George Corley Wallace State Community College in Selma (public)

Spring Hill College in Mobile (private/nonprofit)

Fortis College in Mobile (proprietary/trade)

Virginia College in Birmingham (proprietary/trade)

Fortis College in Foley (proprietary/trade)

The Hair Academy in Montgomery (proprietary/trade)

It needs to be pointed out that the aforementioned 550+ colleges across the United States made one of two categories – Heightened Cash Monitoring 1 and Heightened Cash Monitoring 2, with Cash Monitoring 2 being far stricter. The colleges in Alabama all fall in the HCM1 category.

On federal level, the vast majority of colleges are on the HCM1 list, with only 69 being on the HCM2 list.

There are a number of reasons why colleges across the US found their place on the list, from merely submitting their financial statements late to more serious issues like losing track of significant amounts of money, which happened at Roxbury Community College in Massachusetts for example.

Ted Mitchell, The Under Secretary of Education said that the heightened cash monitoring list:

“is not an indictment of an institution. It’s a suggestion that we at the department need to be paying closer attention to that institution’s work.”