Morris Brown College faces another financial indignity early next month: the sale of one of its classroom buildings on Fulton County’s courthouse steps.

A bank representing investors who purchased bonds issued to build Jordan Hall on the Morris Brown campus is foreclosing on the property, saying the school defaulted on a $13.1 million debt dating to 1996. The foreclosure sale is scheduled for Jan. 6, less than a week before the school is supposed to begin its spring semester.

Morris Brown’s ability to resume classes in January already was in doubt since the city of Atlanta cut off water service to the campus last week. The school owes the city about $380,000 and had fallen behind on a plan to pay off the delinquent bills, some of which date to February 2004.

School officials spent Monday trying to arrange $1.5 million in temporary loans to cover the institution’s most critical needs: faculty and staff payroll, utillities and other operating expenses.

Without the money, officials said over the weekend, the 127-year-old college, the only higher education institution in Georgia established by African-Americans, could close for good. And even short-term loans might not enable Morris Brown to get water service restored, unless city officials agree to accept a partial payment for the past-due bills.

Stanley Pritchett, Morris Brown’s acting president, did not respond to telephone messages Monday afternoon. An aide who answered the telephone in his office said Pritchett was in meetings and unavailable.

Rhonda Copenny, a member of the Morris Brown’s board of trustees, said the school won’t know until after Christmas whether it can obtain short-term loans to keep its doors open. “Nothing could be solidified” on Monday, she said, adding that the trustees are “optimistic.”

“It’s not like the school was caught off guard,” she said. “They’ve been working on the big picture a long time, and it’s coming to fruition now — we think.”

The top priority at the moment is getting water service restored, Copenny said. School leaders hope to meet with city officials to work out another payment plan to erase the old bills.

It appears the foreclosure sale will take place unless Morris Brown officials can persuade investors to give them more time to pay the nearly 13-year-old debt, said Gregory Worthy, an Atlanta lawyer for U.S. Bank, which represents the investors.

“They’ve been in default on the bond issue for a good while now,” Worthy said Monday. “The original principal amount of the bonds is due and payable.”

Jordan Hall is one of Morris Brown’s two legacies from the 1996 Olympics. The school’s 15,000-seat Herndon Stadium was the site for Olmpic field hockey, and Jordan Hall was constructed as a modern complement to the historic buildings that dominate the 42-acre campus near the Atlanta University Center. The Fulton County Development Authority arranged the $13.1 million bond issue, but taxpayers have no liability as a result of Morris Brown’s default, Worthy said.

The current crisis is the latest in a series of problems that have threatened Morris Brown’s future. The school lost its accreditation in 2002, and its former president and former financial aid director were convicted in a federal embezzlement case in 2006. Enrollment, once nearly 3,000, dropped as low as 56 in recent years before bouncing back to about 240 this fall.

The chairman of a key state Senate committee wants the University System to consider merging historically black public colleges with nearby white-majority schools to save money.

In making the suggestion Monday, Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman Seth Harp (R-Midland) immediately ran into opposition from supporters of the black schools who say they serve an important role as independent campuses.

“I think it’s a bad idea,” said Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), who has taught political science at two historically black private colleges, Morehouse and Morris Brown. But Harp said the University System, which has 35 public schools and a $2.3 billion state budget this year, will have to make some hard choices to come up with budget cuts that could top $200 million.

And he said in two cities, Savannah and Albany, white- and black-majority schools are part of the legacy of segregation.

“The white schools were begun as segregation schools. It’s time Georgia closed that ugly chapter,” Harp said during a hearing on the University System’s budget Monday.

Harp suggested the system consider merging two Savannah schools —- historically black Savannah State University and historically white-majority Armstrong Atlantic State University. And he said the system should look into merging another historically black college, Albany State, and white-majority two-year Darton College in Albany.

Consolidating the schools would reduce administrative costs and potentially cut duplication of similar academic programs.

System Chancellor Erroll Davis said the decision won’t be based solely on financial considerations.

“You can make obvious arguments about the economics of it, but I don’t think economics will drive the decision,” Davis said. “It’s going to be a political decision, not an economic decision.”

Davis said if the “body politic” wants the Board of Regents to look at mergers, it will.

Fort asked why Harp doesn’t suggest merging Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, since they are so geographically close.

Clifford Porter, interim vice president for institutional advancement at Albany State, said his four-year university and the two-year Darton serve different purposes.

“There’s a need for both institutions,” he said. “We’re hoping there are some other options the state Legislature will take.”

Darton president Peter Sireno said in a statement, “The proposal by Seth Harp is interesting, but not surprising. I have not been informed that the University System of Georgia is considering this option.”

Fort said the black colleges have traditionally been a resource for students who might not otherwise go to or stay in college.

“Black schools serve a purpose of offering not only programs but an atmosphere conducive to black students graduating,” Fort said. “The challenge is not only getting African-American students in but keeping them in.”

He predicted Harp will get a stiff fight from the alumni of historically black schools if the idea moves forward.

“Alumni associations for these black schools are very protective of their legacy,” he said.

Savannah State alumnus Thurnell Johnson of Macon said he was not eligible to attend Armstrong because of his race when he entered college in 1956. He attended Savannah State on scholarship and taught for 40 years, mostly in the Bibb County schools.

“I’m against the merger of the schools,” Johnson said. “Savannah State always has been a quality school. It still is a quality school.”

Michael Lomax, the former Fulton County Commission chairman who now serves as president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund, said the idea of merging colleges is not a “thoughtful or timely suggestion.”

State leaders should be trying to see that every college is operating at capacity, Lomax said.

“Fill up those seats and you have fewer beds to fill in jail,” he said. “Fill up those seats and you have fewer people seeking public assistance.”

The idea has come up before. Twenty-five years ago, former Gov. Joe Frank Harris suggested the state consider merging historically black colleges with other nearby state colleges to achieve court-ordered desegregation.

The state instead made a commitment to make other changes, including enhancing facilities on the three historically black campuses and encouraging students at the two-year Darton College to transfer to Albany State for four-year degrees.