SALISBURY — On May 20, half of the Salisbury City Council voted to deny recommending a request from Livingstone College to extend its national historic district, stating that the college’s lack of movement in restoring the National Register-listed Monroe Street School gave them pause. On Friday, Livingstone President Anthony Davis responded, stating the college is still working on “redeploying” the building, but his administration has had to prioritize other projects.

“Is the Monroe Street School a priority? Absolutely, but the first priority is to position our campus to be the premier HBCU in the region, and to do that I have to prioritize,” said Davis.

The first priority is to the students, said Davis, and he pointed to several indicators showing significant growth, including an increase in the freshman class from 220 freshmen in 2022 to 441 during the most recent enrollment year, an increase in the average GPA and a jump from number 76 on U.S. News and World’s reports list of HBCUs to number 52. He said that when he took over, the college had decades of deferred maintenance that needed to be performed.

“A lot of this traces back to our growth. We are retaining 78 percent of our freshmen and 92 percent of our upperclassmen. Because of that, we’ve run out of housing for male students on the campus. Last year was the first year in a long time that we had to turn students away. We couldn’t house them, and they wanted a residential experience,” said Davis.

None of that means that the Monroe Street School has fallen off of Livingstone’s radar, said Davis.

“It’s not on the back-burner, it’s simply priorities, I have to raise the money for that. It’s not like we have the funding in our coffers,” said Davis, adding that the many multi-million dollar donations the college has received in recent months have all been earmarked.

Once the college has raised the funding, Davis said they still have plans to renovate it into an active part of the community. The most popular idea has been for academic space, but he noted that several other ideas have been floated, including as a business incubator.

“In the absence of information, you can really come to your own conclusion. However, we have been very clear under my administration. In two and a half years, we have moved at lightning speed. But to deliver two residence halls and an expanded cafeteria in two-and-a-half years, that’s impressive,” said Davis.

The expansion of the district would provide tax incentives to contributing structures in the new area, which are generally those that are 50 years old or more. Davis said those state and federal tax credits would help them address “crumbling infrastructure” on campus and other issues, “to include the renovation and redeployment of the Monroe Street School.”

The request for city recommendation is back on the agenda for the upcoming Salisbury City Council meeting as well as an agenda item for representatives of Livingstone College to provide an update to the City Council on the Monroe Street School. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday at city hall, 217 S. Main St., Salisbury.