Malveaux enhanced the overall academic curriculum, which focuses on women's leadership, entrepreneurship, communications, and global studies. On July 1, 2012, Esther Terry '61 became the first alumna to lead the college. Already serving as the college's provost, Terry was made interim president for a full academic year. During the May 2013 commencement ceremony, the Board of Trustees announced Terry would be officially termed as 16th President of Bennett College. Phyllis Worthy Dawkins assumed presidency on August 15, 2016. Previous serving as Provost, Dr. Dawkins focused on faculty/staff recruitment, reinvigorating living learning communities, and launched a leadership institute. She was ousted in 2019 and replaced by Suzanne Walsh. Since 1930, Bennett has graduated more than 7,000 students, affectionately known as "Bennett Belles." Accreditations and memberships In 1930, on the graduation of its first four women with a 4-year bachelor's degree, the "A" rating was granted to the college by the North Carolina State Department of Education. This same rating was granted the college in 1936 by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the college's regional accreditor. Today, the college is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). In 1957, Bennett was one of the first and the only private Black college to be admitted into full membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It has also been a member of the American Association of Colleges, The Commission on Black Colleges of the University Senate, the American Association of Registrars and Admission Officers, the American Council of Education, the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, the College Fund/UNCF, the Council on Independent Colleges, the Women's College Coalition, the North Carolina Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the NCB Piedmont Automated Library System (NCBPALS), the Greater Greensboro Consortium, and the New York University Faculty Resource Network. The college lost its accreditation from SACS on February 18, 2019. It was on probation for two years in the early 2000s because the college was struggling with significant financial challenges. In 2016, SACS placed the college on probation again for the same reason. In December 2018, SACS voted to withdraw the college's accreditation. The college launched a fundraising campaign and appealed the SACS decision. In February 2019 it lost accreditation although it had succeeded in building its financial resources. A court ordered the accreditation to remain in place