A group of Nashville churches plans to raise a hundred thousand dollars by Christmas for the financially troubled Fisk University. Today, the Interdenominational Ministers’ Fellowship, which represents more than 200 local churches, presented Fisk President Hazel O’Leary with checks totaling more than $25,000. Bishop George Price is president of the organization.
“Fisk is a part of this city. Students at Fisk contribute about forty two million dollars to Nashville’s economy. And so therefore, we can’t afford to let them close or do anything like that.”
The historically black college is experiencing stiff competition for students, and the university has long been losing money. In fact, Fisk had been expecting a negative cash flow by December 15th. Bishop Price hopes the IMF effort can reverse that trend by asking 100 churches to give a $1,000 each to the university.
Fisk president Hazel O’Leary says Fisk hopes to raise $6.2 million by June, and eventually, grow the school’s meager $7 million endowment to around 100 million.
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